Ben Edelman: How Vonage Funds Spyware

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

Ben Edelman:

[snip]

I ought to be a Vonage enthusiast. I support Vonage's efforts to
protect network neutrality. I applaud their flexible voice over IP
service and their efforts to compete with incumbent phone companies.
I'm even a VoIP customer (albeit using a competitor's service).

But instead of praising Vonage, I have to criticize them -- not for
their core business (which seems robust) or for their customer service
(which others have repeatedly criticized), but for their reckless
advertising practices. Vonage spends huge amounts on advertising --
more than $20 million per month. (source) Unfortunately, among this
spending is widespread and substantial spyware-delivered advertising.

For years, my manual and automated testing have documented Vonage ads
appearing in all the major spyware programs. Now that Vonage has
completed its IPO -- itself promoted as a way to raise more money to
buy more advertising -- this page presents twelve recent examples of
Vonage ads appearing in spyware.

[snip]

More here:
http://www.benedelman.org/news/071806-1.html

- ferg


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


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