I purchased a DivX product recently and it just did an automatic upgrade. As I clicked through the Continue dialogs to let it do the upgrade I thought I saw the word Norton flash for a moment and thought to myself, "They are not going to ask me to install a Norton product are they?" Well, the upgrade process finished and didn't ask me to install Norton so I was happy that they didn't try that underhanded crap I've seen others do.
Well, six hours later a Norton Security dialog pops up telling me to run a scan. DivX had obviously installed Norton on my computer in the background secretly without my permission and without my specific consent. Had I been a naive user I would not have known what to do to uninstall it. And had I not uninstalled it I wonder what kind of crap messages it would have try to sell me on. Would Norton have said "YOU HAVE VIRUSES"? Would Norton have disabled my computer had I not purchased the upgrade? Quite frankly, at this point I believe Norton is capable of any kind of unethical email spammer type behavior.
I am uninstalling DivX and will never use it again. I have used Norton products for decades, but will never purchase another one again. I am informing everyone I know of how low Norton and DivX have fallen and I am writing the Washington Attorney General to inform them of Norton's unethical behavior.
A quick Google search revealed this despicable partnership between Norton and DivX is not new, hence I copied the title from a previous posting on these forums to let everyone know this behavior is continuing.
When I reboot my computer Norton Security had better not automatically reinstall itself. If it does, that classifies it as an intentionally installed virus and both DivX and Norton face a class-action lawsuit from my lawyer friend.