Final draft of spyware press release - sent today

[giveasyouget]

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here we go, this is what i've just sent out to a whole load of publications - of course i'll let you all know how it goes

The average infected user has 2-3 spyware programs installed without
their knowledge, and the worst case surveyed had 25 illicit programs
running on their machine.

This is a critical issue for a website like GiveAsYouGet.net, which
allows users to raise money for charity free when shopping online or
searching the web, by taking the advertising commissions earned and
donating them to charity.

"These programs pose a real risk to Internet users, violating their
privacy and crashing their machines" said Jonny Platt, the owner of
GiveAsYouGet.net "It is a betrayal of the users' trust and it is
extraordinary that some companies are collecting data in such an underhand
manner"

"By stealing revenue from sites across the web these programs threaten
many of the free information sites that make the Internet such a useful
resource."

The software, which is usually installed alongside free software without the
users' knowledge, or through tricking the user into installing it with
intrusive pop up adverts when surfing, poses a significant threat to the
users' privacy.

Once installed this software will track a user's behaviour online - not just
the sites they visit but also the data they submit to websites (including phone numbers,
passwords and credit card numbers) and send it back to advertising companies
who sell these details at a profit.

They also increase the amount of advertising a user will see, with
intrusive popups appearing when visiting targeted websites
or those that contain certain key words. Often when viewing one website
adverts will be displayed for a competitor.

Worse still, some of the software leaves security holes in a machine
making it easy for hackers to gain access, others are simply badly written,
slowing a machine down and making it prone to crashes.

While these programs are not detected by conventional virus scanners
removal is quick and painless. More information and free utilities to
detect and destroy these programs are available from
http://www.giveasyouget.net/spyware.php

Fortunately this will not affect the future of charity fundraising sites
such as GiveAsYouGet, which is growing so fast it raised twice as much in April
as in March this year. Steps have already been taken to thwart the adware, but as Jonny Platt pointed out, "We have done our utmost to prevent charity funds going astray by
switching to ethical advertising networks, but we cannot be 100% certain they
are safe until users are made aware and dis-infect their machines."

Thankfully, spyware will have no effect upon conventional online donations to charity
made by credit card.

ENDS

Contact Details:
Jonny Platt
Email: jonnyplatt@giveasyouget.net
URL: http://www.giveasyouget.net/press.php
Tel: 07092 036644
Address:
21E Lewes Court
University of Sussex
Falmer
BN1 9RU


Notes to Editor:

GiveAsYouGet.net (URL: http://www.giveasyouget.net/ ) is a price
comparison service and search engine that
helps users find the best deal on the web and then donates the
commissions it receives - from 3 to 25% of the order - to charity, at no
extra cost to the user. Additionally, simply by visiting sites through the
GiveAsYouGet search engine a user can raise money for charity without
buying a thing.

This quarter (1st April - 31st June) GiveAsYouGet.net is raising money
for Action Against Hunger.

More information on Spyware and how to remove it can be found at
http://www.giveasyouget.net/spyware.php . The two recommended free
removal tools are Spybot Seek & Destroy ( http://www.safer-
networking.org/ ) and AdAware ( http://www.lavasoft.de )

The research was carried out in an anonymous survey of 62,330 computers
browsing GiveAsYouGet.net and a network of other sites between the 14th
and 28th of April. In total 21,683 machines - 34.79% - were infected with spyware
with a total of 51,581 instances of spyware installed. The average
number of applications installed on one PC was 2.38

The main companies profiting from intrusive advertising in the UK are: Claria
(Formerly Gator), 180 Solutions and WhenU. The two main advertising
agencies who continue to work with these companies are Tradedoubler
( http://www.tradedoubler.co.uk ) and Commission Junction (
http://www.cj.com )

The contacts I mailed it to were: (in case people don't want go hunting for contacts next time they're promoting something)

Technical sites:
mailtoress.releases@theregister.co.uk
http://www.ectnews.com/perl/contact_...l?to=editorial
mailto:newsnet@vnu.co.uk
mailto:mailroomuk@zdnet.com
mailto:cbreditorial@computerwire.co.uk
mailto:editorial@silicon.com
mailto:mike_zimmerman@ziffdavis.com
send-us-news-tips@cnet.com
mailtoress.releases@theinquirer
http://slashdot.org/submit.pl.net

UK newspapers and radio:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/ma...ILNEWS&grid=P9
mailtonline@guardian.co.uk
mailto:home@guardian.co.uk
mailto:mirrornews@mgn.co.uk
mailto:iblog@mirror.co.uk
mailto:talkback@the-sun.co.uk
mailto:home.news@thetimes.co.uk
mailtonline.editor@thetimes.co.uk
news@metro.co.uk
mailto:editor@thisislondon.co.uk
newsonline@bbc.co.uk
mailto:newseditor@independent.co.uk
mailto:news@theherald.co.uk
http://members.scotsman.com/contact.cfm
mailto:editor@itn.co.uk
mailto:radio@itn.co.uk
mailto:news@irn.co.uk


There's a couple of duplicates in there where i've emailed things to the online section and the main paper, but I hope this helps other peeps promoting their sites in the future.

[giveasyouget]

oh yeah you'll probably want to send things to

copy@pa.press.net
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/
http://www.prweb.com/

as well

Cheers!

[Rich]

Good luck with it Jonny and thanks for sharing the contact list, I'm sure it'll come in useful at some point.

[drivetowin]

Well done on the press release (and thanks for the list of email addresses - very useful for future reference).

Think though that you should have got it proof read first - noticed a couple of typos - most glaring one is 31st June but as its only in the editors notes hopefully it won't detract from your main message.

Please dont take this negatively though - very good idea to push this forward - the charity angle could well give your release the edge.

[giveasyouget]

oh **** i noticed that in an earlier copy and corrected it, must have not saved that one.

balls.


.. oh no, it's ok, it is correct- this quarter *is* the 1st april - 31st june! Still got a month and a half till we change charities.

but before I'd written something like

"this april we raised twice as much as june this year"

fortunately i didn't leave that in cos that wouldn't have made an awful lot of sense.

hope u find a good use for them emails

[drivetowin]

Errm - how many days are there in June?

[giveasyouget]

haha ok fair point

[angelabx]

Nice one - let us know if it gets published anywhere.