Spitzer, Intermix Agree To Spyware Settlement
- by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, June 16, 2005
Intermix also has said it will permanently stop distributing adware, redirect and toolbar programs, adding that it already had voluntarily stopped distributing such programs before the lawsuit was filed. Intermix has also created a chief privacy officer position and joined the Network Advertising Initiative.
Assuming the agreement goes through, the deal will bring to a speedy end one of the few adware-related lawsuits brought to date.
In April, Spitzer accused the Los Angeles, Calif.-based Intermix of both surreptitiously installing adware and burying notice of its downloadable adware programs in the fine print of its end-user license agreement. The complaint alleged that an investigator with the Attorney General's office examined the company across seven Web sites for four months, and found that Intermix bundled its ad-serving software with software such as screensavers and games, without adequately informing consumers that they would receive pop-up ads after downloading the programs.
At the time, the move surprised industry observers because, they said, many adware companies' license agreements are similar to the one allegedly used by Intermix. "The practices that the New York State Attorney General has identified as unfair and deceptive and objectionable are practices that are very common in the adware industry," adware researcher Eric Howes, who runs the site Spyware Warrior.com, told OnlineMediaDaily at the time.
Lydia Parnes, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, last month praised Spitzer for bringing the lawsuit. Speaking at a spyware conference in New York convened by the Network Advertising Initiative, Parnes characterized the alleged behavior of Intermix Media as a "textbook case" of deceptive advertising. "The New York Attorney General's office is to be congratulated," she told the audience.
