Slashdot Mirror
DoubleClick Gets Into Spam
keytoe writes: "Well, just when we thought everyone's favorite Privacy Snoop was starting to mellow out a bit, we discover this little tidbit. DoubleClick
is now branching out from the ad serving business into the SPAM business due to the fact that direct email marketing 'is one of the few forms of Internet advertising that is thriving.' Using DARTmail, you can now target your bulk mailings 'based on profile data.' I wonder which profiling data they're talking about. Perhaps, say, all
the data they've been collecting for years?"
A good /.ing should show them how we feel about this, but for god sakes, remember to disable your cookies before you go there...
... anyone see any mail from it yet? I want to know what new host to add to pipe directly to /dev/null.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
I for one am looking forward to the "Nu-Spam". Since I have a B.S. already, I'll get ads from only the finest in unaccredited masters degree programs. Also, just think of the targeted pr0n. No more brunettes thanks, only the red-headed barely-legal college girls will send me invitations to meet them and their roommates on-line...
Just wait till some crappy band steals your nic.
Well, at least now if I recieve 50 porn emails, those emails will be specifically targeted to my porn needs, ensuring that I'll be able to find the porn I want faster and with greater reliability. When a company that destroys your privacy has your best interests in mind it really warms your heart.
Since Doubleclick is now turned 'spammer' Does this mean that their entire subnet will be blacklisted from the net? :) I suppose, when I start getting spam from them, I can just e-mail their upstream provider (probably UU.NET) and have them pull the plug. No more spyware banners, no more junkmail, and all is well in the world! :)
Personally, I think this is an excellent move! WTG DoubleClick, spam yourselves into oblivion, please!
The (Hopefully) Great Slashdot Blackout
I thought the saying was: "You'll catch more chicks with semen than with urine." Just me?
For pete sake, if I purchased all the products or services offered in spam, I'd be one highly educated, rich, successful, hung to my knee, always hard, in great shape, sexual tyrannosaurus.
Well, if you'd really be one of those... why haven't you purchased the products yet? Or are you already a highly educated, rich, successful, hung to my knee, always hard, in great shape, sexual tyrannosaurus?
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Now DoubleClick and all related networks can end up on the various blackhole lists, so we can start seeing their advertisements and cookies disappear! Rock on!
To tie into the previous stories, how about creating a profile that includes the following people.
Are unemployed
Use the Internet
Claim to own their own business
Spent time in a dungeon in Europe for sending unsolicited e-mail
Discovered that technology has reduced the response rate to their mass mailings to near 0%
We take this profile and tell DoubleClick to mail every piece of spam to people who match all of these criteria. If all goes correctly, the number of addresses to be hit is one, and that lucky person is Bernard Shifman.
...I'll continue to have an inbox filled with pr0n spam. How is that news?
Hopefully, it will all come from the same domain or sender so it's easily filtered.
Oooh...and for irony's sake, they could distribute it using DARTmail!
Hi Friend,
Do you hate SPAM. Are you sick of direct marketers sending you a seemingly endless stream of stupid offers? If so, click here [links to software program to update the hosts file].
If you would prefer to be hung like a horse, see young, virgin, barely legal redheads or get a masters degree through the mail from a fully accreditted college, click here [links to a message explaining why responding to SPAM is bad]
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
Dearest Timothy & Slashdot crew, Can we make an effort to get your terminology up to speed? I find it troubling that you guys tend to try and get us all worked up by using misleading phrases in the headlines. SPAM = unsolicited email The service these guys are offering is solicited when users download software, fill out magazine subscriptions, etc. I don't see where this is spam. Is all email businesses send to obtain clients considered spam by slashdot? I hope not. I would hope we were a bit more educated than that.
To my fellow readers, please don't fall for Timothy's silly attempt at enraging you. Go ahead and mod me down, but I just disagree with misleading posts. They do nobody any good and a company's image some harm, and for no good reason. Victor
Hades - February 25, 2002 (AP) - Dante Alighieri returned from the dead today to appear at a press conference announcing a new Circle of Hell component to accommodate Internet Spam providers. The new Circle, 8.5, will house spammers and marketers who have been deluging internet users with allegedly helpful emails, up to hundreds per day. "We thought long and hard about simply tossing them into Bolgia 9 or Bolgia 10," Alighieri said, "they are certainly Sowers of Discord and Inpersonators, but they also have elements of Alchemists - trying to turn base electrons into gold. For these reasons, it was simpler to give them their own new Circle - 8.5, than to try and winnow out the separate elements." Alighieri's assistants at eDante Enterprises reiterated the choice - saying "We were going to implement a system of distribution into the existing Circles, based on the contents of the message headers, but we feel they deserve their own place - right near the edge of the pit. Plus, have you seen some of these headers?" The existing denizens of adjoining Bolgias have 90 days to file protests, which eDante representatives say are already coming in fast and furious. "The most common complaint has been 'eeeeew - spammers?!' and that's mostly from the Evil Counselors in Circle 8 and Traitors in Circle 9." Doubleclick, and Cantor and Siegel were unavailable for comment.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Tried going to the link but no avail. Then I realized my .hosts file! Doubleclick is set to 127.0.0.1 :)
Can anyone mail the actual text?
Hah! Ever since a Nigerian businessman dumped $38 million in my bank account and we split the proceeds 50:50 I have never bought porn or printer cartidges any other way
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Their arguments amounted to "Everyone else is doing it, so why can't we?"
Hmm. How about: "Because if you do, I personally will kick the shit out of you. It's pretty hard to know where a spammer is, since they're usually so elusive, so if I get a chance, I'll make the most of it"?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."