ContextPlus has stopped their activities. This company's most known programs are PeopleOnPage and Apropos. Once installed, they will monitor the browsing behavior and send the obtained information to the ContextPlus servers. Based on the browsing behavior, the user will be faced with popups that rather conveniently reflects the user’s interest.

It is of course rather irritating if these popups are appearing all the time. During the installation of these programs, it deploys kernel mode RootKit technology to hide from the antispyware programs. As will be known to most, detection of programs that are hidden by this kind of technology is far from easy.

Companies using RootKit technology have been under fire a lot lately. Earlier this year there were serious problems for Sony and StarForce where their Digital Rights Management software deployed RootKit technology and had some nasty side-effects. Lawsuits in these cases are still pending. Maybe under the pressure of a potential lawsuit, ContextPlus has decided to stop their activity. The homepage of the ContextPlus website has been changed. It now reads:

Due to concerns over the practices of some of its distribution partners, ContextPlus has determined that it is no longer able to ensure the highest standards of quality and customer care and therefore is discontinuing further distribution of its software.

To uninstall ContextPlus, please send an email requesting an uninstaller to support@contextplus.com.

In 24 hours or less, you will receive an uninstaller file, attached to an email from ContextPlus Support, with simple instructions for uninstalling ContextPlus from your computer.

Norman has not been able to verify the claim, but it seems promising. Those who have had programs installed from ContextPlus might take them up on their offer.