Symantec's Norton Products Offer No Protection For Consumer's Wallets

Today’s technological advancements render many products obsolete soon after you leave the store. However, it is rare that a product will intentionally render itself obsolete, and completely cease functioning, just a year after purchase.

Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Internet Security, Norton 360, and similar protection products (the "Norton Products") do just that — self-destruct.

The Norton Products not only risk becoming dated after a year, Symantec deliberately programs the software to completely cease functioning and become non-operational at that time. Consumers relying on the Norton Products to protect their computers from viruses, malware, and other security threats are left completely exposed unless they agree to"renew" their "subscription".

While many consumers understand that Norton Products, as with other computer security products, rely on periodic updates to ensure that they protect against the latest cyber threats, and that those updates may be obtained as part of a subscription program, Symantec has taken this model even further subjecting use of the entire software product to a subscription. Under Symantec’s model, consumers are not actually purchasing the software, they are instead purchasing a limited one-year license to use the software.

Worse, diligent consumers who elect to renew their subscription prior to its expiration, to ensure there is no intervening period during which their computer may be exposed to a security risk, lose the balance of their original subscription. For example, if a consumer installed a Norton Product on July 1, 2010, the subscription will expire and the software will deactivate on July 1, 2011. A diligent consumer may elect to renew their subscription on June 1, 2011 — one month in advance — to ensure there is no lapse in security. As a result, the consumer will lose the remaining month of the subscription period from their original purchase and their current subscription will expire on June 1, 2012, rather than in July.

Over time, with annual renewals, consumers risk paying for, and not receiving, months (and even years) of subscription use of the Norton Products.

If you or someone you know uses Norton Products, please contact us to discuss your legal rights.

http://www.immunet.com Alex Smith

Till yet i have faced no problem with norton antivirus the only one is that it slows down the speed of computer except this it really works good
David Harrington

I have had Norton Anti-Virus programs for at least 16 years straight. The software always functioned after my yearly subscription to weekly virus updates expired. This gave me substantial protection until I got around to updating my subscription. (i.e. The program checked for virusses using the previous 10,000 virus definitions in the data base instead of the 10,032 that would be there after a weekly update). Now, for the first time, my software becomes inoperable on the day my subscription expires, leaving me with no protection. In my view I paid twice for two different things … first, for an operating software, and second, for a one-year (in my case a two-year) subscription to weekly virus definition updates. Not having the second should not make the first inoperable. I paid for the first, and that program should continue to run without built-in internal triggers that make it inoperable.