180solutions' S3 technology broken?

According to Ben Edelman, the answer is yes.  Ben has blogged about another nonconsensual installation of 180's Zango software at an unnamed website.  There's a video, too. The install goes something like this -  Ben is surfing around and clicks on an ad that redirects him to another site, the site running exploits.  He is suddenly hit with an infected .emf file (similar to .wmf). For a split second the Zango prompt appears, then disappears before there is time to click.  Within a few more seconds, the Zango icon is visible in the system tray and the box appears confirming the Zango download.

180 touted the S3 technology as the solution to their long history of nonconsensual forced installs but now we have another installation of 180 software without consent. Readers will note is that Ben does not disclose the site where the installation occurred.  The explanation is given in the last section of his article.

But I've run out of patience for being outside quality control staff for 180solutions. An episode last month was particularly instructive: Security company FaceTime found an AOL Instant Messenger worm that was installing 180solutions. 180's response? After FaceTime reported the details, 180 trivialized the finding and issued a self-serving press release. Rather than admit that their software still becomes installed improperly, 180 danced around the issue and tried to use these wrongful installations to obtain a public relations benefit.

Indeed.  Ben is not the only one who has run out of patience with 180solutions.  As Ben notes, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) also ran out of patience and filed a complaint with the FTC detailing 180's long history of problems, their extraordinary efforts at improving their image, and apparent unwillingness and/or inability to control their distribution channels. Ben says the information will be (or in some cases has already been) provided to law enforcement officials, attorneys, reporters and spyware researchers with a legitimate need to know.