Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains with tons of malware

Re:Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains w... by jbk on Thursday November 24, 2022 @02:49AM (#33728767)

President of VideoLAN here.

The issue is two-fold here:

- On Google Search, Google refuses to unlist websites that are clearly promoting adware, spyware and violating the brands of Open Source projects (VLC is not the only one impacted).

In addition, the ads reported are never deleted.

- On Google Chrome, the safe browsing team refuses to flag some websites, even after long explanations about what the binaries are doing. One of the reason is that "the binaries are too big" (sic.). The other reason, is that they scan only the installer, and of course, the installer downloads other things.

This has been going on for years, at least 10.

One of the most egregious one is VLC.de which inundates the German web.

The thing is that it's not that they steal traffic (why would we care), it is that they install spyware, adware or other rootkits, all the time.

This is why I say that Google Safe Browsing is a total joke, and that Google does not care about its users security.

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Re:Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains w... by n3rv on Thursday November 24, 2022 @03:02AM (#33728841)

god bless vlc

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Re:Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains w... by handedness on Thursday November 24, 2022 @03:45AM (#33729054)

I'm not surprised. Google has knowingly hosted (and profited by) ads promoting software driver and tech support scams which target the most vulnerable customers of virtually every major hardware and software company out there, and has done so for the better part of the last two decades. This, despite the years-long protests of many of these companies.

Until there is a class action lawsuit with unprecedented punitive damages, or until regulators do their job and regulate it, nothing will change.

Anyone want to lay odds?

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Re:Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains w... by bobsmooth on Thursday November 24, 2022 @04:17AM (#33729256)

At least ublock tags vlc.de as a "badware" risk.

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Re:Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains w... by currysausage on Thursday November 24, 2022 @04:23AM (#33729295)

Seriously, uBlock Origin is the one "endpoint security" product that's actually useful. I install it on practically every machine I ever touch.

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Re:Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains w... by SanjayMehta on Thursday November 24, 2022 @04:20AM (#33729265)

Is this why India had blocked the real videolan site for months?

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Re:Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains w... by inthewings on Thursday November 24, 2022 @06:13AM (#33730014)

No. That's why this was a bigger problem in India due to Indian ban of the only legitimate source.

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Re:Videolan: Google refuses to take down or unlist domains w... by nathanaldensr on Thursday November 24, 2022 @11:50AM (#33733398)

I'm sorry your excellent efforts on this wonderful application are associated with these unethical actors.

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