TV station put in Spyware in Weatherbug

I hate off topic subjects from fishing but seeing alot here are from the Minnesota area I thought I should post this.

I was loading the Weather Bug from KSTP when my Virus protection program went nuts saying what was being down loaded had spy ware in it, and it had it by exactly that name. Well, I contacted KSTP with an email and this is what I got back.

Quote:

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Sorry you had so much trouble. Weatherbug
does offer a Pro version which does not
have spyware on it. But it cost 14 dollars
for the year. The free version has the spyware.

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I left the person’s name off, but it was one of their TV weather personalities.

Am I wrong or is some thing a miss here.

Just to warn you if you down load that program.

WarrenMN

That may answer some of the questions I have concerning why I been getting so many popups….I have the free version of weatherbug!

I don’t know about pop ups, but I doubt it. That would be some thing more in your virus protection service and settings.
You may have the spy ware and not know it if you aren’t running one of the Spyware programs.
WarrenMN

Warren, yes Weatherbug has been a thorn in the side for most computer users for some time. Just an FYi other websites that contain extreme amounts of adware, popups, and viruses are music download websites, and of course the porn websites but I have some free help for you that works really well…..www.download.com scroll to the bottom and it will be number 1 on the top five downloads Ad-Aware SE personal….that is the one I have and my computer went from being smashed and thrown in the garbage to surfing with ease again….no problems ..just run a scan every so often. I do 1 about every 1-2 months

Being in IT, and having to deal w/spyware on a daily basis. Weatherbug is by far the most common piece of spyware that people knowingly load onto their machine. Sure, it’s nice to see the temp. in the system tray, but having it there is like having an open door to your pc. Things like weatherbug, kazaa are run off of advertising.

Something else most people don’t realize…GET RID OF GOOGLE TOOLBAR, and YAHOO toolbar, MYWEBSEARCH, anything of that nature. They are forms of spyware–> what they do is load in email and internet plug-ins that mess up your system settings and end up giving you a headache…All the meanwhile, you’re sitting there like this , wondering what’s happening..

I’m not trying to come across hard, just stating truths…
But if you want to play party poker and what not….have fun….hope you enjoy the pop-ups

yours truly
a disgruntled IT geek who wishes he was fishin’

Quote:

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GET RID OF GOOGLE TOOLBAR

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Actually, Google toolbar hasn’t been known to have spyware along with it. The only thing it carries that prevents some web applications from functioning properly is the pop-up blocker that is integrated.

I forgot you’ve been there and back

I was making a generic point….

see you tomorrow at work

…and I was just stating the facts. But yes, you’re right, it’s good practice to remove all toolbars regardless. They are all known to carry some kind of harm to your browser functionality.

I have been there and back, and back again.

Dude it’s free for a reason…

Seriously though, *most* free programs like those come with spyware, and *most* of the time a good spyware remover will take the spyware off your computer, and leave you with a running program, not always true, but most times.

Actually yahoo and google toolbars do have a spyware in them .. I have done sniffer tests after installing them and they send data to and from google and yahoo …. they just dont have popups as most spyware does … I posted on another thread that I really like the Microsoft Free Spyware Remover Beta …… I cant wait for the final release …

No, I didn’t expect them to be “free”, but with all the advertising they do on them you’d figured that would have covered it with out spying.
WarrenMN