Anti-Virus Company Sued for Scare Tactics
The makers of Norton Antivirus are accused of running juke scans and bullying customers into purchases.
We've altogether seen the messages pop up on our screen. "Malware detected!" "Your computer is infected!" "Download this software now operating theatre cybercriminals will obtrude upon your privacy, steal your identity and obliterate your someone!" These are the tactics of inferior scams, premeditated to have you click on them and – ironically – install viruses and malware on your machine, but I've forever wondered how somewhat "trusty" antivirus companies like Symantec and McAfee got away with victimization similar methods. A newfangled lawsuit alleges Symantec's Norton Antivirus performs scans that get into't really scan your figurer simply inactive warn of non-concrete dangers systematic to get you to salary $29.99 to upgrade. Further, the plaintiff James Crude contends that even if you pay the fee, Symentec's applications don't really do anything to helper your computer at all.
"The scareware does not conduct whatever actual diagnostic testing on the data processor," reads Gross's complaint filed in Northern California. "As an alternative, Symantec intentionally designed its scareware to invariably report, in an passing ominous manner, that painful errors, seclusion risks, and other computer problems exist on the user's PC, regardless of the real stipulation of the consumer's computer."
Gross said he bought the upgrade based on the prompt and afterwards employed IT experts to look at his machine. They told him that the scans almost always returned a antagonistic report and that the software could not repair what information technology aforesaid IT could. The complaint continues, "The scareware does non, and cannot, provide the benefits promised aside Symantec. Accordingly, consumers are duped into buying software that does non function as publicized, and in fact, has very shrimpy (if any) utility."
Symantec responded to the causa with the following statement:
[Symantec] does not believe the lawsuit has deserve and wish smartly defend the case. The Norton and PC Tools solutions relevant are planned to improve the system performance of our customers' devices in terms of speed, maintain the health of their machines, and protect our customers' information. The optimization and concealment functions of these solutions mending registry errors, pass over computer usage, and shred deleted items. Some include additional functionality such every bit recuperation tools to restore lost items. Several independent third gear parties wealthy person tested and reviewed these products very favorably, verifying the effectuality of their functionality.
I've sure enough been unimpressed with so-named security department suites for a seven-day while. Freeware alternatives such as AVG behave the problem just besides, and are devoid of such fearfulness-mongering messages. Gross's claim that the antivirus programs don't do anything at all is pretty daring, only I wonder if there's not some merit to it. Part of me wants to believe that computer virus-makers and antivirus companies are more in cahoots than they'd like to admit.
Source: Forbes
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/anti-virus-company-sued-for-scare-tactics/
Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/anti-virus-company-sued-for-scare-tactics/
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