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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."

10 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.

      --
  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. 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.
  4. 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.

  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

  8. 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?