Aluria Trys To Whitewash The WhenU Fiasco

[TeMerc]

By Robin LaudanskiMarch 2, 2006Some of you might remember back in October of 2004 Aluria Software delisted WhenU and Certified them as being Spyware Safe. Would it suprise you to find out it now appears Aluria is trying to cover their tracks? Isn't it wonderful the internet has such extensive resources that even when a company or individual tries to cover up something they did it is almost impossible to completely remove it. In previous articles written by CastleCops Staff on WhenU, Aluria and AOL there were many links going back to Aluria both to their support forums and press releases, imagine my suprise when the pages those links pointed to suddenly don't exist. In some cases the link isn't dead, rather it points to a new location eg. http://updates.aluriasoftware.com/index.ph...Certifies_WhenU That link should point to the original press release from Aluria, but it doesn't. All press related material are redirected to the same location in the same manner. Just to be clear, let's look at the information which is available. We have taken snapshots to ensure the information can't be swept under the carpet and denied in the future as it seems to be rapidly disappearing. Castle Cops============================================================

In an earlier story tonight, we've detailed how Aluria Software, now owned by publicly traded Earthlink, is taking an aggressive stance on white washing their "business relationship" with WhenU. All links to press releases and such at Aluria are now gone. Question is... what will the SEC think about this white washing? Are they trying to cover something up for accounting purposes? We have this thing called Sarbanes-Oxley, doesn't Earthlink and Aluria know?I hope the SEC roles in hard on Earthlink and Aluria for this act of white washing.

Castle Cops==================================================================And from this thread at PCMag:

Looking more closely, there's a lot in that Castle Cops article that's not quite right. It says some kind of big "whitewash" happened last night. The Alurians say that the articles not found were actually cleared out months ago during a redesign, and are working up proof using various internet archives. The product does not mark 180Solutions.Zango as consumerware (though one of four articles in the informational online database does - the other three say "elevated"). This one's a bit he-said-she-said, but David Goldstone says they didn't try to contact him until a couple hours after the article (which says he didn't respond) was posted. And so on. It sounds like somebody has a big-time grudge against Aluria, and they're taking it out by trying to keep the WhenU pot boiling. I'll post an update if/when I learn more.

Robin Laudanski of Castle Cops replies:

Hi Neil, It seems only fair since you are discussing something I've written that I be present for the discussion.In the first place I spoke with Mr. Levanto via Cell phone which I obtained by calling the San Fran office at about 6:09 PM yesterday. It was at that time I was advised that I needed to speak to David Goldstone. Mr. Levanto was unable to give me Mr. Goldstone's phone number so I called back and went through the Aluria mailbox to be routed to his inbox. Our phone records indicate that call was made at 6:14PM EST. The article wasn't published until 8:04 PM. I do have an appointment to speak with Mr. Goldstone on Tuesday at 2PM, at that time I will also ask him what he thought he would gain by not telling the truth about my attempt to reach him.We also have an image showing that Zango is marked in Red as "consumerware". This screenshot was taken last night. We don't have anything against Aluria. In point of fact we were the only people that gave them a chance to defend their decision when they decided to say that WhenU was Spyware free. We just believe that consumers have the right to make an informed decision. That decision includes knowing the track record of a company. If they choose to try to alter their own archives to strip information which relates to another company they at one time deemed as turning over a new leaf and being "Spyware Free", that is their choice. I believe it is my obligation to ensure that the information is available. That's why we take the time to take screenshots, to try to get comments, to check archives and links etc. Aluria can say whatever they want, it isn't going to change that there was information stripped from their website last night as I was writing my article and it isn't going to change the fact that they did in point of fact certify that WhenU was Spyware Free, or anything else that I stated in my article.