U.S. Internet users lost close to $8.5 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware, and phishing scams according to Consumer Reports State of the Net Survey.The survey estimated that U.S. Internet users have replaced around 2.1 million computers over the past two years because of online threats. Internet users have a 1 in 6 chance of becoming a cybervictim, down from 1 in 4 in 2007.
The Federal Trade Commission settled a case with the sexually explicit website over its ads, which popped up with graphic content.
Sneaky pop-up ad company Zango settled with the Federal Trade Commission last November, paying $3 million in penalties and agreeing to stop duping users into downloading adware. But it appears the company is still up to its old tricks.
The I-SPY legislation that made it through the House of Representatives lacks consent provisions that could help protect consumers.
House Passes Weak Spyware Bill
The deal between Dell and Google that places Google's toolbar on new Dell PCs has OpenDNS founder and CEO David Ulevitch questioning their practices.
Researcher Ben Edelman cited a half-dozen examples of affiliate merchants being cheated by spyware, particularly by claiming commissions on organic traffic coming to those merchants.
Several video-oriented websites received illicit boosts in their traffic from third-party ad popups that occurred on people's PCs. Those machines had been infected by spyware, which powered those popups.
If you think spyware advertising is brought to you by the fly-by-night universities and homeless real estate agencies that are featured in such programs, a class-action lawsuit before the U.S. District Court of New Jersey may change your mind.
You may have heard of the Dell Computers spyware allegations involving My Way Search Assistant. But a story is making the rounds (posted on a blog from last July) that Dell charged a customer $49 to remove the unwanted program from his computer.
Advertisers who expect their Overture ad campaigns to run with certain Yahoo Searches may be surprised to find their ads running in syndicated spyware applications that render each impression as an ad click the advertiser must pay.
iEntry 10th Anniversary
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