Searching for (Unintentional) Supporters of Spyware? Try Google - Following the Money
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Why does this matter? It’s very simple: money makes the world go around, and that’s especially true in advertising. If spyware and adware weren’t making money for someone, we’d see much less of it. When the money is coming, even indirectly, from a source as large as Google, spyware correspondingly flourishes, and it could be a long time indeed before we see the end of it.
The issue is worse than that, however. As Edelman explained, “while other intermediaries often withhold from making claims about the quality of the sites they track or serve, Google tells its advertisers that sites showing Google ads are ‘high-quality’ and ‘reviewed and monitored according to…rigorous standards.’” Businesses working with Google therefore expect a certain adherence to ethics when it comes to the placement of their ads. They certainly do not expect that their AdSense ads will later show up displayed by software that was loaded onto a PC without the user’s knowledge or consent.
They are right to expect better from Google. You see, part of the reason that Google can tell its advertisers that only “high-quality” sites show AdSense ads is because of the conditions it places on its AdSense partners. Item five lists prohibited uses; it states in part that AdSense partners “shall not, and shall not authorize or encourage any third party to…(vi) directly or indirectly access, launch and/or activate Ads, Links or Search results through or from, or otherwise incorporate the Ads, Links or Search Results in, any software application…” As Edelman observed, an AdSense site hiring 180 surely counts as authorization and encouragement to show the site’s AdSense ads within a software application.
Some online advertising intermediaries act in a way that seems to indicate they are aware that this isn’t entirely kosher. Edelman uses the example of Top3offers.com. This company pays 180solutions to show Top3offers URLs. Top3offers sends the traffic received from the 180solutions ads to Yahoo Personals –- but not directly. First, it goes through a Commission Junction tracking link. If Yahoo or Commission Junction search their advertiser databases, they won’t find 180solutions…and, more than likely, they never asked Top3offers to do this. According to Edelman, this example is merely one among hundreds, maybe thousands of advertising intermediaries that use similar techniques.
It gets worse. Toolbars are also a form of software, and not all toolbars are entirely reputable. Surprisingly, the Ask Jeeves toolbar, which uses Google advertising, breaks a Google guideline for its advertising partners. This guideline states “software should not trick you into installing it.” According to Edelman, the Ask Jeeves toolbar is installed without consent as part of the iMesh and Kazaa P2P file sharing applications, among others.
Instead of punishing Ask Jeeves for this egregious behavior, Google rewards it –- and the rewards literally keep Ask Jeeves in business. In a recent 10-Q, Ask Jeeves revealed that it receives 74 percent of its total revenue from Google. This amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Ask Jeeves is just one AdSense partner –- and it has a good reputation, at that.
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