CDT: Big Brands 'Unwittingly' Spread Adware

When adware purveyors serve pop-up ads for Fortune 500 companies or other well-known consumer brands, it's often done without the companies' knowledge, according to a new report by the advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology.

"Well-known companies are helping to spread ... unwanted adware, often unwittingly, by paying to have their ads displayed by nuisance or harmful adware programs," stated the report. "Many high-profile companies are unaware of this problem because the chain of intermediaries involved in moving ads from marketers to adware applications can be incredibly complex."

For the study, "Follow the Money II: The Role of Intermediaries in Adware Advertising," the CDT installed ad-serving software by Zango and Direct Revenue--two large adware companies that the CDT believes "have engaged in unfair and deceptive practices"--and then examined 390 ads served over 10 days in May. The study was a follow-up to a report issued in March that named some of the largest companies to use adware to market themselves.

The majority of ads examined by the CDT in May--55 percent--were placed directly by marketers. But large well-known consumer brands--which accounted for 52 ads (14 percent)--uniformly placed their ads through ad networks and affiliates, according to the report. The CDT recommended that marketers develop ad placement policies and that they insist that the ad networks they work with also adhere to those policies.

In a blog post, Zango criticized the report. Specifically, Zango took issue with the CDT's methodology and its characterization of its adware as a "nuisance." "Zango's desktop advertising software is far from 'unwanted,'" the company wrote. "Every day more than 200,000 consumers freely choose to download Zango in order to access an ever-larger library of sought-after online videos, games, music, Internet tools and utilities."

Consumer advocates have long targeted Zango and Direct Revenue, alleging that they have a pattern of distributing their pop-up serving software to consumers without first obtaining their consent.

The CDT filed a complaint against Zango with the FTC in March, charging that Zango (formerly known as 180solutions) engages in "distribution practices that appear to be broadly unethical and in many cases, illegal."

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently sued Direct Revenue for its alleged prior installation practices.

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