Friday, July 03, 2009

Parents Beware of Comodo Firewall

Oh yes, Comodo promised to remove the Ask Toolbar and they did. In its place is another IAC product, the HopSurf Toolbar -- also a pre-checked installation. Not only is the toolbar pre-checked, as reported by Consumer Security MVP, Donna Buenaventura, there is no EULA (End User License Agrement) included with the installer.

Donna kindly provided links to the on-line EULA for the HopSurf Toolbar at both Comodo and HopSurf. Reading the EULA, I cannot help but be concerned regarding what sort of material is provided by HopSurf that results in the inclusion of the following:

"1.5.The Toolbar and the Services are not intended for use by or availability to persons under the age of 18.IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE, YOU MAY NOT DOWNLOAD, INSTALL OR USE THE TOOLBAR AND YOU MAY NOT ACCESS THE SERVICES."

Based on the above, as well as the sneaky inclusion of the pre-checked toolbar and missing EULA in the installer, I strongly advise caution, particularly to parents who have young children using the family computer.

As Donna said:
"So Comodo’s promise to remove SafeSurf Toolbar happened but not to finish their agreement with A$k/IAC. Instead, the new version of Comodo is now bundled with HopSurf Toolbar which is IAC/Ask.com too. The installer become worst because there’s no EULA presented in addition to known method of misleading people by offering unnecessary third party service/component in a SECURITY software. Note that it is a security software that should offer clean installer no?"
So much for improvements.

See Donna's complete post in Comodo removed Ask/IAC SafeSurf Toolbar by replacing it with HopSurf/IAC/Ask Toolbar and the accompanying screen shots at CoU.

The following firewall programs are free for personal use and do not include a toolbar.




Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

HopSurf is a Comodo product, developed and published solely by Comodo, not ASk.com.
Please get you facts straight before posting what could be considered and is False information.

Anonymous said...

Please note - failure to publish any posted comments that are contrary to your posts is proof you are completely biased and therefore unreliable. People should be made aware of this fact.

Corrine said...

There is an old expression used by kids when they catch someone in a lie. Forgive my childishness in this case, but, Melih: "Liar, liar, pants on fire."

As shown in the screen copy of the date and time of your comments, they obviously were not made on July 4 on the forum as you claimed. As is clearly illustrated in the screen copy, the only option available is to publish or reject the comments. There is no edit option available. So, Melih, how do you explain claiming you submitted your comment on July 4 when Blogger shows that your comment was made last evening, July 11, at 11:29 PM?

http://securitygarden.googlepages.com/MelihCommentNotices.GIF

Corrine said...

For additional information, see Is Comodo President/CEO a Liar? You Decide