LA Times contacts Spyware advertisers

[Rich]

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Intresting article from the LA times: - http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...or9may09.story

Until this month, Commission Junction's 70,000 affiliates included 180Solutions and a firm called Exact Advertising, which makes a "Bargain Buddy" pop-up that has been installed through a security flaw in Web browsers. Bargain Buddy recently carried ads for 1,000 merchants, including Dell Inc., British Airways and Gap Inc.

After The Times asked about the practices of Exact Advertising and 180Solutions, Commission Junction said it was going to stop doing business with both.

This doesn't quite tie in with what CJ told me over two months ago that using 180 was against the Code of Conduct (link). Although I've asked a few times this has never been publicly announced to publishers so people are probably still using them without knowing its agains the COC.

[PitBoss]

In each of those cases, the Internet ad buyers can turn to advertising networks using thousands or even tens of thousands of so-called affiliates. The networks take a percentage of the spending and give another cut to the affiliates, which range from one-person Web retailers to major companies that distribute free, ad-supported software.

The problem is that the networks and the affiliates — and the countless "sub-affiliates" working for the affiliates — have an incentive to generate the most viewers, clicks and buyers they can. That leads some of them to trick people into installing spyware that produces a never-ending stream of come-ons.

If an affiliate slips a deceptive piece of software into someone's personal computer and persuades the owner to buy something, the transaction could be passed through three or four businesses — each taking a cut — before the affiliate network hands off the customer to the merchant.

Talk about propaganda