• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, May 17, 2005

Consumers who spend significant amounts of time online view ad-serving software as both pervasive and problematic, according to new research by The Ponemon Institute scheduled to be unveiled today. Yet, while consumers disliked adware/spyware, they also revealed that they didn't understand ad-serving programs. Many consumers admitted that they didn't know how such programs got on their hard drives; many also acknowledged that they downloaded free programs without reading the end-user license agreement.

"It appears that people are just confused," said Larry Ponemon, chairman of the Ponemon Institute. "They don't understand spyware; they don't understand where it's coming from; they probably don't understand how it's being used."

Overall, more than eight out of 10 heavy Internet users--84 percent--said their computers have been infected with spyware in the last year, according to the report, "National Spyware Survey," which was sponsored by Unisys.

The study, based on a Web survey conducted this month and in April of 1,944 consumers who are online at least an hour each day, also found that 42 percent of infected users had "no idea" how the unwanted programs had landed on their computer. A smaller proportion--38 percent--attributed the infestation to having downloaded free software, while 8 percent said a spyware program downloaded automatically when they visited a site.

At the same time, the majority of respondents--61 percent--didn't remember consenting to adware, and almost all--97 percent--didn't recall giving permission for spyware.

The main reason why consumers were uncertain about how ad-serving programs ended up on their hard drives appeared to be that consumers didn't read the end-user license agreements before installing free software.

Ninety percent of respondents said they had downloaded free programs, with 61 percent of that group downloading music file-sharing programs such as Napster or Grokster, and 56 percent downloading games. At the same time, 87 percent of respondents said they don't read license agreements before doing downloads. The vast majority said that the agreements take too long to read, and are too difficult to understand.

When asked how companies that give away free software make money, almost half--45 percent--admitted they had "no idea," showing a lack of understanding of the economics of online media, Ponemon said. "It's Internet economics 101. Nothing is free," he said.

Ponemon added that follow-up telephone interviews revealed that some consumers believe that the fees they pay to their Internet Service Providers entitle them to free software downloads.