Please expand this article. Further information might be found in a section of the talk page or at Requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the article has been expanded.

The friendly Bonzi Buddy rotating purple gibbon that hides one of the most infamous examples of spyware.

Bonzi Buddy is an on-screen software agent from BONZI Software. It is a well-known example of spyware, with computer speed, privacy, and ease of use all affected by installing the program. When someone installs Bonzi Buddy, his or her homepage gets set to www.bonzi.com without warning or consent. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Image File history File links BonziBuddy. ... Purple is any of a group of colors intermediate between deep blue and red. ... Genera Hylobates Hoolock Nomascus Symphalangus Gibbons are the small apes that are grouped in the family Hylobatidae. ... Antispyware redirects here. ... In computer science, a software agent is an abstraction, a logical model that describes software that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency. ... Antispyware redirects here. ...

Bonzi Buddy can be installed automatically without user knowledge or consent via an ActiveX object in Internet Explorer. In programming, the Component Object Model (COM), also known as ActiveX, is a Microsoft technology for software components. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary graphical web browser made by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. ...

The user interface is a rotating purple gibbon (stated by the program itself) that swings across the screen. The ape tells jokes, reads facts, sings songs, checks the user's e-mail, and delivers voice advertisements. The interface used to be a green parrot, but was later changed to the ape interface. Children often install Bonzi Buddy, seeing the program as a fun toy instead of as an advertising program.

The Bonzi Buddy application uses Microsoft Agent technology to display the Bonzi ape on-screen and provide text-to-speech capability. Microsoft provides examples on its website for the use of Agent. ...

There are many free replacements for Bonzi Buddy without the spyware.

A class action suit was brought against Bonzi Software on December 4, 2002 due to its Banner Ads that appear to be Windows computer alerts, alerting the user that their IP Address is being broadcast. This deceptive advertising was meant to trick the user into installing Bonzi Buddy. A settlement was reached on May 27, 2003. Bonzi agreed to modify their ads so that they looked less like a Windows dialogue box and to make them more obviously advertisements. Incidentally, using a computer on the Internet without taking very specific precautions will, generally speaking, provide that computer's IP address (or the IP address of the local network's gateway) to the operators of sites being used (as well as to recipients of email messages). This of and by itself is a fairly minor security concern, though the IP address is required to conduct certain attacks against the computer. December 4 is the 338th day (339th on leap years) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web. ... An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP). ... May 27 is the 147th day (148th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 218 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Bonzi Software Owned Website Bonzi Software's new development.
• Bonzi Buddy Website Warning: Bonzi Buddy site contains spyware and may not be safe to visit !
• Scumware site on the effects of Bonzi Buddy