Do you ever read the End User License Agreement (EULA) and Privacy Policy whenever you want to install a program or software, especially free apps such as free smileys or free smilies for instant messaging client (MSN / Windows Live / Yahoo Messenger), or free sexy babes screensaver, or free attractive animated cursors, or apps to keep track of your login and passwords information and etc. Most of these kind of free software, and growing number of programs and applications have been known to effortlessly install adware, spyware and other malicious programs into your computer, with your own permission, when you agree to the EULA and Privacy Policy presented to you during installation.

Almost all of the software now asks for your agreement to the terms of the End User License Agreement (EULA), which nobody reads anyway, due to the facts that most EULAs is cumbersome, lengthy and difficult for those without legal background to comprehend. Most people just check or select a box the certifying that they have read and understand the agreement, thus making anything stated in the EULA as legit and binding. However, some software and apps may states in their EULA that they can install spyware to collect and share your personal information, adware to randomly pop-up ads windows, and even change the terms and conditions of EULA without notice. So by agreeing to such EULA, you’re explicitly allowing spyware and adware to be installed onto your own PC.

So how to avoid such a situation? Read the EULA, and don’t install the programs if EULA stating any dubious activities or wrong intention or install other bundled components, right? But who wants to read the boring EULA which may spans multiple pages and have to scroll in a small window to read it? With EULAlyzer, such situation can be avoided.

EULAlyzer is a free utility that analyzes license agreements and looks for potentially interesting words and phrases to discover whether the software will install adware component that displays pop-up ads, or spyware that transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you, or other malicious activities, and provides the users for a detailed listing.

According to EULAlyzer publisher JavaCoolSoftware, the features and benefits of EULAlyzer include:

  • Discover potentially hidden behavior about the software you’re going to install
  • Pick up on things you missed when reading license agreements
  • Keep a saved database of the license agreements you view
  • Instant results – super-fast analysis in just a second

Once you download and install EULAlyzer, you can start and run EULAlyzer by double clicking on EULAlyzer magnifying glass icon. To analyze any EULA, simply activate the process by click the “Analyze” option on the left column of the EULAlyzer window, and dragging the “+” icon over the EULA to be analyzed. The EULA agreement will then be copied, pasted and appeared on the EULAlyzer window. Due to the fact that you have to drag and drop the “+” cursor, sometime, it’s easier to position the EULAlyzer and the EULA on the installer to be side by side that can be visible at the same time. Or else you have to manually copy and paste the EULA from the source such as installer window or EULA file into the EULAlyzer analysis box.

Once the text of EULA is in the EULAlyzer window, click on the “Analyze” button and the summary of the results will be displayed. The report will contains “interesting phrases” and “Interest Score”, which ranks according to the ‘dangerous level’ of the EULA. However, bear in mind the EULAlyzer is not foolproof, and may have false positive. You can always click on “Goto” for any items found to be suspicious to review the original text. EULAlyzer also does not make any legal interpretation of the EULA, nor does it recommend actions need to be taken.

Users can also submit license agreements scanned to EULA Research Center to allows the developer to further improve the program.

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