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Symantec, McAfee fined over renewals
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 12th June 2009
Both Symantec and McAfee must make it easier for users to cancel their subscriptions without penalties, and warn before any renewal is made.
As reported by vnunet.com, the fines come as a result of a case brought by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo who took umbrage with the companies' practice of automatically renewing subscriptions to software updates and virus definitions.
The pair stood accused of automatically resubscribing both corporate and retail users at the end of their initial term without their informed consent, and of unilaterally changing the terms and conditions of the contract between customer and company. Despite the companies claiming that the fact of the subscription renewing was spelled out in the terms and conditions supplied with the software, Cuomo claimed that this wasn't' made obvious enough.
Cuomo accused both companies of playing “hide the ball when it comes to the fees consumers are being charged,” and said that “consumers have a right to know what they are paying, especially when they are unwittingly agreeing to renewal fees that will not appear on their credit card bill for months.”
Speaking of his victory, Cuomo stated that the ruling against McAfee and Symantec will force the companies “to be clear and upfront with customers when it comes to renewal fees,” along with enforcing a no-quibble sixty day refund policy should a subscription be cancelled. Both companies will also be made to send out written warnings both before a subscription renewal takes place, and after – within the 60 day cancellation perioid.
Do you hail this move as an end to the shady practices of auto-renewing subscriptions, or has Cuomo just made it harder for individuals to ensure they are adequately and continuously protected against the ravages of web-borne malware? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Still, not happy about it :(
Symantec AV is terrible, I have macafee installed as it came with my machine. It constantly pops up messages offering me deals to renew, even though I have over 6 months left on this subscription. Winds me up, for that reason alone I won't renew and go back to AVG. Besides, although nowhere near as bad as norton, it still hogs resources.
With Comodo or ZoneAlarm, you're good to go.
No need to pay that much.
Why should you expect free internet security? It isn't a right and it's only due to the goodwill of those who created freeware security apps that you do get any at all. There are some problems with free AV products too, which can make a paid for alternative more viable. For instance, the virus definitions databases on some free AV products aren't updated as often as the paid alternatives. Then there are features that the free AV products don't have, which some people may need or want.
Regards the subscriptions, it seems to be becoming the norm nowadays that companies expect you to opt out of renewal, whereas it used to be that you were asked to confirm that you wanted to renew at the end of the contract. I tried to cancel my contents insurance renewal the other day, as I found a better quote, but was told that I can't cancel the renewal until it's due??!! So I have to wait till the end of the month and then send a letter in. It has also happened with my website hosting packages, my business public liability insurance and quite a few other things too. I think that a letter should be sent out a month before the contract expires, asking whether or not a customer wishes to renew, then if the letter is not returned or the customer wants to cancel, then the renewal doesn't go through. That's how I deal with my clients and I wish the big companies would do it too.
I think that the companies who do automatic renewals are hoping that those clients who wanted to cancel may forget about the renewal, and in turn the companies will get another 12 months worth of cash from them.
I got an e-mail saying my subscription is about to run out and since we got our laptops from Dell I have 2 subscriptions, I am just going to add my laptop and the desktop onto the other one for cheap :)
It is only using 75 meg for it to be running, which is perfectly fine, only slowdowns are due to the automated scans thrashing the HDD.
* Wild Level: Low
* Number of Infections: 0 - 49
* Number of Sites: 0 - 2
* Geographical Distribution: Low
* Threat Containment: Easy
* Removal: Easy
Yet for some reason their antivirus didn't detect it. Symantec and Mcafee are both crooked.
if your using norton 360 2.0 or lower make sure you get the 360 3.0 version now as it now using 2009 tech and its far lighter on the system load and only does things when your away from the pc {10mins default all norton 2009 products}
the new norton keeps use low system resources compared to the last ones that used alot
you do not need to Buy the new version any key that has time left can be used from 2006-2008 on 2009 protuct or 360 1.0 or 2.0 can be used on 3.0
just download the Type of norton product you are useing and install it over it and it auto remove and update to the new version (save the file to desktop)
http://service1.symantec.com/support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2007032123431239?OpenDocument&seg=hho&src=_mi&product=SymNRT&version=2008.0&language=english&module=2007&error=0&build=Symantec
mcafee is the most bloated only M$ onecare been worst then it for slow downs
if your willing to run an exe,com,mp3 from an unknown source no antivirus can protect you