zonealarm caught phoning home. True or false ?

[david in oz]

I was reading in a forum a couple of days ago, ( the forum name I can not recall ), I was reading a post about zone alarm & it's apparent phoning home.

The basics of the post are as follows.

Zone Labs have been caught spying & phoning home unchecked
Tip for users of zonealarm
Be warned this phones home every session with no apparent way to stop it

Has anybody else heard this?

[LowWaterMark]

No, not really and I've been using ZA for a long time and know a thing or two about it. I don't think it phones home to do any tracking or logging that we should be concerned about. I've used tools like Port Explorer and they don't show anything to be concerned about.

Perhaps if you told us what exactly you are reading, we could look at it and see if it is a real issue.

[illukka]

it does "phone" home to check for updates, if that is enabled. that's all.
put a checkmark in the box check for updates manually if that's a problem

[doug6949]

They must do some tracking. I stopped receiving ZA spam when I switched to Kerio.

Doug

[Paul Wilders]

-{ Quote: " quoting: Fire Permit link=board=23;threadid=18870;start=0#msg115959 date=1073229447]
They must do some tracking. I stopped receiving ZA spam when I switched to Kerio.

Doug
" }-

Doug, no offense intended - but without providing solid proof for such a presumption, that's merely what it is: an unfounded presumption.

regards.

paul

[Krusty]

Hi Paul and others

Long time no seen...I have noticed this too on my own puter; Rnaapp.exe has been hijacked by ZA and I only wonder why. Basicly I trust in Steve Gibson he wouldn´t do harm, or would he?

Ari

[doug6949]

- but without providing solid proof for such a presumption, that's merely what it is: an unfounded presumption.

"must" was certainly a bad choice of words. And in all fairness Zonelabs does make plain their intention to send offers to users of the free version, which seems reasonable.

I did notice that outbound activity occurred on shutdown with ZA installed.

Doug

[CompilerBacter]

I have a licenced version of ZA Pro, normally I have 'Automatic Update' set to 'Manual'. Following the install of 4.5.538 as an update, (i.e. preseving the current settings), it over-rode this, turning on the automatic update feature. So, I guess if you updated, then ZAP may appear to 'phone home' when it didn't previously.

[LowWaterMark]

-{ Quote: " quoting: K®u$tÿ link=board=23;threadid=18870;start=0#msg116005 date=1073233046]Long time no seen...I have noticed this too on my own puter; Rnaapp.exe has been hijacked by ZA and I only wonder why. Basicly I trust in Steve Gibson he wouldn´t do harm, or would he?" }-

Good to see you again Krusty! :)

That Rnaapp.exe problem is a known bug and it has been discussed at the Zone Labs forum. It's some type of network access issue that appears only on certain system configurations, and I don't believe they've fixed it yet, but they are working on it. In any case, no one has found anything that shows its an attempt to secretly send any information to Zone Labs.

Fire Permit,

Regarding the emails from Zone Labs, if you ever registered the product online or within the user interface, like image below then you could very well get email ads from them. (I've registered mine and I redo that each time I upgrade.) They do have opt-out options available if they are needed.

CompilerBacter,

Yes, the first 4.5 release forced automatic updates to be on all the time and had no option to disable it. The newest release states (http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/zap/releaseHistory.html#4.5.538.0) that they've added back in the ability to set it to manual updates again.

Many people were upset (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=16623) by having automatic updates locked on, so they gave in and allow people to disable it again.

[Krusty]

Quote LowWaterMark:-{ Quote: "Good to see you again Krusty! " }-
Good to see you too LWM!

This Rnaapp is not an issue to me :)
I wish all the best and prosperous year 2004!

[Q-baller]

Yes it does call home---this is a way to stop it cold




Close ZoneAlarm.
Open up your registry editor.
Go to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm
In the right pane, you will see CfgMain, double click that.
Use your keyboard's arrow keys to downwards until you reached 0028.
On line #6 (0028), press the right arrow key 5 times, then hit Backspace.
After you are done the step above, type 00 on your keyboard.
Then click OK.
Restart ZoneAlarm...

[LowWaterMark]

Hi Q-Baller,

The key you are describing is simply the auto-update setting in ZA. The latest release of ZA allows you to set that key to manual without the need to use regedit. That isn't any special phone home, it's just the check for updates option.

[lycanusmaximus]

I have the auto-update set to manual.
I have the latest version, after updating a coule of times, and I have had absolutely no problems.
I have been as of late fairly paranoid (and after what BI did, I have very good reason), so I am glad to have ZAP.
I watch very carefully, and NO it does NOT "phone home".