How can you reinstall trust, when it's already broken?

Information Week just interviewed the head guy at Zango - link here. Some random thoughts incoming...

CEO Keith Smith, when asked what was "going on with the FTC", said the below:

It's a great thing for us. It's a great thing for the industry. For the first time now we have the federal government coming out and saying specifically yes, we do think that in order to install software on a user's computer you should use plain language, notice and consent, and there're are the rules around that.

...that's an interesting way of rephrasing WE JUST GOT FINED 3 MILLION DOLLARS, LOL. I don't really see how that could be a "great thing" for anybody, but whatever.

There are people, and I won't identify anyone specifically, but if you look at the loud detractors of us in particular - not of the space, because spyware is a problem - but the loud detractors of Zango, most of them, if not all of them, have a direct financial benefit to continue to churn out fear about us and about this space. Whether they are selling software or whether they are selling consulting services, they have a direct financial incentive to make us look bad.

...sorry dude, you do that all by yourselves.

Apart from anything else, this is a comical piece of "we're being bullied" play acting. Yeah, all those horrible people keep picking on you because painting Zango as a bad guy is the best way to sell security software! Of course! Why didn't I think of that before! Guys, forget all the real nasty stuff out there and the zero day exploits and focus on Zango instead!

.....lol.

Three or four years ago when companies were running round hailing cookies as some kind of Digital Satan, then maybe. But to seriously suggest that companies and individuals working in security need to use ZANGO as a tool to incite fear and panic to sell security software is laughable.

...wait, don't we have bluepills, rootkits, Malware, Botnets and God knows what else to worry about? You know, stuff that actually poses some sort of threat in and of itself? Anyone with any sense would use THOSE as tools of fear, not some random Adware vendor.

And why you specifically anyway? Why not WhenU? Direct Revenue? How about Dollar Revenue? Why aren't all those other companies being targetted in the same evil, hidden-agenda fashion?

On the big ladder of web-based nastiness, forgive me for saying that Zango is strictly small change and you're floating somewhere around the bottom. The ONLY vendors that will use common or garden variety Adware (as opposed Malware, Spyware and all the other garbage) as an easy way to sell more stuff are the ones found on the Rogue Antispyware List.

I guess ultimately, you just don't get it.

People aren't moaning at you because your digital devices are ticking timebombs of leet sophistication. No, people are moaning at you because of the amount of affiliates you have that veer between mild annoyance and DANGER TO EVERYONE.

As I've said many times before, the big threat with Zango is NOT their own applications, but with the never ending stream of idiots they choose to partner with. Time to drop some examples:

1) Yapbrowser! The best web-browser of all time. Assuming you want to see hardcore child pornography with the first click of the Search button, that is. If you people spent half an hour looking into your potential affiliate, you'd have seen the storm coming a mile off. You didn't, and got yourselves tangled up with one of the most dubious distributions I have ever seen. Shady webhosts, fake Whois details used in CWS groups, trails back to all manner of jailbait touting websites and a network of illegal pr0n spamsites that all came back to the Yapbrowser program.

Anyone with any sense would have gone running for the hills.

Don't you people understand that because you're endlessly telling people how awesome you are, how trustworthy you are and how cleaned up you are that a sizeable chunk of people would think, hey, Yapbrowser, never heard of it but those Zango guys are supposed to be okay so maybe I'll download it and......OH HELL, GO TO JAIL?

When you're partnering with people like the above, you're not just letting random users down, you're also letting down those people who previously had no problem with your software and might even have - shock, horror - actually liked it.

You think they liked the kiddy pr0n much?

You think they'll go anywhere near anything with the word "Zango" on it again? No? Why not?

Sum total of money made by writing about this: Zero
Sum total of dubious webrings, individuals and shady companies I had to deal with: Tons
Sum total of people I hopefully prevented from getting illegal pr0n on their PC: Who knows, but probably a lot.

...to suggest anybody made any money off the back of something like the Yapbrowser fiasco - other than yourselves through installs of your Adware, of course - is insulting and I'll thank you to kindly be quiet, or go trawl through all those horrendous sites yourselves and get them shut down.

...oh wait, did YOU do that or did I? Yeah, I thought so.

2) Myspace!

Contradictory claims spilled out of the Zango camp in a machine gun fashion when I exposed the distribution network chugging along on the popular social networking site. Hilariously, not only did a Zango employee place Adware on a profile, but after repeated claims by Zango that they didn't target Myspace, along came a bunch of affiliates with EMAILS FROM ZANGO telling them to PLACE ADWARE ON MYSPACE.

Sum total of money made by writing about this: Zero
Sum total of contradictory nonsense and paperweight excuses from affiliates I had to contend with: Tons
Sum total of bandwidth used up in the making of this story: BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS, of which a small slice can be seen here.

Making money off you guys?! Hell, I should be sending you a bill for bandwidth!

3) All the other random garbage you guys keep walking into. I couldn't be bothered going through these for the billionth time, so treat it as some wonderful search-based adventure instead. Suffice to say, there's Botnets, Licat Worms, dodgy programs on Myspace, Trusted Zone hijacks, Trojans, sites aimed at kids, sites that give you nothing in return for Zango, fake Youtube movies, hacking sites that are apparently Zango affiliates, more dubious Myspace associations, dubious keyword redirects, Usenet spamming, Winamp skins, fake video pushers with Zango affiliate accounts, more Botnets, fake webcams that open Zango installers, IM hijacks that distribute Zango alongside Rootkits and fake reviews of Zango websites by the guy that runs the company.

.....oh I'm sorry. Did I just ruin your day?