6 ms·

Or at a more simplistic level, why haven't Google, Firefox et al simply blocked download.com as serving malware? Even something that simple happening far more

Or at a more simplistic level, why haven't Google, Firefox et al simply blocked download.com as serving malware? Even something that simple happening far more frequently, might mean sites carrying ads gained some ethics. Maybe some of the ad networks would then be held responsible for the crap they regularly carry. ...and sites whine at the unfairness of the growing number of adblocking users. Right.

jneal 11y ago
This is something I have been curious about as well. It seems like Google at the very least should be blacklisting download.com or at least showing the message they show for "bad" sites: "Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer!"
- theandrewbailey 11y ago
  Then start reporting it: https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/ https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/
  - davidiach 11y ago
    Thank you for the link. I just reported it. I hope many more people here will do the same. Who knows, maybe something will change.
  - Hermel 11y ago
    I reported cnet several times. It still has a top spot in the Google search results and no warning whatsoever.
- JustSomeNobody 11y ago
  You really want Google to be the custodian of all things bad? Besides, does Download.com, the site, actually give you malware? No. So why do you think Google should blacklist it?
  - braythwayt 11y ago
    "Custodian" is a strong word. Let's back up. Download.com doesn't write the malware, it just serves it. Are they a custodian? The argument here is that download.com knowingly serves malware to make money. By that same argument, if Google knowingly serves a link to download.com to make money, how is this different? At the end of the day, online businesses serve things to customers just as venues serve performing acts and stores sell goods. There is some expectation of due diligence over what they provide. We can argue about whether they should be legally compelled to not serve malware, or whether we should simply stop doing business with companies that serve malware, but it's reasonable to consider them responsible for the things they serve to make money.
    - raisedbyninjas 11y ago
      I'm not sure if it is still the case, but being hosted on download.com used to have a cachet over other sources. Today, their about us page has this to say: "All products in our library go through a rigorous testing process."
    - noxToken 11y ago
      > At the end of the day, online businesses serve things to customers just as venues serve performing acts and stores sell goods. There is some expectation of due diligence over what they provide. Devil's advocate: where does this line start and stop? I'm not advocating for download.com. Stores aren't held responsible for bad products. Physical stores like Walmart and Target as well as digital entities like Amazon and Newegg have shelves full of products designed to break under minimal use, high markups for mediocre products, and products that have been cleverly advertise to look better than exected. This is not completely analogous to serving malware, but the onus is not on the store to vet the products before selling. Why should download.com be held responsible for hosting crapware when we don't hold stores pushing goods liable for selling us gold-painted trash?
      - anexprogrammer 11y ago
        Devil's advocate: where does this line start and stop? Stores aren't held responsible for bad products I don't know about the US, but in the UK and Europe they are. The contract is with the retailer, so you can sue them. There is an expectation that things we get are safe. They are frequently crap, but rarely damage your other things or injure you. If something breaks after minimal use it would not be of "merchantable quality" and you'd be entitled to a full refund from the retailer. Likewise claims and statements to the public and in advertising must be true. (IANAL) Now, Download make a big deal of being a trusted source, and will not accept "Software that installs viruses, Trojan horses, malicious adware, spyware, or other malicious software at any point during or after installation". There's a very lengthy list of what they don't allow and how they are curating their offerings. They have, for quite some time, been failing in this. For pity's sake they even have dark patterns and show ads with prominent download buttons, which aren't. As they want to be a trusted source, and have lengthy text telling us they won't accept malware and that they curate everything, I think they should fall foul of the browser's safe browsing filters. http://www.donotlink.com/framed?614744 http://www.donotlink.com/framed?614744 Their malware policies. If, on the other hand they said plainly "we make only limited checks, downloader beware", fair enough. Just like a forum disclaiming views of posters. TL;DR Yes, they should be held responsible for what they serve, or stop claiming to be so trustworthy and "We test all submitted software products according to comprehensive criteria.".
makecheck 11y ago
If you install uBlock Origin at least, it will flag the entire site by default. It is very easy to add new things to the list too (e.g. right-click an offensive pop-up and "block element"). I even told it to block my ISP's ridiculous typo-redirector.
- anexprogrammer 11y ago
  Yep, but I would not dare suggest ublock origin to any of my non-techie friends or relatives as my unpaid support load would go up hugely. Adblock is far enough for them! I run it always, but one thing it is not, in any respect, is non-techie friendly. I love that it tells me what triggered a block, and which filter it pulled it from, but Joe User would be baffled. Then clicking random buttons to make it go away (likely disable strict blocking, permanently), or phoning their ISP because the Net's broken...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- squeaky-clean 11y ago
  The sort of person who installs uBlock Origin is also generally the kind of person that knows to avoid these websites. However, people like my mother don't know how to install uBlock, and don't know to avoid download.com (I mean, with a domain name like that, it has to be legit!). This is what uBlock shows me when visiting a page on download.com [0]. It also changes the URL to "chrome-extension://cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm/...". If my mother saw this, I'd get a phone call right away that some virus was stopping her from downloading something. It looks scary, and the most visible information is the most obtuse, while the most useful information is grayed out on the page. If the most prominent text was something like "We've blocked this page, because it matches our list of 'Badware risks'." I'd feel better about installing uBlock for a casual user. As it is now, I only install Adblock Plus because it hides malicious ads and fake download buttons without also presenting scary things to the user. [0] http://i.imgur.com/DUdRCSc.png http://i.imgur.com/DUdRCSc.png
  - iopq 11y ago
greglindahl 11y ago
blekko penalized most of the downloading sites for that reason.
chaostheory 11y ago
Well maybe if it was a new site with no backing, they would block. Unfortunately Download was part of CNET. CNET was purchased by CBS. This is CBS serving malware. They know what they're doing. It's probably the only portion of the CNET properties that makes a good amount money in CBS's eyes.

jneal 11y ago

This is something I have been curious about as well. It seems like Google at the very least should be blacklisting download.com or at least showing the message they show for "bad" sites: "Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer!"

theandrewbailey 11y ago
Then start reporting it: https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/ https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/
- davidiach 11y ago
  Thank you for the link. I just reported it. I hope many more people here will do the same. Who knows, maybe something will change.
- Hermel 11y ago
  I reported cnet several times. It still has a top spot in the Google search results and no warning whatsoever.
JustSomeNobody 11y ago
You really want Google to be the custodian of all things bad? Besides, does Download.com, the site, actually give you malware? No. So why do you think Google should blacklist it?
- braythwayt 11y ago
  "Custodian" is a strong word. Let's back up. Download.com doesn't write the malware, it just serves it. Are they a custodian? The argument here is that download.com knowingly serves malware to make money. By that same argument, if Google knowingly serves a link to download.com to make money, how is this different? At the end of the day, online businesses serve things to customers just as venues serve performing acts and stores sell goods. There is some expectation of due diligence over what they provide. We can argue about whether they should be legally compelled to not serve malware, or whether we should simply stop doing business with companies that serve malware, but it's reasonable to consider them responsible for the things they serve to make money.
  - raisedbyninjas 11y ago
    I'm not sure if it is still the case, but being hosted on download.com used to have a cachet over other sources. Today, their about us page has this to say: "All products in our library go through a rigorous testing process."
  - noxToken 11y ago
    > At the end of the day, online businesses serve things to customers just as venues serve performing acts and stores sell goods. There is some expectation of due diligence over what they provide. Devil's advocate: where does this line start and stop? I'm not advocating for download.com. Stores aren't held responsible for bad products. Physical stores like Walmart and Target as well as digital entities like Amazon and Newegg have shelves full of products designed to break under minimal use, high markups for mediocre products, and products that have been cleverly advertise to look better than exected. This is not completely analogous to serving malware, but the onus is not on the store to vet the products before selling. Why should download.com be held responsible for hosting crapware when we don't hold stores pushing goods liable for selling us gold-painted trash?
    - anexprogrammer 11y ago
      Devil's advocate: where does this line start and stop? Stores aren't held responsible for bad products I don't know about the US, but in the UK and Europe they are. The contract is with the retailer, so you can sue them. There is an expectation that things we get are safe. They are frequently crap, but rarely damage your other things or injure you. If something breaks after minimal use it would not be of "merchantable quality" and you'd be entitled to a full refund from the retailer. Likewise claims and statements to the public and in advertising must be true. (IANAL) Now, Download make a big deal of being a trusted source, and will not accept "Software that installs viruses, Trojan horses, malicious adware, spyware, or other malicious software at any point during or after installation". There's a very lengthy list of what they don't allow and how they are curating their offerings. They have, for quite some time, been failing in this. For pity's sake they even have dark patterns and show ads with prominent download buttons, which aren't. As they want to be a trusted source, and have lengthy text telling us they won't accept malware and that they curate everything, I think they should fall foul of the browser's safe browsing filters. http://www.donotlink.com/framed?614744 http://www.donotlink.com/framed?614744 Their malware policies. If, on the other hand they said plainly "we make only limited checks, downloader beware", fair enough. Just like a forum disclaiming views of posters. TL;DR Yes, they should be held responsible for what they serve, or stop claiming to be so trustworthy and "We test all submitted software products according to comprehensive criteria.".

makecheck 11y ago

If you install uBlock Origin at least, it will flag the entire site by default. It is very easy to add new things to the list too (e.g. right-click an offensive pop-up and "block element"). I even told it to block my ISP's ridiculous typo-redirector.

anexprogrammer 11y ago
Yep, but I would not dare suggest ublock origin to any of my non-techie friends or relatives as my unpaid support load would go up hugely. Adblock is far enough for them! I run it always, but one thing it is not, in any respect, is non-techie friendly. I love that it tells me what triggered a block, and which filter it pulled it from, but Joe User would be baffled. Then clicking random buttons to make it go away (likely disable strict blocking, permanently), or phoning their ISP because the Net's broken...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
squeaky-clean 11y ago
The sort of person who installs uBlock Origin is also generally the kind of person that knows to avoid these websites. However, people like my mother don't know how to install uBlock, and don't know to avoid download.com (I mean, with a domain name like that, it has to be legit!). This is what uBlock shows me when visiting a page on download.com [0]. It also changes the URL to "chrome-extension://cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm/...". If my mother saw this, I'd get a phone call right away that some virus was stopping her from downloading something. It looks scary, and the most visible information is the most obtuse, while the most useful information is grayed out on the page. If the most prominent text was something like "We've blocked this page, because it matches our list of 'Badware risks'." I'd feel better about installing uBlock for a casual user. As it is now, I only install Adblock Plus because it hides malicious ads and fake download buttons without also presenting scary things to the user. [0] http://i.imgur.com/DUdRCSc.png http://i.imgur.com/DUdRCSc.png
- iopq 11y ago

greglindahl 11y ago

blekko penalized most of the downloading sites for that reason.

chaostheory 11y ago

Well maybe if it was a new site with no backing, they would block. Unfortunately Download was part of CNET. CNET was purchased by CBS. This is CBS serving malware. They know what they're doing. It's probably the only portion of the CNET properties that makes a good amount money in CBS's eyes.