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Jun
15
Spyware lawsuit settled
Filed Under Marketing
Intermix Media Inc. has agreed to pay the state of New York $7.5
million to settle a lawsuit charging it with bundling hidden "spyware"
along with millions of programs it gave away for free. It also agreed to discontinue distribution of its adware, redirect and tool bar programs,
all of which Intermix noted it has previously stopped distributing. Strangely enough,
Intermix did not admit any wrongdoing or liability. WTF?
Now onto the juicy bits.
These adware and spyware programs were
secretly bundled with others designed to deliver pop-up advertising or
steer Web traffic to an Intermix search engine. Since Spitzer’s initial
inquiry, Intermix also said it has created the position of chief
privacy officer and worked with federal regulators to help protect
Internet consumers.
Help protect Internet consumers?! It’s unbelievable that anyone in this day and age can use such clueless and arrogant language. All they need to stay clear of the ‘internet consumer’.
Although I have no love lost for the New York Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, I am glad he is bringing to light (and court) those that abuse the online privacy and polute computers with spyware and adware. A while ago, I noted that the mainstream advertising and marketing that in the pursuit of measurement holy grail, is wittingly or unwittingly propping up the spyware industry. The more this connection is aired the better, as it shows that that branch of advertising and marketing industry is going to be a dead one.
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2 Responses to “Spyware lawsuit settled”
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Spyware payback time..
… even though it's just one settlement in New York. Hopefully that sends a signal to the industry. Eventually.
More on spyware plague
One more post on spyware and adware, which is one of my major criticisms of advertising and marketing as its obsession with measurement of every flick of consumer's eyeball provides a fertile ground for the ad/spyware scum. Dan Gillmor explains…