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Are all ad-funded software malicious?

Published: 30 Jan 2009

Not all ad-funded software are bad. Let me tell you an example. Yahoo! Messenger is an ad-funded instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger is provided free of charge and has millions of users in the whole world. Can you say Yahoo! Messenger is malicious? The answer is obvious.

So, what is the standard to determine ad-funded software good or bad? The rule is if an ad-funded software is not intrusive, does not steal user information and does not have any malicious behavior, then it is good. From technical perspective, a good ad-funded software should comply with the following behavior rules.

• It doesn't modify system setting or registry database.
• It doesn't pop up windows to disturb normal software use.
• It doesn't auto create process without user's knowledge.
• It doesn't change user's browser or add any extension.
• It doesn't gather user browsing behaviour and personal information.

Market Situation

As open source and freeware grow, there are more and more ad-funded freewares come to the market. Some of them are ok. Some are kind of intrusive. For example, some ad-funded software change user browser's home page setting when it is installed. This still bothers customer and leaves customer uncomfortable feeling on ad-funded software. So the market needs a solid solution to guarantee that the ad-funded software comply with the behaviour rule.

Younexus Solution

Younexus advertising solution empowers software to do advertising through plugin integration. The way it works is software bundle with Younexus publishing plugin to get and display advertisements on GUI. The ad display window is embedded and becomes part of GUI. Younexus plugin strictly comply with the 5 rules earlier. It does not modify any system, registry or browser setting. It does not gather user information or browsing behaviour either. Software powered by Younexus only gets ads from server and display on GUI. Younexus is the leader in offering clean and safe advertising solution for consumer software application.

Security Resource & Tools?

When you are going to download an ad-funded software from Internet, how can you check if the ad-funded software is good or not. McAfee SiteAdvisor is a good resource you can use to check. The way Site Advisor works is that it scans millions website, check the downloads from the scanned website. It gives detail analysis report about the downloads. The analysis report has nuisance score for downloads, information about how the download modify the system including the key added in the registry and files copied to hard driver when it is installed. As a summary, the green check sign indicates the download is good.

For advanced user, you can download some useful tools to check. Sysinternals has many good resource tools for your use.