Federal Trade Commission Charges and Settlement
On January 23, 2006 a public advocacy group filed two official complaints with the Federal Trade Commission. The Center for Democracy and Technology complaints charged 180solutions with engaging in unfair and deceptive business practices, deliberately duping Internet users into downloading intrusive advertising software.
In 2006 the Federal Trade Commission charged Zango with "Deceptive Failure to Disclose Adware", "Unfair Installation of Adware", and "Unfair Uninstall Practices" in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Since the FTC ruling, security researchers continued to find Zango involved in problematic installs.
In November 2006 Zango settled this complaint via a consent decree with the FTC, without formally admitting guilt. In the words of the Federal Trade Commission press release, "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." These restrictions remain in force for twenty years. The agreement also requires respondents Keith Smith and Daniel Todd to notify the FTC of the discontinuance of their current business or employment, or of their affiliation with any new business or employment, for ten years.
In July 2007 Edelman said, "Zango continues numerous practices likely to confuse, deceive, or otherwise harm typical users as well as practices specifically contrary to Zango's obligations under its November 2006 settlement with the FTC."
Read more about this topic: Zango (company)
Famous quotes containing the words federal, trade, commission, charges and/or settlement:
“Newsmen believe that news is a tacitly acknowledged fourth branch of the federal system. This is why most news about government sounds as if it were federally mandated—serious, bulky and blandly worthwhile, like a high-fiber diet set in type.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“A nose, kind sir! Sure, Mother Nature,
With all her freaks, ne’er formed this feature.
If such were mine, I’d try and trade it,
And swear the gods had never made it.”
—Susanna Moodie (1803–1885)
“Yesterday the Electoral Commission decided not to go behind the papers filed with the Vice-President in the case of Florida.... I read the arguments in the Congressional Record and can’t see how lawyers can differ on the question. But the decision is by a strictly party vote—eight Republicans against seven Democrats! It shows the strength of party ties.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“I have never injured anybody with a mordant poem; my
verse contains charges against nobody. Ingenuous, I have
shunned wit steeped in venom—not a letter of mine is dipped
in poisonous jest.”
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
“The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new—whether it be the settlement of new lands or the initiation of new ways of life—is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)