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Advertisers May Face Ridicule For Adware

Posted by Zonk on from the waking-up-to-reality dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A ZDNet article reports that the FTC may be gearing up to humiliate companies that advertise via adware." From the article: "The FTC would publicly announce and publish the name of a company that advertises using adware that installs itself surreptitiously on consumer PCs or using spyware, Leibowitz said. He would recommend publicly shaming advertisers to the other FTC commissioners if the adware problem doesn't decrease, he said."

5 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Wonderful idea, but could get sticky... by Audigy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can see it now... review sites all over the 'net mention this as the first item in a review of a piece of software:

    Spyware: YES

    Then again... there may be some problems related to what is considered spyware and what's not. For example, is a piece of software that "phones home" for ANY reason considered spyware?

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    1. Re:Wonderful idea, but could get sticky... by vertinox · · Score: 4, Insightful

      For example, is a piece of software that "phones home" for ANY reason considered spyware?

      If it is without the knowledge of the user, then yes, that is pretty much the definition of spyware.

      If a program pops a dialog up and says, it wants to know if its ok to send DoubleClick all my history urls and cookies and then I click yes and it phones home... Then well... I'm just dumb, but thats not spyware.

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      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    2. Re:Wonderful idea, but could get sticky... by iMaple · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For example, is a piece of software that "phones home" for ANY reason considered spyware?
      Is this an oblique reference to the latest version of ITunes ? (or the Firfox+GoogleToolbar combo which phones home upon sucessful installation?)

  2. Sounds like free advertising. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No such thing as bad publicity.

  3. Deeper Issues by Max+Threshold · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "The deeper issue, [spam lord Trevor] Hughes said, is the way online advertising is handled. Many companies let a third party take care of their advertising and that company may delegate even further, involving many people and companies before an ad gets placed."

    This isn't just an issue for spamvertisers. Delegating fundamental business processes (e.g., customer billing) to third parties seems to be a popular with all sorts of companies as a means of obfuscating procedures and dodging responsibility for mistakes. I call bullshit on all of it!