p2pnet.net News:- "Wouldn’t it be nice if someone found a network of websites apparently designed to do nothing else but spread Adware around Myspace?" – asked Vitalsecurity.org in July. "Not only that, but get the innocent end-users themselves to do the job of pushing that Adware for the guy making all the money, without informing them of the Adware’s presence in the first place?"

Enter Zango! on Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace.com.

Surely not!?

But Yes! And now the Federal Trade Commission has fined the company $3 million for, "unfairly and deceptively downloading its software onto consumers’ computers," says the Associated Press, going on:

"The FTC charged that from 2002 to 2005 Zango distributed its adware through a large network of affiliate companies that promised free content, such as games, screensavers and Web browser upgrades. Zango’s advertising software was then bundled with the free content and unknowingly downloaded by the user. The program would monitor the user’s Internet surfing and offer pop-up ads based on sites the user visited, the FTC said.

"Zango’s third-party distributors also exploited gaps in online security systems to install the software without consumers’ knowledge and made the program difficult to remove by disguising it, the FTC said. In all, Zango’s program was installed on computers over 70 million times and caused more than 6.9 billion pop-up ads to appear, the FTC said in its complaint."

Zango is also barred from serving pop-ups, "or otherwise contacting a consumer’s computer if Zango’s adware was installed on that computer prior to Jan. 1," says AP, adding:

"The FTC also prohibited the company from installing software without a consumer’s express consent, which it defined as ‘clear and prominent disclosure’ of the terms of the software installation, separate from any end-user license agreement and prior to ‘consumer activation of the download’."

Also See:
spread Adware – Zinged by Zango, July 11, 2006
Associated Press – FTC fines adware firm $3M, November 3, 2006

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