Advertising.com Settles FTC Adware Charges
An AP newswire article, via The Washington Post, reports that:
Advertising.com Inc., a unit of Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, agreed to settle federal charges that the company offered free security software without adequately disclosing that it also came with adware.
Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Advertising.com will be required to "clearly and prominently" disclose that consumers who install the program, SpyBlast, will receive pop-up ads based on their Internet browsing habits.
The settlement also requires that Advertising.com comply with standard record-keeping and other provisions to allow the FTC to monitor compliance with the order. The proposed consent order doesn't cover AOL, which bought Advertising.com for $435 million in 2004.
The FTC complaint charged that when consumers installed SpyBlast _ a software intended to protect against hackers _ they were not required to read the agreement alerting users about receiving potential marketing messages.
posted by Fergie @ 8/03/2005 01:40:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home