McAfee, which sells anti-virus software, this week named adware by 180solutions and Gator (the former name of adware company Claria Corp.) as two of the top 10 threats of 2004.
They posted this in the Affiliate InfoCenter (I only found it after they told me where it was when I was pushing them as to why they had only emailed merchants about the change)
Quote:
Compliance with Addendum
Subsequent to the publishing of the Addendum on Wednesday 19th May 2004, TradeDoubler has ensured that within a reasonable timeframe all adware partners, with whom we work, are compliant. In addition we agreed to investigate any claims made by any user or affiliate with regard to the contravention of this agreement.
Following some months of research, we have discovered that there are Adware companies within our network in the UK whose distribution partners contravene our Addendum. Pending full investigation of such relationships, we are withdrawing co-operation with 180Solutions and Claria.
The condition we found to be non-compliant amongst their partners is highlighted below:
In order to comply with this Addendum adware publishers must provide the following information to TradeDoubler;
A privacy policy that complies with EU directive 2002/58/EC.
An outline explaining the process of how the company increases its user base. Should the adware publisher bundle their software with other applications they must prove that they do so clearly with explicit instructions to the user on how to install and uninstall the software.
Evidence that they serve branded advertising units (i.e. the sender of the advertising is clearly marked).
TradeDoubler is not prepared to work with any adware company whose distribution partners' full compliance with the install and uninstall process is not found to be 100% transparent. As a result we will cease any activity with these companies until such time as there is full transparency and compliance with respect to their distribution deals.
Just re-reading it now, its interesting that they seem to imply that 180 & Claria wern't doing anything wrong, but it was their distribution partners who broke the rules (I assume forcing the installs).
Unfortunately the problem of affiliates using 180 is still ongoing.
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