Related to the ongoing discussion, I recently found in some public
discussion a quote from Aureate/Radiate response about this topic.
I'm giving it here without making my own opinion:

Uzi

Quoted response of Aureate/Radiate:

> We provide advertising technology to software companies. The advertising
> allows them to give their software away to consumers for
> free, but still generate revenue. Our advertising technology is used by
> programs like Go!Zilla, CuteFTP, GetRight, Buddyphone, and
> over 300 others.
>
> Your machine connects to our servers to update the ad data that is used in
> these software applications when you are not connected to
> the Internet. The advertisements are stored on the PC and are then displayed
> when you run the software application you have
> installed that uses our advertising technology. Our DLL is loaded when the
> browser is launched. When the DLL is loaded, we deliver
> advertisements to your computer. Please be aware that we do NOT send
> personally identifiable data unless knowingly and willingly
> volunteered to us by you. We also do not search your registry or monitor
> your web browsing.
>
> To continue to use the program you have installed that uses our advertising
> technology, this connection to our servers needs to take
> place. However, if you are no longer using the software, you can download a
> file from our site that will remove our technology from
> your system. Please go to:
> www.radiate.com/privacy/remover.html
>
> If you wish to manually remove our technology from your system, you can do
> the following. First, delete all instances of
> "amcis.dll" and "advert.dll," this will cause any connections between your
> system and our servers to stop. Please make sure your
> browser, and any software that utilizes our advertising technology, is not
> running when you delete these files.
>
> You can delete the following registry keys:
> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Aureate\
>
> You may also delete the following directories:
> amc
> amcdl
>
> Please keep in mind that if you have other programs on your machine that use
> our technology, they may cease to function without
> these files and registry keys. I hope this helps.
>
> Thanks,
> Jeremy
>
> ----
> Jeremy J. Newton, VP Corporate Development
> Radiate (formerly Aureate Media)
> www.radiate.com/
> 1916 Old Middlefield Way
> Mountain View, CA 94043

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