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.
Edelman said that
while some spyware vendors are trying to clean up
their image, the core designs of a couple of
examples still behave as they always have: "They
still track user behavior, still send browsing to
their central servers, and still show pop-up ads
-- behaviors users rightly disfavor due to serious
effects on privacy and productivity."
His long-time object
of derision, Zango, showed up in one example of
claiming a commission on organic traffic. Here's
how a browsing session proceeded for him when
navigating to Blockbuster:
On May 13, my
automated testing system browsed Blockbuster.
Observing the requested traffic to Blockbuster,
Zango opened a popup sending traffic to
Roundads.com. Roundads redirected to Performics
and then back to Blockbuster.
To a typical
user, this pop-up is easy to ignore -- just a
second copy of the Blockbuster site, which users
had requested in the first place. But the pop-up
has serious cost implications for Blockbuster:
If the user signs up with Blockbuster, through
either window, then Blockbuster concludes it
should pay a $18 commission to Roundads via
Performics.
That's a sham:
Were it not for Zango's intervention,
Blockbuster could have kept the entirety of the
user's subscription fee, without paying any
commission at all.
Edelman's other
examples demonstrated how Blockbuster competitor
Netflix also experiences such illicit claims for
commissions. "Aside from reducing wasteful
advertising spending, Netflix might also want to
sever these relationships because the underlying
spyware imposes serious costs on consumers,"
Edelman said of the deal Netflix has in place for
this otherwise organic traffic.
About the
Author
David Utter is a
staff writer for
WebProNews covering technology and business.
============= SIDE NOTE ===================
Spyware is one of the fastest-growing internet threats.
According to the National Cyber Security Alliance,
spyware infects more than 90% of all PCs today.
Studies also show that spyware's prominence appears to
be greatest in the US, where 40% of the respondents have
encountered spyware at work, compared to 14% in Japan
and 23% in Germany. In all three countries, end users
from small- and medium-sized businesses reported a
greater number of encounters than larger enterprises.
To help you fight this menace we have included some
informative articles
here. Stop spyware from making your online
dream a nightmare!
Click here!
===============================================
