Zango not guilty on spyware charges

Spyware bad, adware OK, says court.

Adware-supported 'online media company' Zango has had accusations of using spyware dashed by a Chicago, Illinois court. The class action case, brought a little under a year ago, has been dismissed without chance of appeal.

Zango, sued under former name 180solutions, serves up video, music, games and other entertainment content using a proprietory display tool, which also serves up ads as part of what it calls its 'content economy'. The company claims to 'engage' over 20 million people, and to sign up 200,000 users per day.

Zango's products have seen frequent accusations of spyware tactics, such as installing without proper declarations and making changes to browsers, and have been seen masquerading as, among other things, weather report notifiers. The company's advertising has also been accused of not providing a visible 'close' button.

Read Zango's description of its distribution methods here, and its press release on the court case here.

Find out more about the spyware problem at the Virus Bulletin conference (11-13 October, Montréal), where Jeff Williams (Microsoft) will present his paper 'I know what you did last logon: keystroke logging, spyware and privacy'.

See the full programme here or click here to register now.

8 September 2006

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