Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Update on Zango "Secret Crush" on Facebook
Yesterday I quoted a MediaPost article that described how a "Secret Crush widget on Facebook was installing adware featuring ads for Zango among others.Zango has since claimed that the widget was not theirs, and that they were in no way affiliate with it though some of the pop-up ads it inflicted on users came from Zango.
Per a Zango e-mail to me today:
"Contrary to Fortinet’s advisory posted late last week that falsely claimed that Zango software was being surreptitiously installed by the “Secret Crush” Facebook widget, at no point while adding the Secret Crush application to a Facebook profile did the widget attempt to install Zango software. Neither does the application install any third-party software."
I asked attorney/professor/adware expert Ben Edelman, who has tracked Zango's past actions, to weigh in on the situation.
Ben's e-mail to reads in part:
It seems everyone agrees that what happened was as follows: A deceptive Facebook widget spread quickly based on dubious claims about friends who "might have a crush on you." The widget's effects included showing users a variety of ads -- some of them legitimate, others dubious at best. One of these ads promoted Zango. Zango claims users only received its software if they clicked through a consent procedure. That may be true, as far as it goes. But the installation procedure, taken as a whole, is deceptive. In particular, the installation procedure is predicated on dubious or false statements (friends that "have a crush" even when the app has no reason to think they do), and the installation occurs in a context likely to trick, confuse, or deceive users about the true nature, purpose, and effects of the software at issue. All in all, it's nothing to celebrate.
I commend Facebook's response. Facebook rightly refused to allow such deceptive ads to appear in its system. It seems that future Zango ads will probably also be unwelcome at Facebook -- whether placed directly or placed through intermediaries like this widget...
"... In more recent testing, I have found explicit Zango ads shown to users who showed no interest in sexually-explicit materials, and I have found Zango ads served up by spyware installed without consent. Zango needs to be more careful where and how its ads are shown -- not through misleading Facebook widgets, not through spyware, and not in other ways that reflect badly on Zango."
Posted By John Gartner at 11:36 PM
Permanent Link: Update on Zango "Secret Crush" on Facebook
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