The folks at Zango contacted us about our blog posting triggered from the Zango/Facebook article that was posted over at Fortinet. They are not happy with the manner in which we've handled our corporate ethics when reporting this information. We'd like to reprint their comments and give them fair space here so that you hear both sides and can make an informed decision for yourself.

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It was with great disappointment that I read the blog entry entitled "Zango Slithers Through Facebook as a Worm," posted to the Lavasoft corporate site on January 14th.

Lavasoft's post obviously relied on Fortinets so-called "Advisory" issued last Wednesday with the attention-seeking headline as the basis of this post. If the Lavasoft blogger would have done additional research on his own, he would have found that the advisory is completely false as it relates to Zango. Thorough investigation by Zango security personnel reveals no silent or surreptitious installation of any software, much less any "spyware," by or in connection with the "Secret Crush" widget.

To be clear: the Secret Crush widget is not affiliated with Zango. Zango does not own it, did not manufacture it, nor bundled software with it. At no point in adding the Secret Crush widget to a Facebook profile does the widget install either spyware or Zango software, or even attempt to do so.

Your blog post mentions "Lavasofts corporate ethics" - I have a hard time understanding how regurgitating another companys misleading report without first reviewing the facts can be consistent with Lavasofts ethics. I am requesting that Lavasoft revisit this blog post after fully reviewing the facts of this issue (links provided below), and I am confident that, after reviewing the details, your team will understand our frustration with this misleading blog post and will update it accordingly.

*** As a side note, I thought your team might find the follow-up coverage of Fortinets "research" beneficial:

InfoWorld Article:

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SC Magazine:

[Link]

PaperGhost Link:

[Link]
Zango blog entry:

[Link]

Zango press release:

[Link]

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