Group hits AOL for spyware sins

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Internet service has spent millions of dollars over the years to protect its users from computer viruses, spyware, and other harmful programs. But an anti spyware coalition connected to Harvard University says that AOL's own software commits some of the very sins that have made spyware programs such a nuisance.

The coalition, called StopBadware.org , has added AOL's Version 9.0 software to a ``watch list" of programs it considers unacceptable. ``Clearly, AOL does not belong in the same category as the malicious badware providers we have previously identified, but the free version of AOL 9.0 that we tested, in our view, does not live up to the company's rich legacy," said John Palfrey, co-director of StopBadware.org and executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

Most of the programs singled out by StopBadware.org covertly install features that display advertisements on a user's computer or secretly transmit information about the user. AOL Version 9.0 does none of these things. But the software does install a number of programs on a user's computer without first getting permission. For example, AOL Version 9.0 installs Apple Computer Inc.'s popular Quick Time program, which is needed to view many online video clips. The AOL software also installs a toolbar in the user's Web browser, which can help the user perform Internet searches.

These programs are generally harmless, and many consumers are glad to have them. But the StopBadware coalition, which includes Internet search company Google Inc. and computer makers Sun Microsystems Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd., holds that programs should install no additional features without first notifying the user.

AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said that the software tested by StopBadware is about three years old and due for a major overhaul. ``We're in beta testing for our new version, which we'll have out in about a month or so," said Weinstein. This new AOL software will comply with StopBadware standards by getting the user's permission for each additional program it installs.

StopBadware noted that an additional problem it identified -- components of the AOL software kept running after the program was shut down -- has already been fixed.

``Their response has been prompt," said Jonathan Zittrain , co director of StopBadware.org and professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University. ``They've been concerned, and they're working on it."

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.