Zango VS Adult Webmasters Round Two

By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

In this corner, many ticked off adult webmasters, in the other corner, Zango, spyware maker, rumor denier, general wart on the Internet. The victims, everyone with Zango on their machines, and its not just because Zango sucks either, apparently, the adult webmasters have decided to fight Zango with their websites and a redirect. Where does the redirect go? To a page with this content;

We are a group of website owners that believe it is time for you to take your PC back.

According to Zone Alarm, a well known anti-adware program, “Zango is attempting to monitor user activities on your computer. If allowed it may try to track or log keystrokes (user input), mouse movements/clicks, Web sites visited, and other user behaviors.”

We as a whole, believe this is a scourge that needs to be fought at the grassroots level. While taking over your PC browsing by Zango is not illegal, we believe in your right to be informed. When you allowed this toolbar to be installed on your PC, you inadvertently agreed to allow Zango to do this to you.

Below, you will find detailed instructions on how to remove this intrusive piece of software. Once you have completed this process, please click the “Back to the Page you Visited” Link below. Source: Adwaresucks.com

Zango’s answer? We’ll just do a popup when the users lands on that page that says;

Steve Stratz, Zango’s director of public relations, called the Zango Warning site “blatant lies and scare tactics”, and provided vnunet.com with a copy of an ad that the company will soon be running.
The ad, which is set to appear every time a user is re-directed to the Zango Warning site, tells the user “The Web page in question is designed to ’scare the surfer’, as its ‘creator’ has confessed. We at Zango have gone to great lengths to ensure that every consumer who installs our software sees, prior to installation, a fully and conspicuously disclosed plain-language notice and consent process.” Source: VitalSecurity.org

We Say: Zango would make everything a lot easier if they would just go away, but they are making too much money off of innocent users who don’t know any better. While I respect the adult webmasters for fighting back, the loser will be the end user, as I don’t think this website or Zango’s popup will be the last we hear about this. This will probably escalate and get even uglier than those Zango popups.