Follow-up: XoftSpy - rogue or reputable? |
 
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| Home > News | June 1, 2004 11:18 AM |
This weekend we were contacted by the principals at ParetoLogic, makers of XoftSpy and asked to reconsider categorization of XoftSpy as a "rogue" product.
Essentially, ParetoLogic's side of the story is this:
1. They released the first version of their software earlier this year. The software had some bugs, as all new software does.
2. They partnered with ClickBank to handle their affiliate program. Soon after, thousands of websites began promoting XoftSpy, sometimes making outrageous claims about its efficacy.
3. The exploding popularity of the product outpaced their ability to correct the initial bugs, and as a consequence many internet reviewers bashed the software.
4. They have been hard at work fixing the bugs, and they are reviewing the quality of their affiliates to ensure that they are adhering to ethical business practices.
In their words,
We welcome all suggestions for improvement, and we will constantly work to make XoftSpy better, and ideally a product respected and recommended between programmers, developers, software companies and among other industry experts. If you think of something that we could improve, then please just send us an email. You will be impressed with the response, and if at all possible you will see the changes take form. Resorting to misinformed bashing is a tough way to appreciate life. Why not help us and others make a real difference for consumers instead. Send us your suggestions, send us your thoughts. We will make changes and improvements happen. Then decide for yourself if these Internet rants and accusations have substance.
We here at Adware Report agree with this sentiment. Because of ParetoLogic's attention and concern about this matter, we are removing them from our "rogue" list and will subject the software to a full review.
The full text of ParetoLogic's reply follows...
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User Reviews(1)
Rich,
I tested the most recent scan on the link provided your adware report site for ParetoLogic.com
After backing up the registry,
I first I had to disable my Hosts file as that site is in hpguru's list of banned sites.
As a pre-check, I scanned with Ad-aware which found one tracking cookie.
Then XoftSpy scanned 41,000 objects compared to Ad-aware scanning 127,000.
Xoftspy found 7 registry items:
The Coolwebsearch and CWS.Oslogo (2) entries are registry entries for sites
in my Restricted Zones that I intentionally put there to protect my system.
The WinPup32 (2) entries look to be part of MS .inet setup.
The Bat/Mumu-A entry is actually part of standard legit video card setup.
The MainPean Dialer entry is part of my VDMSound setup.
Screenshot :http://spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?p=11746#11746
XoftSpy got zero out of 7 correct. All false positives.
XoftSpy flagged legitimate applications and system processes as malware.
I backed up the files and clicked Remove. As predicted; the registration screen came up.
Pay up or stay infected with legitimate entries.....
I chose to stay infected with my own system's entries.
Well, I couldn't call any of this encouraging towards removal of XoftSpy from the crapware list.
You might want to try the same procedure and give this product an updated review.
Then again, looking at webhelper's comparision, you may prefer to drop that product altogether.
We can't have innocent victims removing legitimate files from their system
after paying good money for a scam product.
I'll check your site in a few days to see how you are progressing.
Thanks,
Iceblue
Posted by iceblue | June 2, 2004 7:39 PM