Coding Horror exposes password theft in G-Archiver

The Coding Horror today wrote up a disturbing story sent in to them by a reader, who discovered that a (paid) Gmail archive tool, G-Archiver, was harvesting people’s Gmail user names and passwords and emailing them to (presumably) the creator of the software. Deeply unethical, and possibly malicious.

It’s disappointing to see that the app is still available for purchase from Brothersoft - (shareware $29.95). I’d hope that anyone selling this app will remove it from sale ASAP. It looks like well over 1,000 people had their Gmail accounts compromised - so hopefully an apology and explanation will follow from the publisher of the app.

I did a quick search of the Lifehacker archives, and it doesn’t look like we’ve ever discussed or recommended G-Archiver. But it’s worth noting - and remembering to take care that you trust where your apps came from!

A Question of Programming Ethics [Coding Horror]