DrewWilson
April 26th, 2009, 02:17 PM
With those words, Ken Smith the CEO of adware company Zango/180solutions signaled the end of an industry that consumers never wanted and the end of a company that CDT found to be engaging in unfair and deceptive practices, a claim substantiated by the company’s record $3 million settlement with the FTC 10 months later.
At the CDT Gala last month, FTC Chairman Leibowitz foreshadowed this development suggesting that this “iniquitous business model has been mostly eradicated.”
The adware companies always tried to take advantage of the worst practices of mainstream players on the Internet to create a new “gray area” to do business in where they could install software without proper notice or consent; pop up advertisements at users while they were on the Web; and keep users from being able to uninstall their software. Those of us fighting this business model realized that these practices may never be completely eliminated. Instead, our goal was to ensure that companies had to chose between following good practices or becoming completely illegitimate. Remember that in 2005, Zango was the #7 fastest growing company in America according to Inc Magazine growing at over 1000% for two years. Companies that were engaging in these practices that receiving venture capital from legitimate investors and advertising from mainstream companies were the immediate threat to the Internet.
There are many reasons for this victory
More... (http://blog.cdt.org/2009/04/23/what-went-right-in-the-fight-against-nuisance-adware/#comments)
At the CDT Gala last month, FTC Chairman Leibowitz foreshadowed this development suggesting that this “iniquitous business model has been mostly eradicated.”
The adware companies always tried to take advantage of the worst practices of mainstream players on the Internet to create a new “gray area” to do business in where they could install software without proper notice or consent; pop up advertisements at users while they were on the Web; and keep users from being able to uninstall their software. Those of us fighting this business model realized that these practices may never be completely eliminated. Instead, our goal was to ensure that companies had to chose between following good practices or becoming completely illegitimate. Remember that in 2005, Zango was the #7 fastest growing company in America according to Inc Magazine growing at over 1000% for two years. Companies that were engaging in these practices that receiving venture capital from legitimate investors and advertising from mainstream companies were the immediate threat to the Internet.
There are many reasons for this victory
More... (http://blog.cdt.org/2009/04/23/what-went-right-in-the-fight-against-nuisance-adware/#comments)