boomer

I have just upgraded my AV and Firewall to Norton Internet Security 2004, and sadly it is starting to looks as bloated as Microsoft software

However, one thing that i am a little unhappy about is what appeared to be commercial sponsorship creeping into bought and paid for software.

Within NIS is a facility called Ad Blocking, which is designed to help stop all those irritating pop-ups etc. In the Advanced configuration section, you can actually define what ad strings to permit or block based on individual web sites (as well as control cookies, Active X etc, again on a site by site basis).

However, this section (Web Contents Options) is already pre-populated with various sites. Some examples include jackpot.com, which specifically permits a whole bunch of ads, and lordoftherings.net - again, specifically permitting ads whose URL contains the string "two_towers/two_towers".

At the same time, eweek.com has ads whose URL contains "links.industrybrains.com" specifically blocked.

It is almost as if certain sites pre-paid Symantec (who produce NIS) to include them as un-blocked.

Also, some of these "pre-populated" web-sites have weakened privacy settings by default.

This all seems a bit sneaky - anyone know why Norton does this???

mb

vmax

Like you said , it could just be paid for. When you first install windows and open IE and look at all those prepopulated bookmarks. I'm sure they are paid for.

Money makes the world go round... The world go round.!!!!

tuffer

They do it because it pays, they make money, the share price goes up ......and I can afford a new car with my bonus!!

boomer

vmax,

i am sure that they are paid-for. But i also paid for Norton, rather than use a freebie - so i expect a little integrity. Especially as one of the the things that i paid for was Ad Blocking, and they are effectively negating that facility.

What next, if Hackers-r-Us pay them enough, will they disable the "Sub-Seven Block" in the firewall???

tuffer,

i might pay in the short term, but it you don't give the customer what they want, they will stop buying from you - your share price goes down, and the bailiffs come around to re-possess your car

mb

tuffer

Bonus is in January, after that they can do what the hell they like....The Bailifs will not come into the scenario, this bonus buys it outright!