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Online Ad Company Fined for Deceptive Adware Use

A US-based company, Zango, has been accused of secretly installing software into the computer systems of millions of users. Once these programs were installed, they tracked the surfing habits of users and introduced pop up ads into their systems. The Federal Commission Trade reached a settlement with the company, which will have to pay $3-million in damages. Zango will also need to seek consent before installing software in PC?s and create an easy removal system if users don?t want the software anymore.

The FTC claims that Zango installed the illegal adware more than 70 million times, which essentially caused close to 7-billion pop up ads. Zango used third parties to install adware into computers, through the use of screensavers, games and browser updates. Pop up ads then regularly appeared on consumers? systems, based on the sites which they visited. Once installed, the software was extremely difficult to track, locate and remove ? causing endless frustration for users.

While Zango?s CEO stated that he deeply regretted the negative impact of the adware, he also blamed third party affiliates for the problem. He said that he welcomed the new standards and would continue to abide by FTC policy, claiming that it had been doing so since January of this year. FTC?s Bureau of Consumer Protection said that it violates federal law to secretly install software into the systems of unsuspecting users.