Cingular cell phone service - NEWS: Researcher: Cingular, Travelocity still in spyware net

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NEWS: Researcher: Cingular, Travelocity still in spyware net

John Navas

2007-03-16, 10:33 am

<http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2427/ 0...spywar
e/>

Just weeks after reaching a settlement with New York's attorney
general, AT&T Inc.'s Cingular division and Travelocity.com LP are
again being accused of having ties to spyware companies.

On Tuesday, antispyware advocate Benjamin Edelman posted research
showing how Travelocity and Cingular ads placed by spyware and adware
programs have cropped up recently.

The findings appear to show that the two companies have broken
agreements they reached with the New York Attorney General in late
January, under which they agreed to work with adware providers that
followed strict terms of service.

"Despite their duties to the [New York attorney general], both
Cingular and Travelocity have failed to sever their ties with spyware
vendors," Edelman wrote in a Tuesday blog posting.

Cingular and Travelocity also paid fines of $35,000 and $30,000,
respectively, to settle an investigation into their use of
DirectRevenue LLC's adware, which did not provide proper notice of
its data monitoring features and was difficult to remove, according
to the attorney general's office.

[MORE]

Priceline, Travelocity, Cingular Pay Small Change to Settle Adware Case
<http://www.technewsworld.com/story/55466.html>
01/30/07 1:02 PM PT

Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular have settled a lawsuit over
their secret use of adware Internet software programs as marketing
tools filed by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

As part of the settlement, Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular agreed
to pay US$35,000, $30,000 and $35,000, respectively, to New York to
cover penalties and investigatory costs. While this case won't stop
the popular practice, it should have a chilling effect on the
industry.

Facing Responsibilities

Cuomo's office, calling the settlement "groundbreaking," said it
ended a lawsuit filed against the three companies. The agreements
"mark the first time law enforcement has held advertisers responsible
for ads displayed through adware," said the attorney general's
office.

"Advertisers will now be held responsible when their ads end up on
consumers' computers without full notice and consent," Cuomo said in
the statement. "Advertisers can no longer insulate themselves from
liability by turning a blind eye to how their advertisements are
delivered, or by placing ads through intermediaries, such as media
buyers."

It called adware an "odious practice." The lawsuit was initially
filed in April 2006.

The attorney general's office launched a probe into adware provider
Direct Revenue several years ago. It discovered that Priceline,
Travelocity and Cingular, among others, "spent hundreds of thousands
of dollars delivering ads through Direct Revenue software."

New York claimed Direct Revenue systems "installed adware programs
onto millions of computers worldwide that delivered a steady stream
of advertisements, monitored Web sites visited by users, and
collected data typed into Web forms -- without adequate notice or the
consent of consumers."

...

Under the terms of the settlements, Priceline, Travelocity and
Cingular agreed to be more careful about their online advertising
practices. In part, they will provide customers with the names of any
adware programs being used, they will label all advertisements with
"prominent and easily identifiable" brand names or icons, they'll
thoroughly describe the adware and ask permission to download and run
any programs.

Also, any adware installed on a consumer's computer must be easy to
remove.

Not What They Intended

"We stopped using Direct Revenue about a year and a half ago, before
October of 2005," Cingular spokesperson Mark Siegel told the
E-Commerce Times. "When we used them, they assured us that customers
would either be able to opt out or, if they did use it, they could
opt out with ease. We couldn't agree with that whole premise more.
Consumers should be in complete control."

Cingular currently uses no adware, according to Siegel.

[MORE]

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

John Navas

2007-03-16, 10:33 am

The Plot To Hijack Your Computer
They watch you surf the Web. They plague you with pop-up ads.
Then they cripple your hard drive
<http://www.businessweek.com/magazin...ss_magz
n>

Consumers have strong opinions about Direct Revenue's software. "If I
ever meet anyone from your company, I will kill you," a person who
identified himself as James Chang said in an e-mail to Direct Revenue
last summer. "I will f------ kill you and your families." Such
sentiments aren't unusual. "You people are EVIL personified," Kevin
Horton wrote around the same time. "I would like the four hours of my
life back I have wasted trying to get your stupid uninvited software
off my now crippled system."

Sifting through a stack of customer complaints in June, 2005, a
Direct Revenue employee decided to tally the most frequently used
words of aggression: "die" (103 times), "f------" (44), and "kill"
(15). Douglas Kee, then Direct Revenue's chief of quality assurance
(QA), ribbed colleagues in an e-mail that with all the death threats,
it was a "good thing QA sits farthest away from the entrance."

According to angry consumers and the New York State Attorney General,
Direct Revenue makes "spyware." These programs track where you go on
the Internet and clutter your screen with annoying pop-up
advertisements for everything from pornography to wireless phone
plans. Spyware can get stuck in your computer's hard drive as you
shop, chat, or download a song. It might arrive attached to that
clever video you just nabbed at no charge. Web security company
McAfee Inc. estimates that nearly three-quarters of all sites listed
in response to Internet searches for popular phrases like "free
screen savers" or "digital music" attempt to install some form of
advertising software in visitors' computers. Once lodged there,
spyware can sap a PC's processing power, slow its functioning, and
even cause it to crash.

This explains the vitriol aimed at Direct Revenue. The company,
located in a loft above a clothing boutique in New York's hip SoHo
district, has been a pioneer in a seamy corner of the booming Net
advertising industry. Although it is small by some corporate
standards, having generated sales of about $100 million since its
start in 2002, its programs have burrowed into nearly 100 million
computers and produced billions of pop-up ads.

Direct Revenue's swift rise illustrates the intertwining of spyware
and mainstream online marketing. The Web is the hottest game in
advertising, but what's rarely acknowledged is the extent to which
unsavory pop-ups boost the returns. Here's how it often works:
Sellers of advertising, ranging from giant Yahoo! Inc. to
much smaller networks, recruit clients, tally the clicks their ads
generate, and charge accordingly. But then Yahoo and the other
advertising companies sign up partners that distribute the ads beyond
their own sites in return for a fee, and those partners sign up other
partners. Down the line, a big piece of the business winds up in the
hands of outfits like Direct Revenue, which disseminate the ads as
pop-ups and share revenue with their more mainstream partners. Some
advertisers say their messages have appeared in pop-ups without their
permission. Others seek out pop-ups, and Direct Revenue frequently
sells ads directly to such advertisers.

Spyware rakes in an estimated $2 billion a year in revenue, or about
11% of all Internet ad business, says the research firm IT-Harvest.
Direct Revenue's direct customers have included such giants as Delta
Air Lines and Cingular Wireless. It has sold millions of
dollars of advertising passed along by Yahoo. And Direct Revenue has
received venture capital from the likes of Insight Venture Partners,
a respected New York investment firm.

[MUCH MUCH MORE]

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

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