Society, Issues, Business, Allegedly Unethical Firms, WhenU
- Comment submitted to recent FTC hearings about spyware, alleging that WhenU software violates its own privacy policy by transmitting some of user-visited web page URLs to its own servers.
- Slashdot discussion forum takes up issues surrounding this news.
- The adware firm is no longer listed in Google and Yahoo!'s search results because of charges of 'cloaking.'
- Author presents detailed evidence to show that WhenU sends bogus search results to search engines, in violation of search engines' rules.
- EFF is asking a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court decision involving WhenU's right to provide online advertisements during web browsing. Online contact lens distributor 1-800 Contacts won that decision.
- Yahoo and Google disabled links to WhenU for "cloaking" to dupe search engines into favorably listing decoy Web pages.[ZDNet]
- According to Symantec WhenU is usually installed when one installs other software, or when one visits some websites and it can update itself without informing the user.
- A Federal Court in Virginia held that WhenU's pop-up ad didn't infringe U-Haul's trademarks and copyrights.
- "A U.S. district court judge bars WhenU from delivering pop-up ads to some Net visitors, going against decisions in favor of the software maker's controversial marketing tactics." [CNET News]
- WhenU's press release about its legal victory against Wells Fargo where the Court found that it engaged in "legitimate comparative advertising."
- In its legal motion WhenU is charging that Utah's recently enacted Spyware Control Act violates free-speech guarantees and could unfairly harm its business. [CNET]
- Gives example of how affiliate commissions are lost as web site visitors are encouraged to click on their popup offers.
- A federal judge refused to grant Wells Fargo's request to shut down the desktop advertising service. [ClickZ News]
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