Summary
I have upgraded to ZoneAlarm 2010 (version 9) and I no longer have my ad-blocker, cookie blocker or Privacy Controls.
Answer:
There is an industry trend towards “bloat,” where companies continually add new features to a product and never take the time to remove obsolete features or to re-engineer products for speed. Such practices cause reduced performance and distraction for our customers.
We aggressively avoid bloat by removing features that our development team has determined are obsolete. Here are some recent removals, and the reason behind the removals:
- We recently removed Privacy Controls, which included ad blocking, cookie control and mobile code control, because both Internet Explorer and Firefox block ads and manage cookies and mobile code extremely well and render our own controls redundant. This was not true at the time we launched privacy control.
- ZONEALARM PRO ONLY: We recently removed Anti-Spyware because available Anti-virus now almost universally handles spyware as well as viruses, rendering our own Anti-Spyware redundant. This was not true at the time we launched our own Anti-spyware.
- We recently removed inbound MailSafe, both because the days of the “I Love You” delivery method for viruses is pretty much over and because Anti-Virus and firewall heuristics now handle such delivery methods.
In this same release, we added an advanced signature and heuristic anti-phishing solution which does better than available protection – including protection provided by Web browsers. We also added Advanced Download Protection, which uses advanced statistical analysis, virtualization and behavioral observation to stop brand-new and yet-unknown viruses and spyware from getting onto the computer via infected download.
We firmly believe these changes increase the ability of our products to protect our customers’ privacy and stop spyware attacks, while also reducing product overhead and bloat. If you’re unhappy with these changes, please let us know. We think we have some solutions that will make you happy. We welcome your comments.
