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Complaint: FeedDemon is now adware, but does not disclose it

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tranglos:
FeedDemon is now at 3.0, and instead of continuing with the NewsGator subscription service, it now offers syunchronization with Google Reader. I thought it was great, downloaded and installed v3.

Then I saw FeedDemon now displays ads.

I went back to the website looking for some disclosure, but there's nothing (at least nthing I can readily see). I revisited Nick Bradbury's post, Introducing FeedDemon 3.0, thinking that such a change would merit a mention in What's New, but no.

I uninstalled, cleaned every last trace of FeedDemon from under "Documents and Settings", then reinstalled FD 3, expecting to find some big red warning on the license page that I had somehow missed. Turns out I didn't miss anything - the license does not mention the ads, or if it does, it must be in some inscrutable language.

It seems to me that by not disclosing the advertising prior to installation, NewsGator runs afoul of the law in some countries. It used to be the typical evil practice in the early days of adware, but today we expect to be told before we install. This is particularly important because of the following:

When you first launch FeedDemon, before you see the main program window with the ads in the corner, FD asks you if you want to synchronize with Google Reader. This means entering your Google account username and password in the program. I was naive enough to trust Nick Bradbury, and did so. Only then did I see the ads first.

This leads to a number of questions:

Since FeedDemon does not disclose the fact that it has become adware, what else does it not disclose? Are the ads context-sensitive? Does FeedDemon share my subscriptions and the articles I read with NewsGator or with third parties? The license does not say it doesn't, so my assumption is that it may.

Secondly, does FeedDemon share my Google Reader username and password with NewsGator or any third party? Again, the license doesn't say.

NewsGator privacy policy does admit they "collect" (a) subscriptions and (b) "Data from actions you take on posts (for example marking read, saving, forwarding via email, etc)". It is not clear though whether this relates only to the online activities (the NewsGator paid aggregation service, if it still exists), or if it also affects desktop sofware like FeedDemon. FeedDemon itself bears no privacy-related information.

Now, it is entirely possible that I am the last person in the world to find out FeedDemon is now adware. Sure, there are mentions on the support forums. However, users cannot be expected to see the forums before they install the software. This does not count as proper disclosure before the fact.

As if that were not enough, FeedDemon manages to add add insult to injury. After the installation, and after it synchronizes with Google Reader, FeedDemon asks if you want to add its suggested subscriptions. I selected "No, don't subscribe me to anything else right now" and proceeded.

Result: FeedDemon displays my Google Reader subscriptions, as well as a bunch of new junk subscriptions I specifically told it to exclude. What's worse, it pushed those additional subscriptions to the Google Reader account, thereby polluting it with lots of stuff I now have to remove manually. This may be a bug, but you'd think something like that would have been easily caught in beta, so who knows if it really is a bug. (Just to be sure, I repeated the entire uninstal / scrub / reinstall process twice, thiking maybe I did not check the right option the first time. The effect was the same both times.)

You can pay (under $10) for a key to remove the ads, and that's okay, since I first registered FeedDemon in 2004 and would not mind paying for an upgrade. But I cannot with clear conscience support NewsGator's policies. And first I would like to know how much of my Google account data has already been leaked to NewsGator or their advertisers without my permission. Come to think of it, it's quite sickening. A very annoying experience.

nbradbury:
You post this exact same complaint in my blog, and then you post it here before even giving me a chance to respond?  My response is here, but I'll post it here as well:

"There was absolutely no attempt on our part to hide the fact that FeedDemon 3.0 has ads, as a quick search of this blog will prove. It has been mentioned here - and several other places - many times before, and it seemed pointless to bring it up again since my only goal with this post was to introduce the new features.

FeedDemon doesn't automatically subcribe you to those feeds unless you tell it to, and you explicitly have to click "Yes" for those feeds to be added (the default is "No"). I can only guess that those subscriptions were somehow left over from the previous version, or that you misread the step in the startup wizard which asked whether to subscribe you to anything.

FeedDemon doesn't share your subscriptions, nor does it share your Google login. Your login is stored locally, encrypted in the registry. It's only sent to Google itself, and then only using secure HTTP."

tranglos:
You post this exact same complaint in my blog, and then you post it here before even giving me a chance to respond?  
-nbradbury (October 01, 2009, 03:40 PM)
--- End quote ---

There is nothing wrong with posting the complaint here, nor with you responding here, or me relating your response if you did not. As for the blog, it is yours, you can erase my post if you wish.

"There was absolutely no attempt on our part to hide the fact that FeedDemon 3.0 has ads, as a quick search of this blog will prove. It has been mentioned here - and several other places - many times before, and it seemed pointless to bring it up again since my only goal with this post was to introduce the new features.
-nbradbury (October 01, 2009, 03:40 PM)
--- End quote ---

Nick, I wrote as much above. I know (I saw later) that this is mentioned in the support forum postings. Please understand that this means exactly zero, because you cannot expact everyone to first read / search your blog or the forum, and only then download and install the software. This may be true for some existing users who follow your blog, but most people first install, and then maybe visit the blog or the support forum if they are interested or need assistance. Myself, I had version 2.7 installed, but never used it much, since most of my reading was through Google, and maintaining two sets of subscriptions wasn't convenient.

An advertising-supported program absolutely must disclose this in the installer. Some vendors place that information only in the license. That is an intentionally underhanded approach, because a lot of users don't read EULAs, or wouldn't understand them if they read it, since English is not their native language. But at least the vendor can claim they do disclose the fact before users commit to installing the software.

Yet FeedDemon does not even do that much. If you go to the website, read the overview and what's new sections, download and proceed to install, at no time during this process are you told you are going to see ads in the program. FeedDemon does not carry any privacy statement, either, while the Privacy Policy at NewsGator is not very clear, as I describe in my post above.

In fact, NewsGator's privacy policy does state that subscriptions and "actions" taken with regard to posts are collected. If that information pertains only to users' online activities through the NewsGator site, then the policy needs to be amended, since it is not relevant to FeedDemon.

FeedDemon doesn't automatically subscribe you to those feeds unless you tell it to, and you explicitly have to click "Yes" for those feeds to be added (the default is "No"). I can only guess that those subscriptions were somehow left over from the previous version, or that you misread the step in the startup wizard which asked whether to subscribe you to anything.
-nbradbury (October 01, 2009, 03:40 PM)
--- End quote ---

You are right that the default is no, but I am not lying to you, either. I do not think those were leftover subscriptions, because (a) as I have already said, I chose the option to clear the cache and subscription data when uninstalling version 2.7, then went and manually removed any traces of the program left on disk. (I did that to ensure that any old subscriptions would not get merged with my current Google Reader feeds); and (b) though you have to take my word for it, there is nothing in the world more boring to me than sports, and I would never and have never subscribed to any sports feeds. Or, indeed, a Gossip section.

I may be wrong about the bug in the installer, though. I suppose it is possible that (a) the uninstaller for v2.7 did not clear the cache even after I clicked Yes twice, and that subsequently I did not manage to find *all* the remaining traces of those old subscriptions. (I did not check the registry, for example.) In that case the bug may be in the 2.7 uninstaller, rather than the current version.

Again, I repeated the procedure twice with the same effect.

FeedDemon doesn't share your subscriptions, nor does it share your Google login. Your login is stored locally, encrypted in the registry. It's only sent to Google itself, and then only using secure HTTP."
-nbradbury (October 01, 2009, 03:40 PM)
--- End quote ---

Thank you for the direct reply. My request would be to include that information on the NewsGator's FeedDemon page, as well as on the installer screens. Also, please describe the nature of the advertisements. It is becoming standard practice today to serve contextual ads, in which case the program would have to provide at least some subscription information to the advertisers. Whether or not this is the case for FeedDemon, there should be a statement to that effect in the license or a privacy policy distributed with the program.

Please understand that, while I am not a fan of adware, and would not have installed FeedDemon had I known about the ads, I accept that this practice exists. I am not out to rid the world of advertisers (a nice thought, though). My sole issue is with the lack of clear, accessible, prominent disclosure, because FeedDemon did not give me a fair chance to back off. That's all I'm asking for.

tanis424:
As the Op mentioned the advert discussion in forums (and also blogs as you say) does not constitute full disclosure to the end user. I too am a registered user of 2.# FeedDemon and thought I'd try the new release. I was disappointed on two fronts:

1) The ad support, surely we registered users could at least get a short window in which to evaluate without ads, then either pay an update fee or see the ads.

2) The entire program seems to be running through treacle. The interface seems unresponsive. Perhaps this is a reflection of the synchronisation but that appears to only occur when FD is shut down. It's not something tangible that I could give you examples of but it just seems very different to the feel of previous incarnations.

Whilst I understand that you sold FeedDemon to Newsgator for financial reasons and I certainly wouldn't deny you that right (and am in fact pleased that your work was rewarded in this way), the program has never been the same since. Such a shame.

tranglos:
1) The ad support, surely we registered users could at least get a short window in which to evaluate without ads, then either pay an update fee or see the ads.
-tanis424 (October 01, 2009, 04:25 PM)
--- End quote ---

I think so. Not a free no-ads trial even, but just an upfront choice during installation: enter your reg key now or see ads. This way you could upgrade and never have to see the ads at all. The price is really fair.

2) The entire program seems to be running through treacle. The interface seems unresponsive. Perhaps this is a reflection of the synchronisation
-tanis424 (October 01, 2009, 04:25 PM)
--- End quote ---

Well, almost every action must now go to Google and back, so that's to be expected. The delays didn't seem bothersome to me. Maybe the requests going out of FeedDemon could be buffered and sent in batches every so often, but then you would run the risk of losing synchronization if something went wrong.

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