BonziBUDDY
Encyclopedia
BonziBUDDY, also known as Bonzi, sometimes spelled Bonzi Buddy, BonziBuddy, BONZIBuddy (misspelled Bonzai Buddy) was an on-screen "intelligent software agent
" from BONZI Software, released in 1999 and discontinued in 2005. The official website stated that the software would help a user surf the Internet by using Microsoft Agent
technology. In 1999, the software used a green parrot called Peedy licensed from Microsoft, and in later versions, BONZI Software made their own fictional character, Bonzi, who was a purple gorilla. The on-screen agent would tell jokes, facts, manage downloading using his download manager, sing songs and other functions. The user would command the character by right clicking on the character's stomach on which a menu would appear.
BonziBUDDY received wide recognition as malware
, predominantly as a piece of adware
, though claims of spyware
capabilities have been made against it. Bonzi's homepage remained open after the discontinuation of BonziBUDDY and the website disappeared at the end of 2008.
technology similar to Office Assistant
, and originally sported Peedy, a green parrot
character, before it became the purple gorilla. The software "interacts with users while they are online, providing shopping advice, jokes, and trivia." Bonzi used the voice called Sidney from the Lernout and Hauspie TTS Package for Microsoft Speech API 4.0.
The official website for the application quoted the program as:
The initial program was free. However, many functions required the purchase of add-ons.
The program was criticized by many users because of the large amounts of data it sent and received online. During 2000-2003, most Internet users still had no access to or couldn't afford high-speed internet, which forced users to keep using a 56k modem
dial-up connection. BonziBUDDY sent information to BONZI.COM's servers on what options of BonziBUDDY were used the most, how long BonziBUDDY was idle, and several other logs to ostensibly improve BonziBUDDY in its next versions. Through all the information sent, BonziBUDDY would slow down dial-up connections dramatically. In 2005, the program was heavily advertised around almost all possible advertising servers, and also was integrated with KaZaA
. BONZI.COM made over 50 different online stub download executables, and depending on the version downloaded, BonziBUDDY could also install adware
and spyware
such as Cydoor
.
One of the last newspapers to write about BonziBUDDY while it was still in distribution described it as spyware and a "scourge of the Internet". Another article found in 2006 on the BusinessWeek
website described BonziBUDDY as "the unbelievably annoying spyware trojan horse".
, stating that it contains a Backdoor Santa in that it collects information from users. Among the activities the program is said to engage in include constantly resetting the user's web browser
homepage
to bonzi.com without the user's permission, prompting and tracking various information about the user, and serving advertisements.
The Spyware Removal Database at Safer Networking (makers of Spybot – Search & Destroy) states "BonziBuddy is an Internet Explorer toolbar that may change your web browser settings, change your home page, and launch pop-up advertisements while tracking your web browsing habits."
Spyware Guide's entry on the program states that it is adware.
Anti-virus company Trend Micro
classifies the software as adware
in their spyware
/grayware listings, but not malware
.
Anti-virus company Symantec
states that BonziBUDDY may collect usage statistics when certain keywords are typed in the browser. Although Symantec refers to Bonzi as Adware, such behaviour is typical for spyware.
Software agent
In computer science, a software agent is a piece of software that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency, which derives from the Latin agere : an agreement to act on one's behalf...
" from BONZI Software, released in 1999 and discontinued in 2005. The official website stated that the software would help a user surf the Internet by using Microsoft Agent
Microsoft Agent
Microsoft Agent is a technology developed by Microsoft which employs animated characters, text-to-speech engines, and speech recognition software to enhance interaction with computer users. Thus it is an example of an embodied agent. It comes preinstalled as part of Microsoft Windows 2000 through...
technology. In 1999, the software used a green parrot called Peedy licensed from Microsoft, and in later versions, BONZI Software made their own fictional character, Bonzi, who was a purple gorilla. The on-screen agent would tell jokes, facts, manage downloading using his download manager, sing songs and other functions. The user would command the character by right clicking on the character's stomach on which a menu would appear.
BonziBUDDY received wide recognition as malware
Malware
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...
, predominantly as a piece of adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
, though claims of spyware
Spyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
capabilities have been made against it. Bonzi's homepage remained open after the discontinuation of BonziBUDDY and the website disappeared at the end of 2008.
Overview
The software used Microsoft AgentMicrosoft Agent
Microsoft Agent is a technology developed by Microsoft which employs animated characters, text-to-speech engines, and speech recognition software to enhance interaction with computer users. Thus it is an example of an embodied agent. It comes preinstalled as part of Microsoft Windows 2000 through...
technology similar to Office Assistant
Office Assistant
The Office Assistant was a Microsoft Office feature to assist users by way of an interactive animated character, which interfaced with the Office help content. It used technology initially from Microsoft Bob and later Microsoft Agent, offering advice based on Bayesian algorithms...
, and originally sported Peedy, a green parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
character, before it became the purple gorilla. The software "interacts with users while they are online, providing shopping advice, jokes, and trivia." Bonzi used the voice called Sidney from the Lernout and Hauspie TTS Package for Microsoft Speech API 4.0.
The official website for the application quoted the program as:
- He will explore the Internet with you as your very own friend and sidekick! He can talk, walk, joke, browse, search, e-mail, and download like no other friend you've ever had! He even has the ability to compare prices on the products you love and help you save money! Best of all, he's FREE!
The initial program was free. However, many functions required the purchase of add-ons.
Release history
Below is a summary of the releases of BonziBUDDY and how they have changed. During 2005, BonziBUDDY was no longer available.| Title | Version | Changes | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| BonziBUDDY | 1.0.0 | First version originally with Microsoft's green parrot, Peedy. | 1999 |
| BonziBUDDY | 2.0.0 | Updated menu, added hotkey for quiet mode. When gorilla update was made, Peedy would ask the user if they would like to update (introduce) to Bonzi, the purple gorilla. | 2000 |
| BonziBUDDY | 3.5.0 | A purple gorilla named Bonzi. New BonziWORLD Menu. Bonzi's entrance from surf board. New sound effects and animations. New jungle-like interface added. | 2000 |
| BonziBUDDY | 3.7.1 | New functions such as "Save You Money!" or "Check For Virus Alerts". Depending on next versions it might reset the homepage to www.bonzi.com and install other adware/spyware supported products. | 2001 |
| BonziBUDDY | 4.0.0.5 | Mainly Bug Fixes?. | 2004 |
| BonziBUDDY | 4.1.9 | Removal of the BonziWORLD menu and went back to the menu since 2.0. Bonzi's enterance swings from vine. | 2004 |
| BonziBUDDY | 4.1.12 | Mainly Bug Fixes. Last version before BONZI Software went out of business. | 2004 |
Criticism
In April 2007, PCWorld readers voted Bonzi Buddy 6th on a list of "the top 10 most annoying tech products". One reader was quoted as criticizing the program because it "kept popping up and obscuring things you needed to see."The program was criticized by many users because of the large amounts of data it sent and received online. During 2000-2003, most Internet users still had no access to or couldn't afford high-speed internet, which forced users to keep using a 56k modem
56K modem
56k modems are voiceband modems nominally capable of download speeds up to 56 kbit/s . In the late 1990s, they were the most popular access method for personal Internet usage, but their use had declined as broadband technologies such as DSL gained wider availability.-Speed:The 56 kbit/s...
dial-up connection. BonziBUDDY sent information to BONZI.COM's servers on what options of BonziBUDDY were used the most, how long BonziBUDDY was idle, and several other logs to ostensibly improve BonziBUDDY in its next versions. Through all the information sent, BonziBUDDY would slow down dial-up connections dramatically. In 2005, the program was heavily advertised around almost all possible advertising servers, and also was integrated with KaZaA
Kazaa
Kazaa Media Desktop started as a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks...
. BONZI.COM made over 50 different online stub download executables, and depending on the version downloaded, BonziBUDDY could also install adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
and spyware
Spyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
such as Cydoor
Cydoor
Cydoor Desktop Media is an Israeli adware company. Cydoor originally placed ads only in software programs such as Kazaa, but has now expanded into running ads on websites as an advertising network....
.
One of the last newspapers to write about BonziBUDDY while it was still in distribution described it as spyware and a "scourge of the Internet". Another article found in 2006 on the BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
website described BonziBUDDY as "the unbelievably annoying spyware trojan horse".
Adware or spyware
A number of sources identify BonziBUDDY as spyware, a claim the company disputes. In 2002 an article in Consumer Reports Web Watch labelled BonziBUDDY as spywareSpyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
, stating that it contains a Backdoor Santa in that it collects information from users. Among the activities the program is said to engage in include constantly resetting the user's web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
homepage
Homepage
A home page or homepage has various related meanings to do with web sites:* It most often refers to the initial or main web page of a web site, sometimes called the front page ....
to bonzi.com without the user's permission, prompting and tracking various information about the user, and serving advertisements.
The Spyware Removal Database at Safer Networking (makers of Spybot – Search & Destroy) states "BonziBuddy is an Internet Explorer toolbar that may change your web browser settings, change your home page, and launch pop-up advertisements while tracking your web browsing habits."
Spyware Guide's entry on the program states that it is adware.
Anti-virus company Trend Micro
Trend Micro
Trend Micro Inc. is a computer security company. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and markets Trend Micro Internet Security, Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security, OfficeScan, and other related security products and services...
classifies the software as adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
in their spyware
Spyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
/grayware listings, but not malware
Malware
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...
.
Anti-virus company Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
states that BonziBUDDY may collect usage statistics when certain keywords are typed in the browser. Although Symantec refers to Bonzi as Adware, such behaviour is typical for spyware.
Legal
There were two legal cases about the software.- Internetnews.com reported the settlement of a class action suit on May 27, 2003. Originally brought against Bonzi Software on December 4, 2002, the suit accused Bonzi of using its banner advertisements to deceptively imitate WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
computer alerts, alerting the user that their IP addressIP addressAn Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
is being broadcast. In the settlement, Bonzi agreed to modify their ads so that they looked less like a Windows dialogue box and to make them appear more like advertisements.
- On February 18, 2004, the Federal Trade Commission released a statement indicating that Bonzi Software, Inc. was ordered to pay $75,000 in fees, among other aspects, for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection ActChildren's Online Privacy Protection ActThe Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 is a United States federal law, located at .The act, effective April 21, 2000, applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S. jurisdiction from children under 13 years of age...
by collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 with BonziBUDDY.