Back in March, Wayne Porter challenged 180solutions to answer a series of questions on their business practices and such.
In Wayne’s blog, Cory Magnus of 180solutions protests that “The notion that many of our users came from improper installs is an urban legend started in the anti-spyware community.”
Do urban legends about spyware actually exist? I do think some anti-spyware apps are overboard in what they detect and remove, namely affiliate cookies, but it rings as a little silly that people are ganging up on a clean, innocent piece of software.
One of my favorite answers was to Porter’s question, “180 is getting a lot of flak right now, and perhaps this flak is well deserved giving the issue of stealth installs. Why do you feel anyone should trust 180 Solutions after all the things that happened before?”
The response from 180solutions seemed to have been to the question, “Why would somebody want to work for 180solutions”?
I’m not sure how their office having “a bright, vibrant community of talented people” makes them trustworthy, but it does sound nice.
180solutions cites things such as being “recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies in Washington and in the U.S.” as well as being “a best company to work for in Washington” to bolster their claims of being trustworthy.
So they’ve got a lot of smart people and a nice work environment – that is great for their employees, but um… why should I trust them?
Of course, they are just like any other media company, or so they say. According to 180solutions, “Just like NBC we are in the business of connecting advertisers to consumers… clearly NBC is in the business of showing advertisements that sponsor content. 180 does the same thing.”
I suppose you could make a comparison in a VERY broad sense. Some things are starkly different. For instance, if you search for NBC on Google, you see a bunch of sites related to NBC.
However, a search for 180solutions on Google yields a bevy of natural and paid results geared towards educating consumers in the operation and removal of 180solutions.
So many products geared towards the removal of 180solutions just to reinforce some urban legend? Come on now!
One of the higher ranking natural results is an interesting bit of research, “The Effect of 180solutions on Affiliate Commissions and Merchants,” by respected urban legend debunker, Ben Edelman.
If it’s writ, we must acquit? Thanks, but no.