It was brought to our attention yesterday that a completely unacceptable installation of our software was occurring on a popular crack site. First, we absolutely prohibit our partners from distributing our software on such sites. This is a terminable offense. Second, we categorically require every partner to gain proper consent from the end user prior to every installation of our software. Not doing so is also a terminable offense. 

We do not condone the installations found to have taken place from crackz.ws and we are taking every necessary action to hold this former distributor accountable and to right the wrong that has been done. We have spent the last year investing enormous resources to enforce our code of conduct using legal means and technology enhancements to ensure clear notification and require opt-in consent from the user prior to installation.
 
In this particular case, the required notification did not occur and we shut down the offending partner (including stopping payment) within two hours of the issue being brought to our attention.
 
We are currently notifying every user who still has our software from this partner that they may have received it without their consent and are providing a one-click uninstall option to remove the 180search Assistant. This is not in a pop-up ad format like our ongoing reminder notifications and it does not require them to go to Add/Remove Programs. It uses a standard installation dialog box like they would have seen if the proper installation process had occurred. The user has the option to keep the software if they wish but doing so will require consent. In some instances, the 180 Toolbar may have also been installed so we will provide easy uninstall instructions to remove that software via Add/Remove Programs. (We don’t yet have a way to provide a one-click uninstall for the 180 Toolbar like we do for the search assistant.)
 
While any non-consensual installation is unacceptable, it’s important to put things in perspective. The installs that occurred from this partner in November represent less than one-tenth of one percent of our total installs for the month. To be clear, any bad install is a bad install, but it’s important that people understand that situations like these occur infrequently and have a very minimal overall impact in terms of the number of people affected. In this case, you had to go to a crack site, a questionable act in and of itself, to get this installation.

This former partner originally signed up to distribute our software in September of this year to help monetize his freeware P2P software at www.p2passion.com. At some point he began distributing 180search Assistant on a crack site, another violation of our code of conduct.

Being intentionally deceived by any business partner is painful and frustrating, but it has given us some insight into areas where we can continue to improve our processes and reduce the surface area of exposure we have to these types of abuses. While we suspect fraud will always exist in the online world – just ask Ebay – we are committed to doing whatever we can to prevent the fraud from happening, and if it does occur, take proper corrective action.