posted on January 11, 2001 09:50:04 PM new
GREAT news. Michigan's Attorney General and EGames Inc. have come to an agreement which involves EGames removing it's third party advertising software from it's product. This software installed the "spyware" TimeSink by Conducent without the direct knowledge or consent of the user. EGames is also going to provide a patch to allow it's users to remove this TimeSink utility.
http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO56152,00.html
Hooray for my home state. Now if we can just get the others to follow suite.
posted on January 12, 2001 08:55:58 AM new
Michigan's A.G. is known as very consumer rights oriented, and has launched probes on a number data-sharing practices. MI was one of the first, if not the first, state to launch an investigation into DoubleClick a year ago, and has questioned several other companies' sharing practices as well, on several occasions. Maybe Michigan will look into the practices of eBay, Amazon, and AOL as well.
Also, for those interested, follow the links at the bottom of the cited article. They lead to at least a half-dozen other articles on data-sharing issues. Between Canada, the E.U., and consumer-rights advocates, state attorneys general and courts in the U.S., U.S. companies are starting to feel some effect, and I think it's about time they start realizing that while analyzing one's own sales trends internally is fine, selling out one's customers to other companies, especially direct marketers, is way out of hand and frankly, IMO, flat-out unethical. Besides, the money would be better spent on improving their own products and services, or at least on more honorable ways of advertising.
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
posted on January 12, 2001 09:16:55 AM new
BTW, curious name for the software: TimeSink.
I have been basically arguing that people are forced to sink time into dealing with direct marketers (tossing junk (e)mail, and dealing with pushy telemarketers and door-to-door solicitors), whether we like it or not, so the name got kind of an ironic chuckle from me when I first saw it.
"Conducent’s second technology, called the AdSDK, is providers at the early stages of development and allows product placements and other rotatable promotions directly into the game. For example a first-person shooting game may feature a scene in which the main character rounds a corner and sees a billboard. That billboard could contain an ad or promotion. When the user plays the game several weeks or a month later, he would see a different billboard, promoting a different product. Conducent’s AdGateway, enables the ads to be replaced and refreshed behind the scenes whenever the consumer goes online —even if the game is not in the CD- or DVD-ROM drive when the consumer is accessing the web."
Yet another reason for having ZoneAlarm installed. I installed it on a friend's computer (cable modem) and she was aghast at the number of programs that were attempting to access the Internet without her knowing about it.
posted on January 12, 2001 09:42:49 AM new
Hello dc9a320. I hope everything is going well for you. Yes, Michigan is very consumer rights oriented and although our winters SUCK, I'm still glad that I live here.
The only way we can make a difference and stop these unethical advertising tactics is to complain and scream to anyone that will listen and not use any of the products that install "spyware" or violate our privacy in any way. I was beginning to think there was no way to stop the privacy invasions but this issue with EGames is encouraging. It's easy to become complacent and just stop trying to defeat these scum suckers but I'm unwilling to take that approach. This is my computer which I paid for myself and I'm using my ISP connection which I am paying for myself and I have a basic right to decide what is installed on this computer and who uses my connection.
Unfortunately, even though the Michigan decision is encouraging, the direct marketers are always coming up with new ways to intrude on our privacy. The newest method involves an old problem with Microsoft's GUID and redirecting the cookies across domains. This makes the present form of cookie controls obsolete. You may want to read the following articles concerning this new travesty.
posted on January 12, 2001 09:50:00 AM newabacaxi and dc9a320, I forgot to mention that by putting *msid.msn.com in your restricted zone you will defeat the MSN situation. I guess we'll just have to keep looking for the redirects and add them as we go. I think it's becoming even more important to use a web filter when browsing.
