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Cingular and Travelocity Still Advertising Through Spyware

March 20th, 2007 by Jimmy Daniels

We have talked and talked about how advertisers need to know who their partners are, who they are paying money to show their ads and where, how if they are not careful about who they partner with, they could end up as headlines and examples of what not to do for others. Cingular and Travelocity are a couple examples of what not to do when advertising on the internet, if you sign an Assurances of Discontinuance, and promise not to advertise through spyware again then you better discontinue using them. Ben Edelman has posted some examples from the many he has collected recently showing their ads being injected into Google’s web pages, into True.com’s web pages and in popup ads, showing how Cingular and Travelocity have not stopped using spyware and are being shown by some of the web’s most widespread spyware.

But despite their duties to the NYAG, both Cingular and Travelocity have failed to sever their ties with spyware vendors. As shown in the six examples below, Cingular and Travelocity continue to receive spyware-originating traffic, including traffic from some of the web’s most notorious and most widespread spyware, in direct violation of their respective Assurances of Discontinuance. That said, Priceline seems to have succeeded in substantially reducing these relationships — suggesting that Cingular and Travelocity could do better if they put forth appropriate effort.

When Cingular, Priceline, and Travelocity established relationships with Direct Revenue, they paid out large sums to this single vendor — payments that were easy to stop when the companies decided to do so. In contrast, the relationships set out in my examples will probably prove harder to prevent. Even in the simpler and more direct placements, it is doubtful that the advertisers knew (prior to receiving my reports) that their ads are, in fact, being shown through spyware. The indirect design of their placements hinders such accountability.

Even though ad networks may not readily tell advertisers where their ads are appearing, advertisers have multiple clear paths towards better oversight of their ads. A natural first step is to raise the subject with ad networks — demanding a list of an ad network’s partners and placements. When an ad network is unable or unwilling to share this information (i.e. a network offering only “blind buys”), an advertiser might rightly be suspicious — choosing to demand additional assurances or perhaps even take its business elsewhere.

Spyware advertising is not limited to the three Direct Revenue advertisers the NYAG identified. To the contrary, I see plenty of spyware-delivered advertising for other phone companies and other travel providers, as well as credit card companies, banks, and other major advertisers. I’ll post more examples in the coming months. Often, the individual relationships are small, at least in comparison with the six-digit payments made by Cingular, Priceline, and Travelocity. But, in aggregate, these fees remain a primary source of funding for spyware makers. Source: Advertising Through Spyware — After Promising To Stop

Cingular, Travelocity and Priceline paid more than $1.8 million to Direct Revenue — approximately 2% of Direct Revenue’s 2004-2005 revenues and they knew their ads were being shown by adware. Ben has detailed records of Direct Revenues financials here.

So, who is next? If you are managing a big, or even a small affiliate program, do you know where your ads are appearing, are you sure you’re not being seen by consumers as dirt bags because your ads are being popped up on their computers? Do you want to have your name associated with funding spyware from now on, as Cingular and Travelocity will be? If you are an affiliate of either of these companies, does it make you want to promote them more, less or just drop them? If you are a merchant and don’t want to see your name in headlines like this one, then you better start checking out who you partners are, where your ads are beings shown and take some responsibility, because you will be judged like you knew what you were doing anyway.

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