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Cingular, Others Fined For Using Adware

Posted by kdawson on from the about-time dept.

amigoro writes "Cingular, Priceline, and Travelocity have been fined for using adware by the New York Attorney General. The companies will each pay $30K to $35K as penalties and investigatory costs. More importantly, the companies agreed to a series of restrictions and best practices that, while they make eminent sense to consumers, will be loathsome to businesses accustomed to having their way with our computers."

27 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. How much did they make from it? by sqlrob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it was more than 30-35K, this is only a cost of doing business.

    1. Re:How much did they make from it? by poopdeville · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, but they agreed to restrictions limiting the kinds of adware they can peddle. If they violate them, they will be violating an injunction and can face very steep penalties.

      --
      After all, I am strangely colored.
    2. Re:How much did they make from it? by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Dont worry, We'll absorb their mistakes.

      Thats what sheeple are for.

      --
    3. Re:How much did they make from it? by garcia · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If it was more than 30-35K, this is only a cost of doing business.

      I'm 100% sure that Cingular/AT&T makes more than that in one minute selling the usage stats and personal information of their customers. Why the fuck isn't the AG going after them for that opt-out "experience"?

    4. Re:How much did they make from it? by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, you really oughtta read my journal. Problem is Im a known troll, and many people dont like that.

      That and also people have low intelligence and retention spans. If they understood, they would understand that Corporations pay no taxes, no fines, and no other forms of monetary penalties. Thats because it's offloaded to the customers every time.

      But *im* a troll, so nothing I write is valid.

      --
  2. How dare they use AG's adware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ["Cingular, Priceline, and Travelocity have been fined for using adware by the New York Attorney General.]

    Silly people, they should have used adware by someone other than AG himself.

  3. First we take Manhattan, then we take Lagos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now if they could only go after this Col. Motumbwe who keeps emailing me about his bank...

    1. Re:First we take Manhattan, then we take Lagos by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny

      I say we fix him up with General Abacha's widow.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  4. The money is trivial, what really hit them... by Bananatree3 · · Score: 4, Informative
    is the agreement they were forced to sign. If you RTFA:

    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.
  5. the popup comes in --- by notoriousE · · Score: 3, Funny

    "there is a problem with your registry, click here to get a NEW BLACKBERRY from Cingular!"

    --


    And then there was E
  6. meanwhile.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    .. A homeless man in N.Y.C was charged 400,000 per music download by the MAFIAA. He said he doesn't even own a computer.

  7. Thanks again to the NY Attorney General by Jeff1946 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is just one of many cases where the NY Attorney General is doing what the Federal Govt should be doing instead of taking away our rights. I would love to see a pro active US Attorney Gereral going after big business abusing consumers the way that has happened in NY. Oops I forgot he and his boss are from the party of the rich and selfish.

    1. Re:Thanks again to the NY Attorney General by The_Wilschon · · Score: 2, Funny

      I love our dual and mutually exclusive stereotypes of the Republican party. First, its the dumb hicks out in the boonies (who, btw, generally don't have a whole lot of money, generally quite a bit less than people in the cities, and furthermore are often quite nice people), then its the rich and selfish (who, btw, usually don't get to be rich and selfish by living out in the boonies and being ignorant).

      I'm not a Republican (nor am I a Democrat, yay George Washington and the no-parties-at-all-would-be-desirable stance), but I still find /.'s collective opinion of the Republican party amusing.

      --
      SIGSEGV caught, terminating

      wait... not that kind of sig.
    2. Re:Thanks again to the NY Attorney General by ffsnjb · · Score: 3, Informative

      Oops I forgot he and his boss are from the party of the rich and selfish.

      You do know that Elliot Spitzer (Governor, prior AG) and Andrew Cuomo are Democrats, right?

      --
      "Why do you consent to live in ignorance and fear?" - Bad Religion
    3. Re:Thanks again to the NY Attorney General by rednip · · Score: 2, Insightful

      but I still find /.'s collective opinion of the Republican party amusing.

      You don't have to go any father than talk radio or Fox news to see daily exercise of the over sized counter weight of republican slander of the Democratic party, hell, it's even a long standing talking point to mis-pronounce it.

      I find it amusing that whenever someone on this board 'stands up' for the Republican party, they always insist that they are, and forever have been independent, or Libertarian. I cannot recall one person on any discussion who claims to be an active loyal Republican. Anyone with an well used account want to stand up and admit not only being Republican, but an active supporter of at least their party leadership if not the Bush administration?

      --
      The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
    4. Re:Thanks again to the NY Attorney General by mr_matticus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They're not mutually exclusive, they're simply non-continuous. Those two groups you described are two of the major groups in the Republican party. That's like saying black people and Jewish people are mutually exclusive stereotypes of the Democratic party.

    5. Re:Thanks again to the NY Attorney General by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I am a Republican, an active supporter of the party leadership and an active supporter of the Bush Administration.

      What, Anonymous Coward doesn't count as a well-used account?

  8. Whose fault is it really? by ancientt · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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.

    --
    B) Eliminate all the stupid users. This is frowned upon by society.
  9. They made at least that much, according to the Mia by User+956 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, going by what they were charging this guy in Florida, they made at least that much.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  10. Fallout from HP pretexting imbroglio..... by AetherBurner · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I wonder if lessons were learned from the HP affair? Now making your contractors and subcontractors be ethical is good. This is like the seat belt law here in Wisconsin. If a car full gets pulled over and none have their belts on, the driver will only find moths left their wallet after the fines are paid. It is about time and, plus, I have absolutely no symphathy for Cingular/Southern Boys Club/Another Terrible Telephone at all - they deserved the leash. The fine is chump pocket change. Now I wonder what will happen when they inevitably screw up and the leash is pulled back hard. Now that is the question.

  11. corporations don't made decisions... by zogger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...humans do. They need to stop fining "corporations" and instead determine which named human made the offending decision, the guy who finally issued the order to do such and such offending thing, then freeze that guy's salary and compensation for five years (or more, to make sure they don't just raise it quickly to cover the loss to his check) and make that human pay the fine out of his own wallet, exactly the same as when joe sixpack gets a fine.

    1. Re:corporations don't made decisions... by JoshJ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
      Ambrose Bierce
      Correct you are.

      --
      Care about privacy? Read this!
    2. Re:corporations don't made decisions... by Mr_Tulip · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Very good point.

      I've always been of the opinion that equivalent fines and punishments should be imposed on corporations compared with persons.

      Instead of jail time, perhaps a 'cease trading' time, where the gross income of a company for a period of time is taken away by the state.

      Instead of the death penalty, a complete dissolution of the business, with all proceeds going to the state.

      Instead of an individual fine, the fine an individual would receive for the crime should be multiplied by the number of employees in the corporation.

      My $0.02 worth

    3. Re:corporations don't made decisions... by Raenex · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Very good point.

      But it seems you missed it. Humans make the bad decisions, not corporations. Those are the people who should be held responsible. Instead, what happens now is that only the corporation is punished, not the guy making decisions, except in rare cases. This has changed somewhat after Enron, but it still isn't the norm. If people were held personally responsible for their uncaring actions, they'd think twice before blindly following the corporate "make profit at all costs" culture.

      What you are arguing for is "human-like" punishment of the coporation (which already exists -- they can but shut down, fined, dissolved, etc).

  12. Badly worded summary by Ken_g6 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The summary makes it sound like these companies produced adware. Actually, it's almost the opposite. Cingular, Priceline, and Travelocity have been fined for buying advertising displayed through adware programs produced by others.

    --
    (T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
  13. Prosecutors can't 'fine' by The+Monster · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Perhaps, instead of

    Cingular, Priceline, and Travelocity have been fined for using adware by the New York Attorney General.
    what they really meant was

    Cingular, Priceline, and Travelocity have been fined by the New York Attorney General for using adware.
    No, that doesn't make sense either. A state AG can't fine anyone. He's a prosecutor, not a judge or jury. What could the true meaning of this be? Could it be that this is a settlement, agreed to by the AG and the three companies in question? Yes. Yes it could.
    --

    [100% ISO 646 Compliant]
    SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.

  14. Re:Obligatory speculation: How did this happen? by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, Cingular top executives were sitting around in a restaurant one day, and one of them said, "How can we permanently lower our sales to computer professionals?"
    -- Who gives a shit about those? said the most junior executive. They're always bitching and moaning and they nitpick through our customer service contracts. It's a crowd we'd rather not have.

    -- Yeah, that's true. Let's ditch the computer pro market, they're geeks anyways!