Still want to know why... no response yet...
It's disappointing that software developers have to stoop to low acts like incorporating search engine hijacks into their free products. It does however indicate what sort of company PDFForge is and it should serve as a warning to their potential paying clients.
The news is spreading slowly. http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/pdfforge.org
I am sorry to have to repeat this once again, but PDFCreator does not install the toolbar if the user does not want it. Just thinking of course is not enough. The installer screen says in bold letters "If you do not want to install the toolbar, please diable it in the componen list on the next screen". The ones complaining here do not seem to read this. If you follow this instruction, you will under no circumstance get the toolbar. If you have installed it, you can simply uninstall it from the browser or the system control panel.
kind regards,
Philip
I read the instructions. I followed the instructions. I chose to install the toolbar because I thought I was getting a PDF converter. I would not have installled the toolbar if I had known that the PDF Converter toolbar also included a search engine hijacker.
My previous comments reflect my displeasure at the underhanded way in which your browser extension took over key word searches and bypassed my browser configuration settings. And in addition to this the browser extension responsible for the hijacking is labeled with the false description - "Protects your default search settings"
If you spend a little time searching google with "pdfforge malware" (as I wish I had done before installing PDF Creator) then you will read that others are also disappointed by this additional feature.
How you conduct your business is up to you, but I believe you are doing yourself a disservice.
I'm also a long-time user of PDFCreator. I damn sure wasn't expecting someone to be hijacking my browser, nor did you say anywhere in the license that you did.
If I went to a restaurant and ordered a punch in the face, I'd feel justified in getting punched in the face. If I ordered a sandwich and got a punch in the face instead, I'd not be a happy customer.
I'd further note that your two FAQ entries called "Is the PDFCreator Toolbar Spyware?" are untrue. The first says "it's only spyware if you consider an updater to be spyware", and the second says "it doesn't send any data without the knowledge of the user". These both ignore the fact that your software is explicitly re-routing any typos in domain names to a site which *does* capture as much information as possible about you - and for which you are being paid.
Terms of use on Sourceforge say:-
"Posting
(i) Your Content does not constitute, contain, install or attempt to install or promote spyware or malware or any other computer code (whether on Geeknet's or others computers or equipment) intended to, or that does, enable you or others to gather information about or monitor the online or other activities of another party, unless it discloses such functionality to the user in a clear and conspicuous manner and the user affirmatively consents to such use;"
Since your code clearly *does* install computer code that enables you (and others, such as your advertisers) to gather information about your users' activities online, and clearly does *not* say that it's doing this, you are violating those terms of use. And clearly you don't care what your users (or ex-users now) think about it because they can't do anything, so I've raised this with SourceForge. Maybe they'll care, maybe they won't, but they're the only people with any leverage. Enjoy.
Oh, and if anyone else thinks this is unacceptable, SourceForge is the place to send your complaints.
As a previous poster said, you've really done yourself a disservice here, because PDFCreator is actually good software and is widely used everywhere, including in business. But no IT department now is ever going to install PDFCreator, and that will probably continue even if you remove the spyware toolbar. Not a clever move.
yes, it does say something about posting your data. Maybe this is not in the focus normally, but if you enter search terms anywhere, they will be posted to someone. It can be google, microsoft, yahoo or spigot (in case of our toolbar)
The difference is, that we explicitly tell the user, that the data are transferred here.
Regarding what you call hijacking: it seems that some users do not like the redirected error page. Just deactivate the default search box in the setup or uninstall the search settings plugin and it will be gone.
kind regards,
Philip
The SourceForge ticket was closed after denying the accusations. But it's open for new comments for any SourceForge user (as long as you keep it closed).
Meanwhile, here are screenshots as a response to a similar topic with a better subject.
i have similar things, and others have it too.
see here: http://www.techsupportforum.com/security-center/virus-trojan-spyware-help/397139-api-mybrowserbar-com.html
Only to say that during the install procedure I refuse to install the Yahoo search bar, but Search Settings plugin was also installed on my machine...
The problem is that you don't have to explicitly check to add it. You must explicitly uncheck to not add it. This is not the same as explicitly wanting it.
http://img211.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=89686_pdfcreator_toolbar1_122_1148lo.jpg
Also if you notice, it says nothing about the mysearch and redirects. --Yahoo search & pdfforge
It took me several weeks to finally find the gumption to figure out how it was finally installed. My first concern was removing the hijacks/spyware/etc. Of course, hopefully by now there is so much said about it, that people will quickly be able to see the cause of there troubles.
If it were just going to yahoo, we might not mind. But its going to somewhere not mentioned!!!!!!!!!!! and using hooks so deep you have got to search for the plug-in and know what you are looking for to figure it out. Something the user does not know about since they didn't check the box