Ben Edelman: Spyware Showing Unrequested Sexually-Explicit Images

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

The guru of all things Adware & Spyware, Ben Edelman, doesn't post
very often over on his blog -- but when he does, they are well worth
reading.

Today, Ben writes:

[snip]

Are pop-up ads anything more than an annoyance? For advertisers they
can certainly be a bad deal -- particularly when spyware-delivered
pop-ups cheat advertisers through PPC [Pay Per Click] click fraud, PPC
syndication fraud, affiliate fraud, banner farms, or other improper
ways of getting paid. For users, pop-ups in overwhelming quantities may
cause substantial harm -- especially because pop-up-delivering spyware
reduces computer speed and reliability, and because spyware transmits
sensitive user information to remote servers.

But spyware-delivered pop-ups can do more than annoy. They can also
offend. Consider spyware that shows sexually-explicit (most would say,
pornographic) pop-ups. When such ads appear unrequested, they're likely
to be shown to users who don't want to see sexually-explicit material.
It's a troubling practice -- but all too common even among "adware"
vendors that claim to have improved their practices. Meanwhile, some
old tricks remain -- like pop-ups with their "X" buttons off-screen,
making the ads particularly hard to close.

[snip]

Much more here:
http://www.benedelman.org/news/062206-1.html

- ferg

p.s. Ben has done superlative work in publicly shaming Adware and
Spyware providers -- and showing that do not live up to their claims
of "going straight" -- check through previous postings on his blog
for some the outstanding work he has done in this area.

--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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