InformAction Forums

Bug 530747 - Ask Toolbar (Zone Alarm Toolbar) breaks other extensions and the browser

"I had a number of bug reports lately that turned out to be issues caused by the
Ask Toolbar extension (which also goes by the names Zone Alarm Toolbar and
Foxit Toolbar). Example bug reports are bug 526969 and bug 530446. It seems
that the reports are increasing because several popular applications come
bundled with this extension and pre-check the option to install it (in
particular Zone Alarm firewall and Foxit Reader). From what I can tell, nobody
is installing it because of additional value - it is always unintentional
installations. The installation works by copying the extension directory into
all profiles found on the machine."

(continued)

and pre-check the option to install it

That's the real issue. The last time I got the needed security update for Flash plug-in, the same thing occurred. IIRC, it wanted to install McAfee, but I can't swear to it. Opt-in wouldn't be so bad, if you had to deliberately check the box to get the added sw. But requiring multiple opt-outs just to d/l something is evil, IMHO.

I don't know how to stop the companies from doing this, but users need to be alerted to look for such things and uncheck everything before d/l or install.