IAC Toolbars and Traffic Arbitrage in 2013

Beginning in 2005, I flagged serious problems with IAC/Ask.com toolbars -- including installations through security exploits and through bundles that nowhere sought user consent, installations targeting kids, rearranging users' browsers to invite unintended searches, and showing a veritable onslaught of ads. IAC's practices have changed in various respects, but the core remains as I previously described it: IAC's search advertising business exists not to solve a genuine user need or provide users with genuine assistance, but to prey on users who -- through inattention, inexperience, youth, or naivete -- stumble into IAC's properties.

Crucially, IAC remains substantially dependent on Google for monetization of IAC's search services. A rigorous application of Google's existing rules would put a stop to many of IAC's practices, and sensible updated rules -- following the stated objective of Google's existing policies -- would end much of the rest.

In this piece I examine current IAC toolbar installation practices (including targeting kids and soliciting installations when users are attempting to install security updates), the effects of IAC toolbars once installed (including excessive advertising and incomplete uninstall), and IAC's search arbitrage business. I conclude by flagging advertisements with impermissibly large clickable areas (for both toolbars and search arbitrage), and I call on Google to put an end to Ask's practices.

Read more
http://www.benedelman.org/news/012213-1.html

References

Misleading marketing: SparkTrust has a go
http://hphosts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/misleading-marketing-sparktrust-has-ago.html

Malwarebytes Unpacked: Misleading advertising
http://blog.malwarebytes.org/intelligence/2012/12/misleading-advertising/

Comodo replace malware with err - malware?
http://hphosts.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/comodo-replace-malware-with-err-malware.html

Twitter spam: IAC WebFetti
http://hphosts.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/twitter-spam-iac-webfetti.html

IAC: Still not stopping "rogue affiliates"
http://hphosts.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/iac-still-not-stopping-rogue-affiliates.html

Mindspark/IAC: Misleading marketing (again)
http://hphosts.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/mindsparkiac-misleading-marketing-again.html

Misleading marketing: Fake IM advert - Déjà Vu
http://hphosts.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/misleading-marketing-fake-im-advert.html

IAC/MindSpark: Scamming with a twist
http://hphosts.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/iacmindspark-scamming-with-twist.html

Symantec - we knew they weren't trustworthy, but this is a new low
http://hphosts.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/symantec-we-knew-they-werent.html