Fergie's Tech Blog

Ben Edelman: Spyware Showing Unrequested Sexually-Explicit Images

The guru of all things Adware & Spyware, Ben Edelman, doesn't post very often over on his blog -- but when he does, they are well worth reading.

Today, Ben writes:

Are pop-up ads anything more than an annoyance? For advertisers they can certainly be a bad deal -- particularly when spyware-delivered pop-ups cheat advertisers through PPC [Pay Per Click] click fraud, PPC syndication fraud, affiliate fraud, banner farms, or other improper ways of getting paid. For users, pop-ups in overwhelming quantities may cause substantial harm -- especially because pop-up-delivering spyware reduces computer speed and reliability, and because spyware transmits sensitive user information to remote servers.

But spyware-delivered pop-ups can do more than annoy. They can also offend. Consider spyware that shows sexually-explicit (most would say, pornographic) pop-ups. When such ads appear unrequested, they're likely to be shown to users who don't want to see sexually-explicit material. It's a troubling practice -- but all too common even among "adware" vendors that claim to have improved their practices. Meanwhile, some old tricks remain -- like pop-ups with their "X" buttons off-screen, making the ads particularly hard to close.

Much more here.

posted by Fergie @ 6/22/2006 08:52:00 AM