theregister.co.uk — The US consumer rights organisation named and shamed a number of firms over the practice, including Club Med Americas, uBid, PeoplePC and GreetingCards.com. It is calling on mainstream firms to become more vigilant about policing their advertising practices.
Mar 21, 2006 View in Crawl 4
absinthemindMar 21, 2006
a little off topic, but this reminds me of a link I end up sending to friends and family all the time: <a class="user" href="http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm">http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm</a>this page is constantly updated and lists all the bogus anti-spyware/malware/adware programs out there. you'd be surprised how many novice users search google for anti-whatever and buy what looks good. i keep telling people sometimes your anti- software is just as bad, if not worse when you factor in the false sense of security.great read from the CDT report; since we'll never be free of all the s**t out there, it's nice to know people are at least publishing good lists of what to stay away from. nice post OP
Closed AccountMar 21, 2006
you sir, are in idiot.
shawnanigansMar 21, 2006
Maybe Firefox should come with the SiteAdvisor extension installed by default maybe help some people out. But of course the smart people are the ones using Firefox (anything but IE really).
gurubanksMar 21, 2006
I don't see why the BBB hasn't become a more important part of the internet community than it is now. Consumer Reports too. Internet-based and tech-related companies are confusing to most people, which is where both of these organizations would help the most. They have made a serious impact on the auto industry (another industry that requires a lot of subject knowledge) and I don't see them helping consumers buy their computers and internet services.
Closed AccountMar 21, 2006
Apple seems to have a good handle on it..
geodannyMar 22, 2006
Ben Edelman has additional commentary, as well as screenshots of the ads in action. <a class="user" href="http://www.benedelman.org/news/032006-1.html">http://www.benedelman.org/news/032006-1.html</a>
Closed AccountMar 22, 2006
God, I can't believe that people are trying to bury my comment.I can't put passwords on stuff because I'd get phone calls at all hours asking me for it so they can install their newest game etc, even a complete idiot should be able to see that.The simple fact is that, unfortunatley, windows is not very useful at all unless you run in admin mode (vista fixes this thank god).The best thing I've found to do is to inform the buyer about the problem and how to avoid it; and the How Stuff Works article is perfect for this!I don't want unhappy customers comming back to me week after week because they got spyware on their system and can't get rid of it. It gives me a bad name for starters and they'd be much less inclined to reccomend me to other ppl (I rely on a lot of word of mouth, most of it positive so far).If they still get caught by malware/viruses/spyware, I feel satisfied that I gave them every opportunity to protect themselves but they didn't listen and I can charge them accordingly. But since I started leaving the article on their desktops I've gotten significantly fewer clients with problems. Thats better for me, and certainly better for them.