HijackThisSpyware

Is Trend Micro's HijackThis Spyware?

Notes from ClifNotes, Sep 2007, permalink Adware & Spyware Removal

Under review

I've been hearing that some people haven't been happy with Trend Micro's version of HijackThis (HJT). Many of you might be familiar with HJT. It's one of the most well known and most useful tools to help remove spyware and adware from Windows machines.

Last year, Merijn, the creator of HJT sold it to Trend Micro and stopped any development on his own. Since then Trend Micro has developed their own version of HJT. The heart of the complaints come from the "AnalyzeThis" reporting feature that Trend Micro placed inside of the new HJT.

I tried it out recently. I have no problem with the reporting feature. It's well labeled and it tells you it's going to report home. My only complaint would be that they don't tell you what it does. They only use it for statistics on infections.

Is this labeled good enough for you?

In any case, if you need to use HJT, I feel it's fine to use either version. Below is an article that comes close to labeling Trend Micro's copy as spyware. You should decide for yourself.

clipped from www.whatthetech.com

HijackThis is now spyware?

July 30th, 2007 by Blair

Merijn, the creator of HijackThis™ recently sold the popular application used to remove malware to Trend Micro™. In addition to improvements like support for Windows Vista™, they’ve added a deceptively titled “AnalyzeThis” button. While the average user likely thinks the AnalyzeThis button provides helpful information for diagnosing their log, it’s main purpose is to send the HJT log data to Trend Micro. Unfortunately, unless you carefully read the Trend Micro End User License Agreement, you would probably never know that the AnalyzeThis button submits the data from your HijackThis log to Trend Micro for use by them and their partners.

The Anti-Spware Coalition defines spyware as the following:

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Merijn's copy of HijackThis

Trend Micro's copy of HijackThis