Quote - > Quote - manleystanley is right.

I don't know about the new DAZ installers, but the older installers were reporting personal information on pre Win 7 machines. After Win 7 came out there was a mistake in the installer that revealed two web pages, showing the personal data that was being transmitted, including the IP address, while installing the product. In pre Win 7 machines there would be a quick flash on the screen, but the customer proabably wouldn't have noticed. It was more than likely a third party company that reported to DAZ the personal statistical information. Even if you didn't run the browser the info still went out. That might be why the antiV pops up for some people, such as manleystanley.

 

According to Richard Haseltine (Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:09 pm):

Quote - The installers do, or did, check for network access but they don't use it - there's no "call home" element. It is, however, possible that the security software on your system is taking pre-emptive action and so causing the installer to fail.

Usually it is the anti-malware part of the anti-virus package that would warn you. So I grant you that this can cause problems with anti-malware/anti-viruses. Still, a false positive can be ignored when considering where the installers are coming from, it's just commonsense.

I have read a lot on this over the years and I never did see proof that DAZ was receiving personal information from installers. If you have read a post with someone showing proof of this please post the link. Otherwise I treat these as rumors. Many installer packages, including the open source releases, have the ability to allow the developer of a software to receive personal info, many installers include the code regardless if you didn't check a box to setup the feature when creating the installers (this code in the installers could be the bases for all those rumors).

Many software publishers have in the past been hammered when their installers were caught sending personal information and they suffered greatly in the press and loss reputation. Normally, you should always ask the public if it is OK to gather and send this information. Something tells me that if DAZ 3D was doing this in the past it would quickly have been reported and proven and a huge brouhaha would have ensued. I mean, DAZ 3D is getting hammered, as usual, even when moving to a new store engine. LOL!

I was not talking about rumors. I was talking about fact because I have personally experienced it. It has to do with using the old installers (as of August 2008). At the end of the install if you left the check mark for the readme the screen flashed so quickly that you couldn't see the information (like a DOS command) that redirected to a previously existing statistics server. In Win 7 the browser opened and showed the previously hidden information that was being transmitted. In XP, for example, this did not happen, so people didn't notice, but it revealed itself in Win 7. The three pages that opened are:

1. file://localhost/path of your install (readme)

Hosts:

2. http://www.data.your country code/poser

3. http://www.downloads.your country/readme's/product name

The DAZ product readme does not open in Win 7 because it's actually redirected over the other hosts. In theory, the installer sends out install time, product and install location to two servers. These send back the info to your localhost to open the readme on your machine. But, as the hosts do not exist anymore and data is not collected, the info does not get back to your machine and the readme will not open. The readme can only be opened manually from the installed folder.

It might be a fluke that this happened, but using other installers from other companies created in 2008, for example Illusions Designs product installers or any simple installers, don't show this phenomenon of opening three browser pages, two of which collect personal data. So does this mean that DAZ had corrupt installers for years without their knowledge? I don't think so.

If this was an attempt to fight piracy then DAZ should have informed their customers, beforehand, that statistical information would be sent. The DAZ installers that were made between 2001 - 2005 also do not show this phenomenon. Since hidden info is attempting to be sent, I believe manleystanleys's antiV is picking up on this and that's why he gets a warning.

Perhaps there was a quiet brouhaha over this and that's why DAZ has their latest set of installers, which as far as I can tell do not send private information to anyone. For over ten years people have been asking for zip installers, but DAZ ignored these requests. The only reason they're going to zip installers now is simply due to their new eCommerce store. That's just one of the reasons DAZ may be getting hammered. They don't really listen to their customers, or plan well, they do as they please and this is what it gets them... a good hammering.

I know you can't please all of the people all of the time, but you can please most of the people most of the time. If they cared about their customers then, for one example, they would have listened to the majority of them who have requested zip installers years ago.

I would love to shop at DAZ, but they have chosen to lock me out. I will not be forced into using software I don't want to use. They are the one's who have limited their profits. I can't use Genesis or the Gen 5 dolls because it's not Poser applicable. Their choice to limit profits, not mine.

Vive Bene.  Spesso L'Amore.  Di Risata Molto.
Live Well.  Love Often.  Laugh Much.