Claria.Weatherscope

· Overview ·
· Origins ·
· Distribution ·
· Operation ·
· Risks ·
· Detection and Removal ·
· Research ·

Overview

Summary:

 There is no difference between the licensed version and the ad-supported version. After our purchase, we found that c:/windows/temp/trickler4010_bic_gatorws_4010.exe was running. This trickler was added to the registry, so that it would run at reboot.

Vendor Notes:

 from the web site: 'Displays your current local temperature in the system tray of your computer (near the clock) whenever you are online! Provides one-click access to 3-day and 7-day forecasts Works for almost any city in the world! Uses the same data that over 750 newspapers use everyday'

GAIN Publishing distributes a variety of popular software applications and owns and operates the GAIN Network, the world's largest in-context behavioral advertising network. The GAIN Network helps keep many popular software applications and web sites free. These software applications also occasionally display pop up ads on your computer screen based on your online behavior. Alternatively, ad-free versions of the software titles distributed by GAIN Publishing are available for purchase (conditions apply).' -- http://www.gainpublishing.com/index.html

Claria was founded in 1998 as The Gator Corporation to deliver the promise of one-to-one marketing on the Internet. The guiding vision was to develop a massive consumer audience by offering valuable web/software content for free in exchange for the right to show highly targeted advertising based on consumers' anonymous surfing behavior. Launched in June 1999, the Gator eWallet was the company's first free ad-supported software product, and it quickly grew to become the most popular product in its category.

By November 1999, Claria had revolutionized the online advertising industry by introducing its contextual and behavioral relevant online advertising model. This new advertising method resulted in unparalleled ROI for advertisers.

Claria headquarters are located in Redwood City, California, with U.S. offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Austin, and International offices in the U.K and Asia. Claria is backed by top-tier venture capitalists such as Greylock, Technology Crossover Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Investor AB and Crosslink Capital. - http://www.claria.com/companyinfo/

See Also:

 Gator/GAIN/Claria

Category:

Adware: Software that displays popup/popunder ads when the primary user interface is not visible or which do not appear to be assocaited with the product.

Spyware: Any product that employs a user's Internet connection in the background without their knowledge, and gathers/transmits info on the user or their behavior. Many spyware products will collect referrer info (information from your web browser which reveals what URL you linked from), your IP address (a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer), system information (such as time of visit, type of browser used, the operating system and platform, and CPU speed.) Spyware products sometimes wrap other commercial products, and are introduced to machines when those commercial products are installed. See also Adware.

Similar Pests:

 Adware · Spyware

Origins

Group:

 Claria Corporation

Vendor:

 Claria Corporation

By This Group:

 Claria.Dashbar ·

Mailing Address:

 Claria Corporation 555 BROADWAY ST. REDWOOD CITY, CA 94063

Phone:

 Tel: 650-980-1500 Fax: 650-980-1599

Date of Origin:

 December, 2004

Distribution

Distribution:

 Downloaded from http://www.weatherscope.com/download/WeatherscopeSetup.ex_ by user request. When the licensed product, which purports to be advertising-free, is purchased, the only option is to download and run... So if you plan on purchasing this, buy it from the machine on which you intend to run it. You may look for the installer at profilepath+\local settings\Temp\WeatherscopeSetup.exe

Prevalence:
  • Claria.Weatherscope: 0.0%
    • More Info

    Clot Factor:
  • Claria.Weatherscope: 2

    • The "Clot Factor" is a measure of how much a pest "gums up" a machine by adding registry entries, files, and directories. As more objects are placed in a machine, manual removal becomes more difficult and more error-prone.

    Growth:
  • Claria.Weatherscope: Insufficient data to report growth
    		•

    Operation

    Advertising:

    		 Yes. "This software occasionally displays pop up ads on your computer screen based on your online Web surfing behavior." -- http://www.weatherscope.com/index.html "

    "To not receive GAIN Network Ads, you must have paid to not receive ads for each GAIN Network-supported application (unless the application is only available on an ad supported basis)." - http://papps.gator.com/papps_intro.php?app=weather "A commercial version of Weatherscope, with no GAIN Network advertising, is available for $30."

    GAIN gives users free software in exchange for agreeing to receive pop-up advertising. All GAIN Ads are easily recognize by the GAIN name in the ad border or title bar." -- from one of the first ads to be displayed.

    Storage Required:
  • Claria.Weatherscope: at least 1357 KB
    		•

    ScreenShot:


    the Weatherscope User Interface


    Weatherscope in your system tray

    Risks

    Privacy Issues:

    		 "the GAIN AdServer and GP collect and use the following kinds of anonymous information: Some of the Web pages viewed The amount of time spent at some Web sites Response to GAIN Ads Standard web log information (excluding IP Addresses) and system settings What software is on the personal computer First name, country, city, and five digit ZIP code Non-personally identifiable information on Web pages and forms Software usage characteristics and preferences... "

    'We associate the anonymous information we collect with a particular computer through a randomly generated Anonymous ID number to accomplish the following:

  • · Enable the functionality provided in GP GAIN-Supported Software applications (for example, when to offer help filling in a form or when to reset the personal computer's clock to the accurate time)
  • · Select and deliver installation files for optional new software applications; and,
  • · Create an anonymous profile of the categories of products or services in which Subscribers appear to be interested in order to select GAIN Ads to display to Subscribers’ computer screens EXCEPT, when available, if the Subscriber has purchased licenses to all GAIN-Supported Software applications on the Subscriber’s computer, such Subscriber will not receive GAIN Ads but GP will continue to collect and use all other information described in this Privacy Statement. GAIN Ads may be displayed on behalf of advertisers who may be competitors of the publishers of the Web pages Subscribers are viewing or have recently viewed.' -- from the privacy statement
    		•

    Privacy Policy:

    		 See http://www.weatherscope.com/help/privacy_statement.html. The 20 page privacy statement may be found at http://www.gainpublishing.com/help/ps4x_21pg.pdf

    Detection and Removal

    Automatic Removal:

    PestPatrol detects this.

    PestPatrol removes this.

    Manual Removal:
    1. Click on the Microsoft® Windows® Start button, select Settings and then Control Panel.
    2. When the Control Panel window opens, double-click on the Add/Remove Programs icon.
    3. When the Add/Remove Programs Properties window opens, locate the program that you would like to un-install from the list of installed programs.
    4. Click once on the program to be uninstalled and then click on the Add/Remove button.
    Stop Running Processes:

    Kill these running processes with Task Manager:

    Clean Registry:

    Remove these registry items (if present) with RegEdit:

    Remove Files:

    Remove these files (if present) with Windows Explorer:

    Remove Directories:

    Remove these directories (if present) with Windows Explorer:

    Research

    File Analyses:

    More Info:
  • AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Google, HotBot, Lycos, LookSmart, MSN, Yahoo!
    		•

    Research By:
  • PestPatrol's Pest Research Center
    		•

    Last Revised:

    		 April 15, 2005