A free internet browser claimed to offer web surfing
with privacy for users has been slammed as adware by
critics.
Browzar works as a shell on top of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer
browser but is designed to avoid leaving traces of users’ internet
activities on their computers. Browzar does not save any cache,
history, cookies or use auto-complete.
The shell application, launched by Ajaz Ahmed, the founder of
internet service provider Freeserve, promises, “No malware, no
spyware, no adware”.
But some bloggers and internet experts have branded the product
adware, because its search box directs users to sponsored links and
adverts.
The Web3.0log website reports that a search for del.icio.us –
the site that hosts collections of users’ favourite links – brings
up a series of search results headed by links to retailer Amazon
and online auction site eBay. The results are produced by
pay-per-click search engine Overture.
Web3.0log comments, “There was time when badware developers
tried to install ad pages as homepages or search pages in user’s IE
by any possible means. Nowadays users install adware voluntarily
and write news about it.”
The Computer Zen website also demonstrated that traces of
visited “naughty” pages could be retrieved from Internet Explorer,
the underlying application, despite Browzar’s privacy claims.
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