Zango Gets a Late Spanking

By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

The FTC announced today that Zango and two principals, Keith Smith and Daniel Todd, have agreed to settle charges from the FTC that they suck, have always sucked and will continue to suck, but just not as much.

Zango, Inc., formerly known as 180solutions, Inc., one of the world’s largest distributors of adware, and two principals have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they used unfair and deceptive methods to download adware and obstruct consumers from removing it, in violation of federal law. The settlement bars future downloads of Zango’s adware without consumers’ consent, requires Zango to provide a way for consumers to remove the adware, and requires them to give up $3 million in ill-gotten gains.

“Consumers’ computers belong to them, and they shouldn’t have to accept any content they don’t want,” said Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “If consumers choose to receive pop-up ads, so be it. But it violates federal law to secretly install software that forces consumers to get pop-ups that disrupt their computer use.” Source: FTC

We Say: Well it does make me want to purchase the complaint and consent order and frame it. Although the 3 million is chump change when you consider the amount of money they have earned from stuffing their software on unsuspecting users, it is a moral victory of some sort, and does set some standards by which the FTC can judge other companies. From a Wired blog, Ben Edelman says they still continue the bad practices, and he wouldn’t say it without proof.

180 continues plenty of bad practices, including some unlabeled ads, materially misleading installations that fail to disclose key aspects of 180’s effects, and installation attempts predicated on security exploits.

I commend the FTC’s efforts here, but serious diligence will be required to assure that 180 actually complies with its many obligations under the settlement. At this instant, I am confident that 180 is not in compliance. Source: 27b stroke 6

I’m sure we’ll be seeing more from Edelman on the subject, and I’m sure the Paper Ghost will be able to find some goodies for us as well. The agreement will be in public comment for 30 days, beginning today and continuing through December 5, after which the Commission will decide whether to make it final. Comments should be addressed to the FTC, Office of the Secretary, Room H-135, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.

More here.