Full
Name: |
180 Search Assistant |
| Type: |
Adware |
| Also Known As: |
Other Products:
SVA Player
SVAPlayer
180solutions
180 solutions
MetricsDirect
180search Assistant
180 search Assistant |
| Created By: |
180Solutions, Inc. |
| Danger Level: |
7 |
| Category Description: |
Program that delivers advertisements on your PC.
Note that many websites have their own advertising, unrelated to adware.
Adware is any software application in which advertising is displayed while the program is running. The authors of these applications include additional code that delivers the ads, which can be viewed through pop-up windows or through a bar that appears on a computer screen and sometimes through text links or in integrated search results. Adware may or may not track personal information. It may also gather information anonymously or in aggregate only. Users should check the EULA and Privacy policy to ensure if the adware on their machines conforms to their standards. |
| Official Description: |
Company appears to have evolved from the old "paid-to-surf" program Epipo.
Comes along with some "advertiser supported" programs, a tactic known as bundling.
Depending on the program (180 Solutions markets several) it may pop-up ads or in the case of the Zango application it may pop-up other websites based on keywords you use while surfing or searching. It is important to note that 180 Solutions derives financial benefit by popping up these 3rd party websites.
To the best of our knowledge 180 Solutions does not track or store personally identifiable information as per their privacy policy. However it does transmits logs of every web page you visit. The URL or keyword is passed with a unique identifier to their advertising server when a targeted advertisement is shown. With the later versions of their software this logging can be disabled by using the tray icon.
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| Comment: |
Heavily distributed through the use of "affiliates" via a process called bundling.
Recent research by Ben Edelman (http://www.edelman.org) reports that it has been installed via browser security holes. We have also noted that 180 Solutions applications are often installed with a number of other adware programs at the same time causing an extreme load on the PC. It has also been noted that these applications have been force installed by web sites (affiliates) or Windows Media files.
Company claims it no longer distributes n-case although it is unknown how many legacy installations are still in circulation.
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| Information URL: |
http://www.180searchassistant.com/home.html |
| Properties: |
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| Manual Removal: |
It is notable that older versions of nCase and the 180Search Assistant require an Internet connection to uninstall. This is not best practice. Current versions do not seem to need an Internet connection to uninstall.
Most versions have an item in the "Add/Remove Programs" list. If not, re-installation can help.
But make sure to remove "host applications" first.
All uninstallers leave the nCase/Inst control in place, allowing nCase to be reinstalled without prompting. To remove this, open the Downloaded Program Files folder (inside the Windows folder) and delete the entry ?nCaseInstaller Class? (nCase/Inst/nc variant), ?180SAInstaller Class? (nCase/Inst/180SA variant) or ?ZangoInstaller Class? (nCase/Inst/Zango variant).
Note- 180 solutions has been to known to use a "resuscitator application". This application monitors for the uninstallation of 180 Solutions software and prompts the user if they want to reinstall the software. |
