Slashdot Mirror
Belkin Routers Route Users to Censorware Ad
The Register has a story today about
Belkin routers redirecting their users' network traffic.
To me, this seems like the logical next step after top-level domain name servers piping ads to your browser. Now the routers themselves hijack the traffic they are supposed to, uh, route -- and you'll love where they send you instead. But it's OK because you can opt out. Incidentally, the Crystal Ball Award goes to Seth Finkelstein, who in 2001 quoted John Gilmore's famous aphorism about the internet, and asked "What if censorship is in the router?"
..if you can disable it, and the instructions mention that you can and explain how to, is this really that big a deal?
Uh huh. Did you actually RTFA? you can turn this off in the options. Tell me, how is a product defective because you haven't configured it?
The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
It brings up a page asking you to register your purchase with them. It doesn't really send you ads.
What gets ME is that companies these days have the audacity to think they can bully us into registering ourselves with them. I'm sorry, you sold something on the public market.. I paid for it, that is all you get. You do not need to know who I am, what kind of computer I have, or anything else.
Stores asking for phone numbers and address info, every software application on earth asking you to register, and now, for fuck sakes, HARDWARE that asks you to register by not doing what it's supposed to do.
What's next.. telephones that redirect all your calls to a customer service center for registration?
Does the Belkin Router send me Spam? NO.
Recently a group of privacy advocates have targeted Belkin Routers, claiming that Belkin
Routers equipped with Parental Control send spam, unwanted advertisements and
spyware to computers.
1. Belkin Parental Control Content Filtering is promoted on our 802.11g
Wireless Router packages as an added value service included with purchase.
Parental Control filtering enables our customers to block access from their
network to specific websites; it is a content filter, nothing more.
2. During the installation process, the router produces a web page asking the
owner of the router if they want to sign up for a free six-month trial of Belkin
Parental Control, similar to common online product registration requests.
3. The Parental Control registration page is not spam, adware or spyware. It is
part of the setup process of the router. It does not "hi-jack" the browser.
4. Belkin routers do not install spyware or adware, nor does Belkin have the
ability to advertise to our customers using our routers as a conduit.
5. If a customer clicks "No Thanks" on the first prompt, the registration page
for Parental Control signup will no longer appear.
Additional Information:
- The "No Thanks" button is not a trick button that will install spyware, etc. on the
computer. If a customer is uneasy clicking "No Thanks" in the web page, to stop
the reminder, you can navigate to the Internal web page of the Router, click on
Parental Control and select "Don't Remind me Every 8 hours". This will stop the
web page from ever being displayed again.
- If the browser window is closed without clicking "No Thanks", it will be
displayed again after 8 hours has elapsed. Please note that this is not a browser
pop-up, this means that the Parental Control web page will only be displayed if
the user opens the browser. Again, Clicking "No Thanks" will stop the web page
from being displayed.
We sincerely hope that this information provides an explanation that meets your needs, if
for any reason you would like to contact Belkin directly, please email your concerns to
Kannynmc@belkin.com
Regards,
Kannyn MacRae
Business Unit Manager, Networking
Belkin Corporation
Between a company that once fucked up and caused people problems (and tried to make things right) and makes pretty dependable hardware in general, or companies that make shit products, steal open source software, or fuck around with HTTP by inserting their advertizements right into the stream?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
A lot of posters are acting outraged, like this is deliberate sabotage in the reactor control computer or something. But really, this is a consumer appliance and the vast majority of consumers won't care. The only question is, how deferential will Belkin be to the angry geeks, who probably weren't buying the product anyway? Will they pull it, or just make soothing noises? My guess is that they'll get a very low conversion rate and then pull it.
The obvious next step is to sell interstitial ads. I wonder how many commercials a normal internet user would put up with? That leads to the thought of modified routers which avoid playing the ads, which leads to DMCA-letters - but based on what? Could the advertisers claim that the router controlled access to protected content (the ads)?
In five years, companies like Belkin might be getting 80% of their revenue from advertisers. And think of the market data they can sell - they can intercept all your web and email traffic. If you send email to a friend about selling your old car, you might immediately face a full-page, blocking ad for a charity which would like you to donate the car. And the amount of the tax deduction (tailored to your car and tax bracket) could be in giant blinking nubers in the middle.
I don't think you'll fend off such a future by accusing Belkin of "violating the HTTP RFC" or something, because those words mean nothing to normal people. The idea that a router's responsibilities are sacred and cast in stone may be a good idea, but we haven't managed to explain it to normal people.