Searching for (Unintentional) Supporters of Spyware? Try Google
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It's a journalistic dictum that, in order to get to the bottom of something, one should follow the money. Spyware researcher Ben Edelman used high technology to discover who is using that hated method to advertise, and thus keeping spyware makers in business. This led to a chain of money whose links may surprise you -- and illustrate a larger issue in the tangled web of online advertising.
I don’t know anyone who uses a computer who actually likes spyware. This often malicious software downloads itself to a computer, frequently without the user’s knowledge or consent. Once it settles itself in, it may do anything from showing unwanted ads to monitoring a user’s online behavior and sending information about it back to the spyware maker. Sometimes it will combine these two acts, by monitoring a user’s Web clicks and showing ads related to the kinds of websites visited. Whatever else it does, spyware usually slows down a computer’s performance, and may cause other problems.
If nobody likes spyware, how and why do spyware makers stay in business? As with many Internet-related businesses, they receive revenue from advertisers for showing their commercial messages. One would think that many reputable businesses would refuse to advertise through spyware. While one school of advertising maintains that even annoying ads are useful because at least you’re making an impression, I would think most businesses realize that an annoyed potential customer is someone who will spend their money with competitors. If any ad displayed by spyware is by definition annoying, why spend the money to advertise in that way?
The answer, apparently, is that a lot of businesses are not doing this directly. What happens is that they deal with an intermediary who handles the placement of their advertising. That intermediary might even go through another intermediary, who then goes to a spyware company. Everyone in this line gets paid, so the money goes from the business, through the chain, to the spyware company. As a result, the business in question might not realize that it is paying for its ads to be displayed by spyware, albeit indirectly. Even worse, the business itself might be actively anti-spyware, horrified at the thought of anyone who would use such tactics, and even engaged in lawsuits against spyware companies –- and still discover, much to its chagrin, that some of its advertising dollars support spyware companies.
This scenario is not nearly as unlikely as you might think. In fact, Harvard law student and spyware researcher Ben Edelman recently made some surprising discoveries in this very area. In late May, he revealed some of his findings in a post that left egg on the face of one of the world’s most respected online companies.
Next: Say it isn’t so, Ben! >>
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