a-squared freed

I have removed Emsisoft products from my PCs.

The uninstaller still dials out to Emsisoft web-site when a-squared antimalware is being removed. I haven't got a straight answer yet as to why.

Nonetheless, I left it better than I found it.

Regards,

Neo

 

I am really wondering what you try to do here at Wilders. All your postings are puzzles. Write them an email with your complaints if you need to get it of your chest.

 

Edwin,

I can't send e-mails because I get no repiles to them and I cannot post at the a-squared forums because I am suspended. EMSIsoft advertises here freely so I felt that I could leave my messages here. I was (in fact) the owner of two a-squared antimalware licences and one Mamutu license. I had removed these programs a while back. I had noticed that they are having great difficulties with their software - and - I was only trying to help them (as I usually do), but to no avail, as I had re-installed these programs.

So , I thought it appropiate to leave my message in a related forum (here) that I no longer own a-squared antimalware licences , nor Mamutu and my question was very clear and succint as to "why does the a-squared antimalware uninstaller open an Explorer Window and try to dial out? is this a spyware activity?

I'm just asking.

What is so confusing about my questions?

If you feel insulted or upset or offended in anyway then please e-mail a moderator, request my deletion , I will will just go away quitely.

Thanks and Kind regards and please accept my apologies if I have puzzled you in any way,

Neo

 

It has been my experience and this goes for numerous programs I have had in the past, any time I have allowed a "dials out" to occur, more times than not it was simply to ask me why I was uninstalling the software. Perhaps this is the case with Emsisoft software. In any case, the question has been asked and We'll now await any pertinent info others more knowledgeable than myself may wish to share.

What We will not continue in this thread or any other threads for that matter is discussion and/or comments concerning other forums in regards to e-mails and/or suspensions. Any further deviation in that direction in this thread or any other thread for that matter will be removed without further comment.

Bubba

 

There are numerous of programs that do that. It's a feedback for the vendor. Some of them opening a internet page asking the user if there was a problem with the product (because the user uninstalled it) Nothing wrong with that. And that's also not spyware. The vendor simply knows then that a user deinstalled his product for WHATEVER reason.

 

You aks not much, you complain (or whatever I must call it) a lot. It doesn't help here too, I'm afraid.

 

I think it is my fault again. I thought this was a place here where we can post critical questions pertaining to critical reviews of software vendors programs.

I just thought (after reading a lot of posts here at Wilders) that we should not always listen to what everbody is telling us - for example - if a software vendor of any software tells me that they do not have spyware embedded in their programs .. then i am just suppossed to beleive that like one of the sheep and then move on ?

So , like Bubba said , I am waiting for the expert to come in here and tell us what is really going on with this stuff "dialing out" when it is getting uninstalled. Or mabey I am just suppossed to trust everybody? Thats not what they say to do in the other posts. So I don't know either.

Neo

 

Oh .. Ok .. thanks for your reply Inspector Clouseau. That makes a lot of sense. I just thought it was a privacy thing .. and I see that there is another forum here (at Wilders) that deals with that. So your answer is well with me and the Modrator may close the thread if he wishes.

Thanks and Kind Regards,

Neo

 

@Neo [edit: you posted the above while I posted my reply]

You didn't read Closeau's reply?

FYI - when a-squared is uninstalled the uninstaller invoke your system's default browser with an URL-switch pointing @

Code:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/info/uninstall/

(this is the english page - there are similar pages in other languages)

You read Bubba's warning about the other info you posted and probably understand that is the reason I PMd you instead of asking you here.


regards,
T

 

Yes.. I got PM etc.. I was just paranoid - I thought that there may be some sort of supercookie extracting somthing in the background , a process I could not see, perhaps something even malicious - but I have been told I am "too paranoid' and so Iwill just accept that for now and take all your words for it that everything is clean and stand -up working great. I won't worry now that while uninstalling a third party security program that it is trying to troll me for info from my PC. I am all turned around on this now.

Thanks a lot T.

Kind Regards

Neo

 

Neo Esterhazy,
Your question has been answered by an expert in post #5.
I noticed this myself when I uninstall software, that the developper sometimes asks, why I uninstalled it.
As long I have the choice to answer or not, I'm happy and don't see any problem.
Nowadays everybody is "spying" on me : my neighbors, my bank, my supermarket, my government, ... and my legitimate softwares. As long they don't bother me, I don't care.

If I don't have the knowledge to verify it myself and that happens very often, because my technical knowledge = nihil, I have to trust other more qualified people.
That doesn't mean I always agree, I also have a brain and when I can do better, I ignore the expert advice.

You have to trust somebody sometimes and not everybody is a bad guy.
Emisoft is a company with a good reputation, otherwise nobody would run A2.

Here is a list of 444 rogue Anti-Spywares, A2 isn't listed.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/roguenet.php

 

You have made an excellent point. It was just my (silly me) thinking about all of this. Ya see, I thought that perhaps (and only perhaps) that this process of "dialing home" would enable any non-named proprietor to slip in a few "stones under the water" so to speak so that they could spy on the competition. If I may .. for example .. a security vendor allows a few f/ps to slip by and benchmarks those f/ps (which are really spyware ibot pods) so that they cannot be detected by other scanners when scanned. So , during the uninstall one of the pods in slipped in through the background in a subversive sort of way - (that we can't really see becasue one has to be safe to assume that if an antimalware vendor is expert at finding malware then they are probably 10 times better at planting it). This way , a system could be compromised to a degree as that the ibot pod can glean and spy on other more recently installed security software - and then - as I said - it becomes somwhat of a privacy issue (with me at least)).

However .. as I said .. this is just my silly paranoid thinking and you're right ..we have to trust others to be noble and forthright and honest, that they would NEVER do any such thing.

Also , as you pointed out at msg #5 , that moderator has assured me that this is all done up front and honest and so I can confirm that my question to this topic has been answered as best as possibly could be.

Thank you for your contribution to this question.

Much Appreciated,

Neo

 

There are a lot of "hidden" things going on when you install/uninstall programs, execute programs, or go online. I think EVERY little action should be displayed on a small monitor window box on the desktop for ANYTHING that happens. I think that you will probably see well over millions of displays for each time you boot up. You would be too busy trying to decipher it all and not have any time to do anything else.

 

Thats a good concept in your thinking. I would know for certain that there are debug tracers out there that could track such activity. The only way around this would be to create a micro virtual machine within a machine. (I'm not trying to direct anyone here This would be able to subvert the best debug tracers. Well, if you are into the study of malware then you know what malware is capable of.

Then there are those who are within the framework of one's own Microsoft Office, the trusted servants who have keys nonetheless.(But don't say I told you so


And then there are cookies!! Like little bees , collecting a little bit of data here and there. take for example here at Wilders. When you log off a window will come up and say "All cookies cleared" or to this effect. Ok .. so they simply flushed the buffer. * I am not suggesting that this is malicious in anyway*. But , back to a-squared antimalware unistall proceedure and dialing home - yes .. it just may be an innocent little cookie reporting back to a2 headquarters - and so what if it is! a-squared sets the standard on detecting tracking cookies - right? What if it is then a sort of little tracking cookie that is being retrieved? And then the information of that cookie is sold to sombody else?

The other main point that gets me about all of this auto-opening IE upon an uninstall is that there is no heads up , no data in the help files - just nothing - that will advise you that IE is about to open a new Window. It's like - we are just supposed to accept it - that it is a standard proceedure during unistall - don't worry - be happy.

I use PC security mainly for one reason - to protect the sanctity of my e-mails. I don't really give a fiddlers about other crap processes on my PC - but just don't touch my e-mails and start dumping personal info on me - that gets my hair up.

PC - Personal Computer? an oxymoron now-a-days. They should call them EECs, Everybody Elses Computer

Neo

 

I think that if you took out all of monetary related links/websites and everything else $$$ related to the WWW (just as before 1990) it would make be a much more safer and quieter online experience (albeit, it would be more boring one as well).

 

Hi everybody,

I am new here.
My name says it all. I am doing some research (security software related).
I came across this page when searching a-squared related information.
I read this thread and could not get a sense out of it. Replying to Neo Edwin wrote

I did not read all posts by Neo but can any Guru explain just one puzzle, please.

What in hell that suppose to mean? “Slip f/p”? Does f/p mean False Positive?
How one can slip it? Can I copy f/p from one computer to another? “through the background”? so “they”=f/p cannot be detected. Does any security software detect False Positives?

Was the quoted post drug related or something? I am at a loss.

Thank you in advance

 

F/P = False Positives.
Sometimes scanners report good objects as a threat and that is called a false positive.
I don't have false positives, because I don't use scanners. Problem solved, case closed.
That's what I always do : getting rid of problems or solve problems, that's my job and hobby.

The rest is a puzzle to me also. I have no idea what he is talking about.
I don't understand members always and they don't understand me always.
I'm not worried about this, it's nothing but a communication problem between two persons and that happens all the time in life.
The more people, the more communication problems, the more opinions, the more discussions, ... and nobody has the same brain. They all have one thing in common : they think they are right.

There is always a possibility that a member is drunk and/or stone due to malware problems, but that isn't easy to verify, unless the member starts acting weird. Also sober members act weird sometimes.

 

Great to have many different / opposing opinions,sometimes a litle fight but who cares,it keep us alert and learning.It would be very boring if anyone agreed upon anything.

 

Hi ErikAlbert,

Yes I know that. That is why I thought the member meant something else.
FP is a definition of a fact: “Detected incorrectly (false) but intention was good (positive). You cannot slip or pass the definition in order to do some harm. Such conspiracy won’t work because it's physically impossible even in "ideal gas" environment
When a scanner produced FP the detection already happened.
Probably that scanner did not raise an alarm and intentionally did not detect by that “slipping” infection “through the background”? (whatever that means). Aahhh! Never mind. That's insanity!

It didn’t puzzle my girlfriend. She was just laughing. She is brighter student than I am.

Yes! Well put. Due to that. (malware problems in the head) My girlfriend used different expressions though.
I am afraid I am not allowed to use those words in this forum.

Hello Huupi. I agree with you. But it is equally difficult to agree or disagree with complete nonsense as in that post . Agree?

Take care all

 

"Perhaps a rogue security vendor didn't tell you that he just installed a trojan, and it sends user-info back to the vendor when you uninstall instead of purchasing." Maybe that is what he meant but didn't want to accuse them of... Just a guess

 

hehe
u c installs the trojan
but nobody can "install" FP or slip it or pass it or move it or shake it...
that & other thing written there showing lack of knowledge if any it is just...
LOL

 

Hi TheStudent and TheGirlfriend,
Maybe Neo is talking about rogue Anti-Spyware softwares.
During the installation the rogue software writes bad objects to your HDD, that cannot be detected by other scanners.
When the rogue software is UNinstalled, those bad objects remain on your HDD and do their evil job, whatever that may be.

If this is true, it won't be a problem on my computer.
Even normal softwares have to beg me to get installed on my computer and my computer gets a clean T-shirt during each reboot.

 

LOL

welcome to wilders TheStudent!


I have no idea why Neo used the expresion "f/p"... it seems he's talking about trojans, which are "bechmarked" by the rogue scanner to assure no other scanner can detect them.

 

I think the major disconnect here is is not understanding the correct questions to ask and how to ask them. This leads to the general misunderstanding as shown by the replies and the the fact that the OP has been pursuing how to verify what a program is actually doing without knowing exactly how to do this.

For the OP I would suggest that learning about and then studying packet sniffers and process monitors might be a good place to start. If you are unwilling to take someone's word for something then logically you have no other choice than to investigate this yourself. And from a personal perspective I can think of no better way to begin learning than by doing...

Mike

 

Could be that perhaps English isn't his first language...