Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Reliability of products reviewed by CNET

Jul 4, 2012 1:16AM PDT

Hi,

Can someone on CNET comment on the reliability of Software products reviewed by CNET. CNET reviews software from large as well as small time vendors and provides their review ratings. By reliability, my question is around whether CNET (as part of its review) verifies that the software is not a malware or does something behind the scenes (like send or steal data out without anyone's knowledge). The one product I am in particular interested in knowing is "Duplicate Cleaner Pro" by Digital Volcano.

Thank you
AK

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
On the bright side.
Jul 4, 2012 2:15AM PDT

If you do find something bad, we have a man on the inside that works hard to get it removed.

Since there are thousands of titles and the review was done months ago or even days ago, there is no way to say that the maker didn't update it with something you didn't want.
Bob

- Collapse -
It would have helped if...
Jul 4, 2012 4:23AM PDT

Thanks for your response... While I understand the magnitude of work that would be involved if CNET were to review and continuously verify if any of their previously softwares remained malware free, it would have helped if software vendors were required to go through some certification or agreements to ensure that their products would continue to remain free of any malwares. For this particular vendor, I found Duplicate Cleaner Pro 3.0.6 "Certified" as clean by Softpedia.com. Does anyone know about the reliability of Softpedia's certification reliability OR does CNET give out such certifications to the software versions they evaluate.

AK

- Collapse -
I'm going with no.
Jul 5, 2012 8:10AM PDT

With how litigious folk can be today, such would not hold much value. You are better off looking at the user comments on a few sites.

This may change as Microsoft drops the bomb on apps in Windows 8.
Bob