BONZIBUDDY

Released in 1999 and discontinued in 2004, 'BonziBUDDY', sometimes spelled 'Bonzi Buddy', 'BonziBuddy', or 'BONZIBuddy', (misspelled 'Bonzai Buddy') was an on-screen "intelligent software agent" from BONZI Software. The official website stated it would help a person explore the Internet through various functions along with their own sidekick.
It took the form of an animated purple gorilla that resided on a user's desktop and communicated through the employment of Microsoft Agent technology.
It was labelled as spyware by Consumer Reports in 2002.⁶ This charge was disputed by the company.
In April 2007, PCWorld readers voted Bonzi Buddy the 6th worst on a list of the top 10 most annoying tech products.^[1]

Contents

Overview

Reports of spyware

Legal

References

External links

Overview

The software used Microsoft Agent technology similar to Office Assistant,^[2] and originally sported Peedy, a green parrot character, before it became the purple ape.^[3] The software "interacts with users while they are online, providing shopping advice, jokes, and trivia."^[4]
At one point, the official website for the application said this about it:
:''He will explore the Internet with you as your very own friend and sidekick! He can talk, walk, joke, browse, search, e-mail, and download like no other friend you've ever had! He even has the ability to compare prices on the products you love and help you save money! Best of all, he's FREE!'' ^[5]

Reports of spyware

An article in Consumer Reports's ''Web Watch'' labels BonziBUDDY as spyware, stating that it is a ''Backdoor Santa'' in that it collects information from users. Among the activities the program is said to engage in include constantly resetting the user's web browser homepage to bonzi.com without the user's permission, prompting and tracking various information about the user, and serving advertisements.^[6]
''Spyware Guide's'' entry on the program states that it installs automatically without user knowledge or consent via an ActiveX object in Internet Explorer.^[7]
Anti-virus company Trend Micro classified the software as spyware/grayware and adware, but not malware.^[8][9]

Legal

There were two legal cases about the software.

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''Internetnews.com'' reported the settlement of a class action suit on May 27, 2003. Originally brought against Bonzi Software on December 4, 2002, the suit accused Bonzi of using its banner advertisements of deceptively imitating Windows computer alerts, alerting the user that their IP Address is being broadcast. In the settlement, Bonzi agreed to modify their ads so that they looked less like a Windows dialogue box and to make them more obviously advertisements.
^[10][11]

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On February 18, 2004, the Federal Trade Commission released a statement indicating that Bonzi Software, Inc. was ordered to pay $75,000 in fees, among other aspects, for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 with BonziBUDDY.⁴

References

1. Your top 10 most annoying tech products
2. "Bonzi Buddy" Creator Settles Suit Mark Hachman
3. Counter Spy's entry on BonziBuddy
4. UMG Recordings, Inc. to Pay 0,000, Bonzi Software, Inc. To Pay ,000 to Settle COPPA Civil Penalty Charges
5. ''Bonzi.com''. http://www.bonzi.com/bonzibuddy/bonzimail.asp. Retrieved July 10, 2005.
6. Five Major Categories of Spyware Robertson Barrett
7. Spyware Guide's entry on BonziBUDDY
8. ADW_BONJING.A
9. ADW_BONZIBUDDY.C
10. Bonzi Settles Deceptive Ad Suit Brian Morrissey archive.org link
11. Bonzi Hit With Deceptive-Ad Complaint Brian Morrissey archive.org link

External links

★ Official site (closed as of September 2006)

★ Scumware entry on BonziBUDDY

★ Smart Computing's removal guide

★ SiteAdvisor entry on bonzi.com

★ AppNote: Automating the installation and execution of Spybot Search & Destroy with ZENworks