Qihoo 360 and Go
blog.golang.org
blog.golang.org
* Their flagship products, "360 Security", provides an alternative Windows-update facility; they take use of this to disguise another product of theirs, "360 Browser", as a Windows update: http://www.ipc.me/360-fa-bu-jia-xi-tong-bu-ding.html (Chinese source)
* "360 Security" and "360 Browser" spies extensively on the user, including uploading "suspicious" files for their "cloud antivirus" service, uploading the browsing history: http://www.ce.cn/cysc/tech/07hlw/guonei/201302/26/t20130226_... http://tech.163.com/10/1231/17/6P8I1JPR000915BF.html (Chinese source)
* "360 Security" was caught cheating in AV software tests: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2919554/tencent-qihoo-antimal.... More interestingly, after the denunciation from the test bodies, Qihoo 360 pretended that it quit the test voluntarily and announced that these tests are no longer suitable for "Internet-era AV software".
* They recently announced a "pregnancy mode" in their router product, due to widespread concern about the effect of WiFi signals on the fetus.
Their wrongdoings are uncountable.
That's the worst one of all as it contributes to people making stupider decisions and believing dumb stuff.
In the cell phone of a Chinese, such messages are ubiquitous. Taking the WeChat app by Tencent Inc. for example, I constantly read messages from my parents sharing such nonsense stories. They wouldn't stop even if you complained as their friends and alumnae shared these constantly. Subjects of the nonsense included but were not limited to: a) pseudosciences, e.g., Japanese scientists discovered that water molecules behaved differently when it was being scolded verbally; b) misinformation, like an explosion occurred or a child was taken by human traffickers, which could not be confirmed or the time of which is not specified at all; c) false/suspicious political/historical rumours which favours their targets (i.e. my parents); d) success stories and other click baits.
These stories were poorly made up but easily spread. Some were made in commercial purposes to attract more subscribers so that their network of rumours could expand. You cannot fight them all. You cannot sue them all. You cannot eradicate them all.
The one suspected notorious Company which helped GFW to grow is Baidu.
They basically requested full access to his computer, for about $99, and set up his printer, but they also installed a bunch of software, one of the things they installed was Qihoo 360.
This wasn't requested, and it made me wonder whether or not Qihoo pays a bounty for each install to these random companies.
It made me really suspicious of the software.
Has anyone had any experience with their tools?
1) a repository of common (Chinese) software that you can install directly;
2) an alternative windows-update service that seems to work faster than windows's own;
3) a "janitor" tool, for inspecting and disabling auto-boot software, removing software otherwise tricky to remove, and removing temporary files;
4) a driver searching and matching tool that works much better than windows's own, which never worked for me.
I was a bit emotional in my last comment, since honestly, there has been some decent work that went into this software. They also started to integrate free antivirus software at some point, but I have heard a lot of bad things about it.
However, Qihoo 360 is notorious for spying on the user (there are some hard evidences), offering bogus functionality (placebo "optimizations"), taking advantage of the user in their "promotions" of other products from the company (a big, green, "install 360 browser now" button vs. a little, grey "no"), and cooperating with the authority on Internet censorship. It has become very unpopular among the tech-savvy people in China.
Given that a lot of security software that isn't openly assumed to be spying on you is available, I'm asking why people would choose this software.
Maybe I'm missing something, if so, I apologize for being thick.
3) a "janitor" tool, for inspecting and disabling auto-boot software, removing software otherwise tricky to remove, and removing temporary files;
I need this feature especially.
it is all about easy to use.
Is pretty standard.
Removing tricky software can be done by crap cleaner and/or hijackthis
They believe they actually need it installed even when the school supplies them with a laptop that has all the necessary protection pre-installed.
They should remove the article.
In the past(Probably 6 ~ 7 years ago) Qihoo had bad reputation, because it once made its softwares like virus that the user cannot un-install them for competing with the competitors.
After that, I think the company has changed its behaviors that it started emphasizing user experiences. And it also developed an anti-virus and anti-spyware software to be used by the user for free. The company changed the business of anti-virus and anti-spyware softwares in China.
Now I think the company is an good innovative company in China.