Norton Toolbar / Norton Identity Safe

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi Folks,

I agree with Phil on this one. There is actually a value add to this feature since the links are checked through Safe Web first. And I certainly agree that it would be nice to have an option to turn it OFF if any user so chooses.

Phil and I have been in discussion with Symantec about this and I have asked Symantec to update the documentation regarding this feature so that at least consumers will know WHY this share feature was added!

Best wishes,

Allen

[Krusty13]

Phil and Allen,

I am sorry,  but I will have to disagree.  It may not be meant as advertising,  but to me it is a superfluous feature that I will not be installing on my PC.  As mentioned many times,  we see this everywhere we turn already.  I cannot see any security enhancement with this feature,  nor do I feel I am missing out without it.

Symantec,

Customers have asked for the ability to turn OFF this feature.  Please reconsider.

Thanks,

Dave

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

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Krusty13 wrote:

Phil and Allen,

I am sorry,  but I will have to disagree.  It may not be meant as advertising,  but to me it is a superfluous feature that I will not be installing on my PC.  As mentioned many times,  we see this everywhere we turn already.  I cannot see any security enhancement with this feature,  nor do I feel I am missing out without it.

Symantec,

Customers have asked for the ability to turn OFF this feature.  Please reconsider.

Thanks,

Dave

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Hi Dave,

I certainly understand your viewpoint and initially I felt exactly the same way about the "share" button but I reconsidered simply because at least the proposed URL is vented through Safe Web to help ensure it is not a risky link. I am kind of picturing a case where someone wants to share a URL with a friend and does it through the Norton toolbar and Safe Web informs them that it may not be a safe link....then the user reconsiders and does NOT share the link. In best case scenario this could save someone else from getting infected....So yes I can see a value add to this feature.

However, I also whole heartedly agree with you that users should be able to turn it OFF if they so choose!

I also agree about bringing back the local ID safe and I've been lobbying for that as well with Symantec.

Just my two cents worth.

Best wishes.

Allen

[killyourtv]

Thanks for your efforts, Allen. I hope that you have better luck on these issues than all the people who spoke out against them. In spite of being told that our opinions were valued, Symantec did what everyone (but one, I think) asked them not to do on several issues.

Certainly no disrespect meant to Tim or any of the other employees who post here, as I'm pretty sure that they didn't have the final say on the features we all ended up with.

[elsewhere]

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AllenM wrote:

[...]

Hi Dave,

I certainly understand your viewpoint and initially I felt exactly the same way about the "share" button but I reconsidered simply because at least the proposed URL is vented through Safe Web to help ensure it is not a risky link. I am kind of picturing a case where someone wants to share a URL with a friend and does it through the Norton toolbar and Safe Web informs them that it may not be a safe link....then the user reconsiders and does NOT share the link. In best case scenario this could save someone else from getting infected....So yes I can see a value add to this feature.

However, I also whole heartedly agree with you that users should be able to turn it OFF if they so choose!

I also agree about bringing back the local ID safe and I've been lobbying for that as well with Symantec.

Just my two cents worth.

Best wishes.

Allen

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Hi AllenM

The Share icon on the Norton 2013 toolbar is adaptive and dynamically changes depending on the user's current 'Share' selection, as shown below:

Given that, and despite the tenuous example that you've given above, it's pretty clear now that this is not a Security related feature, isn't it?

What are your thoughts on this?

[tbalint444444]

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Krusty13 wrote:

Phil and Allen,

I am sorry,  but I will have to disagree.  It may not be meant as advertising,  but to me it is a superfluous feature that I will not be installing on my PC.  As mentioned many times,  we see this everywhere we turn already.  I cannot see any security enhancement with this feature,  nor do I feel I am missing out without it.

Symantec,

Customers have asked for the ability to turn OFF this feature.  Please reconsider.

Thanks,

Dave

---

I completely agree!

[JimboC]

Hi everyone,

I agree with AllenM that the Facebook URL scanner of the toolbar is a great idea for reducing infections when sharing links with other Facebook users.

Since I don’t and won’t use Facebook (I am in my 20’s but I am a little old fashioned) I think that we can simply disable the add-on from within IE (steps for doing this are given in the following link):

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Internet-Explorer-add-ons-frequently-asked-questions

I agree that this is not an ideal solution (it also disables the other benefits of the add-on) but you can also use the 64 bit version of your browser (If there is one available, Opera and IE offer 64 bit versions) if you are using a 64 bit operating system.

I also agree that we need to have a way of disabling this Facebook scanner if we don’t intend to use it (without also losing the other benefits of the add-on) since not everyone likes Facebook (me included).

Thanks.

[gibby95]

A simple solution to this would be to just allow the users to customize the toolbar and allow them to pick what features they want. The share button is out of place and very annoying and option to allow users to store there passwords locally would also be good. The toolbar needs alot of work on it.

Along with the half baked 2013 line up.

[Yoda]

Agreed.

This Facebook icon in the toolbar is just plain obnoxious.

This, added to the fact that you cant move the Norton Tollbar to where you want to put it, makes  it extremely unlikely I will renew my subscription. 

[elsewhere]

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JimboC wrote:

Hi everyone,

I agree with AllenM that the Facebook URL scanner of the toolbar is a great idea for reducing infections when sharing links with other Facebook users.

[...]

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Sorry, but the Share feature on the toolbar isn't a URL scanner; all it does is provide a mechanism to share links with others:

https://identitysafe.norton.com/features

Share

Found something interesting? Want to tell others? Share straight from Identity Safe.

Be Social.

As far as I am aware, the only way that a user will ever see the 'This site does not meet our security standards to share with this service' message is if they are actually browsing the dangerous website in question.

How is a user going to arrive on the dangerous website (example only: please don't try this)?

1. Use a search engine to locate the dangerous site.
2. Ignore the red Warning Site Safety icon that Norton has placed against the link.
3. Click the link.
4. Norton will display a full page block to prevent you from going to the dangerous website in question.
5. Ignore that and click continue to this site anyway.
6. Now that you are browsing the dangerous site, click the Share button on the toolbar to see the 'site does not meet our security standards to share' message.

In the example above, Norton clearly tried to protect the user by cautioning them against visiting the website in question. The Share button's response, in this instance, is simply protecting Norton's brand reputation by declining to share the link and politely saying to the user that "You've got to be joking...".