To keep from having to go through a potentially lengthy and expensive trial, Cingular Wireless (T), Travelocity (TSG) and Priceline (PCLN) reached an agreement with the New York State Attorney General's office to pay fines for the use of adware in their advertising campaigns.
The latest settlement on Monday was with Cingular, which agreed to pay $35,000 in fines in exchange for the lawsuit being dropped. Priceline and Travelocity had already worked their deals in the last quarter of last year, with Priceline paying out $35,000 and Travelocity $30,000.
The lawsuit was filed against the adware provider Direct Revenue originally and included Priceline, Cingular, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Monster.com (MNST), and United Airlines which used the company's adware. The charge was that the ad-serving software was installed without consumers knowing or agreeing to it.
As part of the agreement, the three companies agreed that they wouldn't work with adware companies that didn't have measures in place to prevent non-consensual adware installation.
There was no admission by the companies that anything that the Attorney General had found was accurate.
It's a commendable agreement. But are Cingular and Travelocity actually complying? My tests indicate not: I've found plenty of examples of Cingular and Travelocity ads still appearing through spyware installed without user consent -- and even through spyware that injects ads into others' sites without those sites' permission.
Details, screenshots, and packet logs: "Advertising Through Spyware -- After Promising To Stop"
Posted by: Ben Edelman | March 14, 2007 9:15 AM | Permalink to Comment