Software Claiming to Make You Anonymous Loads Spyware As Well
An anonymous file sharing software may come with an unwanted guest-spyware that slows down your computer and that cannot be easily uninstalled.
The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit to stop Odysseus Marketing and its principal, Walter Rines, from advertising a software program that Odysseus claims allows customers to engage in peer-to-peer file sharing anonymously. The FTC alleges that the claims are bogus for several reasons. First, the software called Kazanon does not make file sharing anonymous. Second, when loading the program, it also loads a spyware program called “Clientman.” However, the installation of Clientman is done without notification to the recipient and, once installed, the program is hard to find and cannot be uninstalled through reasonable means, the FTC said in its complaint. After Clientman is installed, it in turn downloads a number of advertising software programs that “among other things, intercept search results that are provided to users who query popular Internet search engines, including the Google and Yahoo web sites, and replace them with results that differ in content,” the complaint states. ”
Defendants insert these ‘fake’ search results, including hyperlinks and banner ads, in web pages that have the ‘look and feel’ of the search engines’ web page.” It is difficult to uninstall Clientman since it is not detected by the Windows OS and does not appear in the default “Add/Remove” utility. In addition, Clientman does not include its own uninstall tool that would allow consumers to remove it. The FTC claims Odysseus has failed to adequately disclose the nature of the software and because the software is difficult to remove it “causes substantial consumer injury by requiring consumers to spend substantial time or money to remove this software from their computers and to stop its effects on them.” The FTC has asked for injunctive relief to stop the practices.
Federal Trade Commission v. Odysseus Marketing, Inc. and Walter Rines,, filed in the U.S. District Court New Hampshire.