OpenCandy

Very happy to announce that MSE 2011 discovered Adware which was piggy-backed in the free download of Sothink Video Converter. Though the results say the risk is "low", it means that a trusted company from which I have purhased my video software for five years got a scalding support ticket from me! That lead to a discourse between myself and the marketing department. A small bribe (free license) if I would not disclose my findings on the Internet. I said sorry, "but I am all about Internet ethics. I cited my own online service and how people refer other computer users to my remote help site because of "my privacy and work ethics".

Bottom line. OpenCandy.com has been around a few years and sothink.com stuffs it into their free video converter application. Grrr! They denied it at first but not after I sent them a screenshot. Oops! It may not be harmful but it's "grayware" and I did not have an option to opt-out during the installation. Bad Dog!!

Good news, MSE 2011 does a better job than AVG, AVAST and Avira in this area. I reinstalled the program, ran all of them and not one detected Opencandy, just MSE 2011.

Hi. My name is Adrian, and I'm one of the founders at OpenCandy and was involved with the design of the OpenCandy software, system, and policies. I'd like to provide some detail to what OpenCandy is, and answer any questions that are asked.

OpenCandy is a service that software developers include in their software to earn money by showing recommendations for other software in their installers. Developers use this money to keep their software free and invest in further software development.

The installer uses the OpenCandy component to present a software recommendation (such as the one below) during installation. You have complete control to accept the software recommendation by selecting either the“Install” or “Do not install” options on the software recommendation screen.

An example of an OpenCandy recommendation below:


OpenCandy isn't concealed or "piggy-backed" in software installers. In fact, OpenCandy isn't installed on your computer at all. As I said above, it's used by the installer to retrieve and present a software recommendation in the installer, and only in the installer.

It’s important to note that many of the world’s largest anti-virus companies that fight malware, including adware, are partners with OpenCandy. This includes Kaspersky and Symantec. These companies perform intensive analysis of their partners before working with them - it's critical to their reputations.

We believe the Microsoft Security Essentials threat to be inaccurate. When Microsoft created the threat entry on Feb 12th, many anti-virus providers automatically included the threat in their definitions. Most of these inclusions were automatic and made without human analysis. We contacted the providers that were flagging “Adware:Win32/OpenCandy” and they have since determined the threat to be false. Microsoft is alone in their continued classification of the “Adware:Win32/OpenCandy” threat.

If anyone has any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

nitroman84 said:

"recommendations for other software in their installers" = adware to me. No offense but some of us are extremely particular about what invites itself into our systems

I don't disagree, which is exactly why OpenCandy does not install on your computer or install bundled software automatically without your consent. It's also designed to not collect personally identifiable information, the software recommendation messaging is very clear and accurate, and you choose if you take the additional software or not.

It's completely in your right to not use software installers that include OpenCandy. If you have a fundamental disagreement with advertising, then I completely understand. That's your choice and I support it.

What I'd like to ensure is that people are educated with the accurate and balanced information, so they make an informed decision.

Advertising in-software is fine if it isn't ticked for install by default (for those people who just keep clicking next, not wanting to see all the prompts.) It's a sneaky method to catch people out.

pparks1 said:

MSE found the OpenCandy stuff for me as well. However, based upon research that I did...which turned out to be what Adrian said above, I ok'd it and set it so that MSE doesn't squawk about it. It's really just advertising within the installer. I'm all for free software and if advertising during the installer is the worst that I get, I can handle that. It's far better than crappy manuevers like sneaking an ebay icon on my desktop, or installing something like the ASK toolbar unless you customize.

That's why I felt like mentioning the clicking next deal, I have had DIVX start trying to bump this stuff in when it was never there before. They must be hard up for cash if they're having to take handouts from these shady systems.

Borg 386 said:

One disturbing trend we're seeing is a lot of companies, that in the past had nothing attached to their free software, are now offering such things (or in some cases, trying to sneak them by) such as the Ask toolbar (just an example).