Adware Firm Still Deceptive
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A $3 million fine isn't enough to stop adware company Zango from installing software without consent, critics charge. They want the government to keep hounding the miscreants. In 27B Stroke 6.
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Are drug companies using deceptive marketing? Connecticut is investigating.
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Will companies that make antispyware software detect key loggers implanted by federal agents? We survey 13 companies and include their answers verbatim.
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Saddling up money mules Popular UK-based free ads website Adzooks is inadvertently helping fraudsters by failing to properly screen job offers for obvious cons, anti-fraud activists have warned.â¦
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German company challenges the search giant's AdWords program.
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Company is still fiddling with its "trusted" PC security technology but says some version of it will be in new Windows.
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A tool has been posted online that can apparently crack Vista's activation process by applying brute force -- and lots of time -- to come up with valid product keys. But the author is now telling users it's wrong to use it.
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Resellers are accused of selling products with fake Certificate of Authenticity labels.
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iNuisance Miscreants have created a proof-of-concept sample of adware that targets Apple Mac OS X users.â¦
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Net providers in the UK are resisting calls for them to police what customers do online.
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The leading sugar substitute is under attack by competitors for deceptive advertising.
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E-mail message falsely claims that tool detects, cleans up adult-related material on your PC.
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A consumer advocacy group is blasting RealNetworks for installing adware and other software without properly notifying its users.In a report published Thursday, StopBadware.org faults the latest version of RealPlayer for secretly installing its Rhapsody Player Engine during the RealPlayer installation.&quot;RealPlayer 11 does not disclose that it installs Rhapsody Player Engine, and does not remove the software when RealPlayer is uninstalled,&quot; Stopbadware says in the report.Rhapsody Player Engine is required to access RealNetwork&#39;s online music service. But because users are not told that they have installed the product it could become a liability, using up the computer&#39;s hard-drive space or processing power, or even creating a security risk for consumers if bugs are discovered in Rhapsody, said Maxim Weinstein, StopBadware&#39;s manager.Both RealPlayer 11 and the older RealPlayer 10.5 software are both considered &quot;badware,&quot; the report states.Real Player 10.5 suffers from a different issue, however. Users who download the software without filling out the RealNetworks product registration page end up with a piece of software called Message Center, which then proceeds to deliver ads to the user&#39;s computer. &quot;It&#39;s installing, essentially, a piece of adware without giving users information about that up front,&quot; Weinstein said.RealNetworks spokesman Ryan Luckin said a check-box on the registration page is used to notify users that Message Center would be installed. Users who clicked through the registration page without filling out any information would have the software installed.Although the issue was fixed in version 11 of the player, RealPlayer 10.5 is automatically downloaded via the Firefox browser&#39;s &quot;Missing Plug-in&quot; feature and is still widely used, Weinstein said.Until RealNetworks is up-front with users about what software they&#39;re actually downloading, StopBadware recommends that consumers avoid its media player.Luckin called the Rhapsody issue an oversight. &quot;The fact that when you uninstall RealPlayer we don&#39;t go back and uninstall Rhapsody is an oversight and is something we should address in the future,&quot; he said.A widely used alternative to Apple&#39;s QuickTime and Microsoft&#39;s Windows Media Player, RealPlayer has a history of making invasive changes to users&#39; computers. The Message Center software has come under fire in the past, and in 1999 computer security consultant Richard Smith discovered that the software was quietly sending information to RealNetworks servers.StopBadware&#39;s findings apply only to the Windows versions of RealPlayer&#39;s software, Weinstein said. RealPlayer also runs on other operating systems, including Mac OS X and Linux.Supported with funding from Google, Lenovo and Sun Microsystems, StopBadware evaluates software and warns consumers of products that engage in deceptive behavior, such as tracking user behavior or installing programs without telling consumers.Although RealPlayer 10.5&#39;s Message Center feature may be more noticeable and annoying, Weinstein said Real Networks should fix both problems as soon as possible. &quot;It&#39;s hard to say that one is worse,&quot; he said. &quot;They&#39;re really two sides of the same concept of just not telling users what&#39;s going on.&quot;
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Plus: Google apps for your site, and HP's pretexting debacle.
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Microsoft is taking action against US resellers who are using dodgy Certificates of Authenticity (COA) to pass off counterfeit software as the real deal.
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(InfoWorld) - Cingular Wireless, Priceline.com, and Travelocity.com have settled with New York State's attorney general after the state accused them of contributing toÂ the spread of adware. The companies agreed to pay fines and take steps to help keep adware off users' PCs but did not admit guilt in the case. It marked the first time law enforcement had held advertisers responsible for ads delivered via adware, according to a statement by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office. DirectRevenue actually installed the adware, which monitored users' Web activity and collected data they typed onto Web forms in addition to delivering ads, the attorney general's office said. The adware was very hard to remove from PCs, it alleged. The stateÂ sued DirectRevenueÂ in April 2006 but found that the three big-name companies and others had paid the third party hundreds of thousands of dollars to have their ads delivered via adware, it said. The attorney general found the companies engaged in deceptive business practices. "Advertisers can no longer insulate themselves from liability by turning a blind eye to how their advertisements are delivered," Cuomo said in a prepared statement. Under the agreement reached Monday, the advertisers will have to ensure any company that delivers their ads online does the following: -- discloses the name of any adware program and bundled software; -- brands each ad with a prominent brand name or icon; -- describes the adware and gets the user's consent to download and run it; -- makes it practical for users to remove the adware; -- obtains consent to keep sending ads to users who used to have the adware on their systems; -- make their affiliates meet all these requirements. The three companies also will make payments for penalties and investigatory costs, the state said: Priceline and Cingular will each pay $35,000 and Travelocity will pay $30,000.
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Google Inc. appears to be doing reasonably well protecting advertisers from scam artists preying upon the Internet's largest marketing network, but it remains unclear how much the system is being bilked under a ruse known as click fraud, according to an independent report filed in court Friday.