Priceline, Travelocity, and Cingular, three high-profile companies that advertised through nuisance adware programs have agreed to pay fines and reform their practices, according to the New York Attorney General.
“Advertisers will now be held responsible when their ads end up on consumers’ computers without full notice and consent,” Andrew Cuomo said. “Advertisers can no longer insulate themselves from liability by turning a blind eye to how their advertisements are delivered, or by placing ads through intermediaries, such as media buyers. New Yorkers have suffered enough with unwanted adware programs and this agreement goes a long way toward clamping down on this odious practice.”
In a lawsuit filed in April 2006, the Attorney General alleged that Direct Revenue installed adware programs onto millions of computers worldwide that delivered a steady stream of advertisements, monitored web sites visited by users, and collected data typed into web forms — without adequate notice or the consent of consumers.
In addition, the adware programs were difficult to remove and consumers who had previously downloaded the company’s programs without full notice and consent, known as “legacy users,” continued to receive Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular ads through those programs.
The Attorney General discovered that Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular, among others, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars delivering ads through Direct Revenue software.
The three companies have agreed to only advertise through companies that provide to consumers full disclosure of the name of the applicable adware program and any bundled software, brand each advertisement with a prominent and easily identifiable brand name or icon and fully describe the adware and obtain consumer consent to both download and run the adware.
Advertising companies must make it practicable for consumers to remove the adware from their computers, obtain consent to continue serving ads to legacy users and require their affiliates to meet all of these same requirements.
The agreements also require Priceline, Travelocity, and Cingular to engage in due diligence with respect to selecting and utilizing adware providers. Prior to contracting with a company to deliver their ads, and quarterly thereafter, the companies must investigate how their online ads are delivered.
The companies must immediately cease using adware programs that violate the settlement agreements or their own adware policies.
Under the terms of the agreements, Priceline, Travelocity, and Cingular will pay $35,000, $30,000, and $35,000, respectively, to the State of New York as penalties and investigatory costs.
Center for democracy and technology, which issued two reports last year detailing the ways in which mainstream advertisers were funding nuisance adware, applauded the settlements.
This is an absurd slap on
This is an absurd slap on the wrist. I mean, c'mon: $35K? This won't even cover the investigative costs, let alone actually serve as a deterrent. Something smells.
While I agree with the
While I agree with the approach of making the companies using invasive software change their approach, I'm dismayed that this is probably the solution most people think should be applied.
The real fault is jointly that of the OS and consumer. Allowing software with unkown ramifications is painfully stupid. If your computer is taken over by adware because you habitually just click "Ok" instead of thinking makes you deserve some of what you get.
I'm fine with penalizing companies that do bad things, but they're always going to be out there trying to find some way to shove their ad in your face. It's the same problem we see with spam, you can't stop the spammers, the only way to dramatically improve the situation is to change the behavior of the recipients.
The bigger fault is comptuer operating systems that allow software to make significant changes to the functionality of the system in adverse ways without making it clear that this kind of change is coming.
With my OS, I have to log in a root (and I'm reminded that it is a bad idea) every time in order to make those kind of changes. I appreciate the convenience of root/administrator but everything I need to do normally shouldn't and doesn't require that kind of access. That doesn't mean that my operating system is superior (although I believe it is better) it just means that the designers didn't expect me to need to trade convenience for safety. I seriously doubt users of Unix like systems have suffered from this.
I know it isn't going to happen, but I would have thought this was the best possible response if Microsoft (blind assumption but educated guess) was fined $30 for each affected system and each consumer who did something negligent was fined the same.
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Re: This is an absurd slap on
You are right Anonymous, it is absurd to think that the Attorney General of NY could perform an investigation for a mere $35,000USD. Doesn't the public realize that the cost for a resort vacation (Oh, I mean investigation) for 10 comes to at least $36,000USD when you include the rental cars and minifridge fees?
It is pretty evident that this is a case of rampant collusion between companies (no-they are corporations-more the horror) and New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The idea that three companies would agree to agree to stop using perfectly legal adware is beyond what anyone with a reasonable opinion could possibly believe.
There is nothing wrong with Direct Revenue and Smiley Central software. It is so obvious that Andrew Cuomo's identity has been usurped by (probable Canadian and closet socialist) Snidely Whiplash who is using the nightstick of government to beat down on hard working American businesses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snidely_Whiplash
Stupid.
This fine is hardly an expense to these companies , considering the revenue made off of the advertisements.
Price of the fine
Yeah they would have to really raise the price of the fine. I am just thinking about big games companies, they make a lot of money will the new games they develop and when they get a fine, let's say because they break an online infrigment, they only have to pay a few thousand dollars and get away with it.
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while i agree that this is a
while i agree that this is a very small slap on the wrist to these heavyweigth companies.. its a small step, and hopefully one of many. Im getting somewhat tired of going and fixing family computers which are full of adware/spywere.
This whole "business can screw over the consumer as long as they pay their taxes" attitude has to stop. I thought governement was "for the people"?
So, why not inact laws people want.. like controling telemarketers/spyware/spamers, and other internet scum?
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