OnlineRiches,
The New York Times dubbed this kind of software as stealware. There is plenty of evidence out there showing exactly what is happening, and has happened. Sure, they morph thier business model a little every time they get into hot water.
http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/180-affiliates
http://www.benedelman.org/news/070804-1.html
If all their installs are so squeaky clean why did they just get fined by the FTC?
Why were they advertising porn to kids they sucked in from a kids site(and even made the graphics especially for children)? A real stand up maneuver from a standup company.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072701620.html
Why do they keep deleting relevant and factual information about them on Wikipedia?
http://www.vitalsecurity.org/2007/04...on-part-5.html
Why do they let the 'affiliate' that did the Myspace phishing continue pushing their scumware?
http://www.vitalsecurity.org/2006/07...l-pushing.html
To say that Zango / Seekmo / Hotbar / 180solutions / Metricsdirect software is easy to uninstall is almost true, depending on how and where you get it. But it certainly leaves a lot of artery clogging shit behind.
If you don't think you are losing sales to this type of software...
Even today you can lose a sale by Zango software popping up someones page that is identical to the page you just sent that surfer to. If that is not facilitating theft, what is? If a surfer is on AFF, why is there any reason to pop another full page of AFF, if not to steal that customer?
Why aren't they a member of the BBB anymore? Here's a link that gives a few details among other information about this thiefware company.
http://www.ghettowebmaster.com/zango...siness-bureau/
Will,
All these people that give you shit about making this public appear to be irritated that you upped their cost per click to steal traffic, or made their cut of the pie that much smaller when doing installs, or both. Those are the only reasons anyone might bitch about exposing scammers and thieves.