Dell's Spyware Puzzle

**Qui Gon Jinn** · 23-07-04

http://www.benedelman.org/news/060404-1.html

Note a few high profile members of the affiliate industry from network and merchants have found 180 pre installed on new computers from Dell.

Also in this article, there are anumber of familiar merchant names, albeit the study may have been sometime prior to the publication of the article to things being ramped up in the UK.

Even then, this site is an interesting read.

Like the publications listed on this page

http://www.benedelman.org/publications/

**Graham@Buyagift** · 23-07-04

I have unanswered emails since May from Dell regarding their stance on Spyware et al - I am chasing again and will let you know if there's any further information.

Graham

**Ben Edelman** · 23-07-04

Thanks for the links.

I think there are at least three separate issues here:

1) Dell failed to police its affiliate program sufficiently attentively to notice that an affiliate's links were running on Gator. That's what I report on http://www.benedelman.org/news/060404-1.html .

2) Dell failed to police its affiliate program sufficiently attentively to stop the various ways 180solutions sets tracking cookiest o cause Dell to pay commissions to 180. http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/180-affiliates

3) Dell computers reportedly sometimes come with 180 software preinstalled. This is quite troubling, but also somewhat surprising. I've never heard of this problem before reading the messages immediately above, but I'd be prepared to believe it if someone can produce some kind of documentary proof.

So what conclusion to draw from all of this? My sense is that Dell needs to be more hands-on in monitoring their affiliate program to check for and stop fraud. I'm shocked that Dell ads could run for months on Gator without Dell noticing. Same for the 180 problem, which has been taking place since fall 2003 if not earlier. Dell's large average order size and relatively high commission rate (consider: 4% of a $1000 PC order is an incredible *$40* from a single order) make Dell a particularly attractive target to anyone wanting to attempt affiliate fraud. If I were Dell, I'd have quite a broad program to monitor affiliates and check on what they're doing, but I've seen little sign that Dell has any such program in place.

**Mogga** · 23-07-04

Dell run all their affiliate programs through networks don't they? They don't run it as independents, so surely some of the responsibility would be with those networks?

**Ben Edelman** · 23-07-04

Originally posted by Mogga
Dell run all their affiliate programs through networks don't they? They don't run it as independents, so surely some of the responsibility would be with those networks?

Dell's US program is run through LinkShare, yes. Certainly LinkShare could have taken action to stop what was happening, but realistically it seems that merchants generally have to address these problems for themselves. A merchant would be unwise to count on LinkShare or CJ for all its efforts on fraud control -- for there's considerable history of affiliates' bad behavior being permitted to persist (for months, years, or indefinitely) by the networks.

**Graham@Buyagift** · 23-07-04

I've shown this thread to someone from Dell, and hopefully they will come on and make some comments. AFAIK they are reliant on the network to police this.

Graham