Comments on: AOL’s New Private Information Harvester

By: me

me — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:35:45 +0000

oh it’s “better” than that …..IDIOT-O-L …provides an uninstall for the UTTER MORON “connectivity service”………that ONLY HIDES the crap!
and when (if one knows how ) one does get rid of it , block it etc.
AOL WILL NOT CONNECT ……try installing moron -o-l with comodo running aol trys to “directly access and control”EVERY SINGLE THING ON YOUR COMP….EVERYTHING……from keyboard, (keylogger anyone ? ) to monitor to desktop clock…….not to mention that even with aol totally off “aolsoftware.exe , waol.exe , acsd.exe ……ALL STILL RUN sucking on resources ( not a big deal with an athlon fx-60 dual core and 1500 mb of mem but still …….my advice?……….leave SCUM – O -L ……NOW !

By: lodine

lodine — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 13:41:02 +0000

lodine…

news…

By: marahmarie

marahmarie — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 06:28:00 +0000

Andrew,

Maybe in future versions of OpenRide you could include an uninstaller for AOL Desktop Search. It doesn’t have one now, and as someone who writes about how to uninstall your products, I’m forced to come up with workarounds for that, which isn’t easy on me or people who use my site to get it uninstalled.

While you and the programmers are chatting about that, maybe you could also mention that the AOL Dialer does NOT uninstall like it should when AOL 9.0 Security Edition is uninstalled. The dialer is still installed on my desktop after uninstalling 9.0, and it’s listed in jv16 Power Tools Startup Manager and in a HijackThis! scan as 04: Autoloaded Startup Entry. I’ll have articles on my site by the end of this week or next delving into a lot more detail about that and more. You can contact me if you wish; I’ve got saved logs and screenshots to prove my point about what doesn’t get removed during an AOL uninstall, which includes tons more than what I’m mentioning here.

Your software needs a lot of work: completely uninstalling it is almost impossible.

By: Jayaraman Thatchanamurthy

Jayaraman Thatchanamurthy — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 08:34:28 +0000

Hi,
I dont know why people are cribbing about AOL.And I dont know how these people are coming across system crashes.
I have installed OpenRide in all system configurations and I have never faced an issue yet.

May be they could be installing on Pentium I or 64 MB or Microprocessor PC:) (LOL)

This is a fantastic application which helps us to manage all our communication activities in a single window.

I have been used to MS Outlook and this OpenRide matches it a lot,infact a lot more than that.

In addition,I can link all my yahoo,hotmaill,gmail,aim,aol accounts to MY OpenRide AOL Account and check all mails at a go.

I simply love this OpenRide and I request people not to crib just for the sake of doing it.

Regards,
Jayaraman Thatchanamurthy
jayaraman925@aim.com

(An AOL application user but still seeing it as new)

By: Kal

Kal — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 04:54:41 +0000

Given the recent privacy debacle at AOL, what I want to know is: Who in their right mind would allow AOL to index their hard drive?!?!! Clearly no SANE individual would, which is why AOL buried the “disclosure” in the wordy install agreement.

By: MessagingTalk

MessagingTalk — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:28:10 +0000

AOL releases new IE based browser Openride…

AOL released a new Internet Explorer based browser. Here is the Techcrunch coverage of the same. Obviously, Techcrunch is criticizing AOL heavily for the recent gotcha regarding release of users private data – and calls this browser AOL’s New Private…

By: Lee G.

Lee G. — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:13:48 +0000

Thanks Andy. That does a lot to dispell the last decade of mediocrity coming from your company. Way to go!

By: Andrew Weinstein

Andrew Weinstein — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 18:47:16 +0000

A quick correction and an update. First the correction: the story says that “the installation included AOL Desktop Search (which indexes your hard drive), without our knowledge or consent..”

After the software downloads and before installation occurs, a form appears with clear disclosure language about the additional components installed with OpenRide, including Desktop Search.

That language says that AOL Desktop Search “will automatically index the files on your computer to allow you to quickly search for a particular file. The index will be stored on your computer only. You can disable (turn off) the indexing feature by changing the setting in the AOL Desktop Search application.”

The reason Desktop Search is included in OpenRide is to enable users to take full advantage of the media player built into the software. By indexing the music and video files on a machine, the user can easily access their favorite songs, playlists, and other content from OpenRide without having to go through the extended process of finding each of those files manually.

That said, we agree that users should have control over what software is running on their machines, and we are planning to change the install process in the next version of OpenRide to include an option during install for users to turn off the automatic indexing of files, if they would prefer to do so. (That option already exists, of course, in the preferences area, and users can always uninstall Desktop Search as well.)

Andrew Weinstein
Spokesperson, AOL

By: AOL’s Openride, Podzinger, Myspace & Facebook, QWest « Technically Speaking

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:05:42 +0000

[...] AOL announced yesterday it’s new private information harvesting program called Openride. Okay, it’s really their new browser based on IE, but read the article here. [...]

By: steve

steve — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:19:09 +0000

Despite several nasty AOL experiences over the years I downloaded Openride (yes abuse I am an idiot).

On my PC that is newish and problem-free, I could never get the program to run. Best part of program. The Uninstall was easy to find.

By: Daniel Jomphe

Daniel Jomphe — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:27:21 +0000

Michael,

When you guys (don’t) want to try crapware, I suggest you use the following free appliance with the free vmware player:

A Virtual Playground

Starts the system already running a second time in nonpersistent mode. Anything you do will not be permanently written to disk.

http://www.vmwa...s/directory/121

I have yet to try it, but it really looks interesting for such needs!

By: Digital Alchemy

Digital Alchemy — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 10:39:58 +0000

Do Not Download of the Day: AOL OpenRide…

AOL has been releasing a slew of products recently from file storage to its most recent offering: Op……

By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » AOLの新しい「プライバシー情報収集機」

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » AOLの新しい「プライバシー情報収集機」 — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 08:13:41 +0000

[...] [原文へ] AOL Openride [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 07:45:06 +0000

Seems like Openride is for people who don’t know how to move or resize windows. But I’ve yet to meet any user of Windows who uses an application at less than fullscreen. So maybe AOL are onto something.

By: Aol Information at My Simple Life ;-)

Aol Information at My Simple Life ;-) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 06:40:13 +0000

[...] Check out the information Filed under: My Life | Tags: No Tags. [...]

By: Sean Percival

Sean Percival — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 06:16:45 +0000

Now with choicepoint plugin!

Yes no longer will you have to read about your search history on a security blog. With the new Choicepoint plugin your browsing habits are sent straight to your personal record in real time!

Thank you AOL!

By: Nemrut

Nemrut — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 05:14:27 +0000

Is here is something in the water over in Dulles…do these folks ever learn? They spam the country with plastic discs, make it nearly impossible to cancel an account, distribute personal data around the globe…now they launch an app tha indexes your hard-drive without permission..

There has to be some law prohibiting development of internet apps by the clueless..

By: mikey4733

mikey4733 — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:45:51 +0000

Revise headline to:

The Scrollbar Association of America thanks AOL for their innovative software design practices.

“Clearly, we
and designe
to appreciat
to come.”

Said Dan Jac

By: anonymous2000

anonymous2000 — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:41:14 +0000

Re:
>Those of us on Windows machines (not me thankfully) flipped a coin to see who had to install this on their computer and test it.

Use vmware for this sort of thing!!! You install into an image and then delete it forever.

By: mikey4733

mikey4733 — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:37:21 +0000

Wow… AOL is gonna get trashed for this. Is there any hope?

By: Michael Geary

Michael Geary — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:34:50 +0000

“Those of us on Windows machines (not me thankfully) flipped a coin to see who had to install this on their computer and test it. Our Analyst, Nick Gonzalez, lost the toss and cursed as he had to deal with the dozens of system crashes it caused and is still trying to uninstall the last pieces of the software from his computer.”

Tossing coins? Installing nasty software on your real computer?

Why in the world are you guys not using VMware to test software like this? Roll back the VM to the last snapshot and you’re done.

Go get VMware now. Just do it.

By: Faisal

Faisal — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:20:52 +0000

Good points : Privacy issues , why not Mozilla based , windows only, what new? etc.

Did AOL ever released a good Software?

By: Gregor J. Rothfuss

Gregor J. Rothfuss — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:01:21 +0000

Coming from AOL, why is this not based on Mozilla?

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 03:57:23 +0000

Josh is right. Who the hell wants to browse the web on a 4th of the screen, with all the other screens cluttering everything up. And who is so obsessed with email that the need to see it at all times. Most people check their email, and minimize in windows or hide on the mac, and get a neat little notifcation when they get a new mail. Or IM’s for that matter, I do not want to see my iChat when im browsing the web. Jesus, everything about this is bad, and I can tell you didnt spend much time on it because you didnt complain about the UI at all.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 03:27:54 +0000

Worst…UI…ever…