Intrusive Marketing
I suppose it was inevitable that aggressive sales people would invade the Internet. They have all but overwhelmed basic television which has become so larded with commercials that it's hardly worth watching. They use boiler-room techniques, and auto-dialers to call your home at meal times. They fill your mail with junk, your e-mail with spam, fish for your personal information so they can add you to their "mailing lists" (or worse), send out spyware, adware, and malware.
They think of themselves as entrepreneurs and businessmen. The people they harass see them at best as petty annoyances, and at worst as muggers.
A common instances of intrusive marketing is the tracking cookie. Normal cookies belong to the site you choose to visit, and are useful for shopping carts, sign-ins, and custom settings. But tracking cookies are set by third party sites that have banners on multiple sites. www.spywareinfo.com/
They can track you as you browse. Marketeers protest that the tracking is anonymous, and only intended to let them optimize your internet experience. But should you believe them? Spywareinfo.com notes that Double Click once bought a large database of names and addresses with the intent of identifiying indivduals, and spying on their browsing habits. The threat of lawsuits from state attorney generals evidently forestalled them. So it's clear that cookies can become an ugly privacy issue.
The normal advice to limit cookies to clean your cache on a regular basis, and block third party cookies. But that doesn't get rid of all of them. Recognizing that consumers don't like cookies and use programs to clean them out, United Virtualities is offering flash based cookies (PIE, or persistent identification element) that can't be deleted by normal cleaning.spywareinfo.com/ offers a couple of links to macromedia's flash control panel, which lets you set whether you will accept flash cookies.
There are other ways to plant spyware on your machine. One current ploy is to
"entice end users to download free software in exchange for being served advertising." “It’s intrusive, evasive and it’s just a very nasty thing to do; and it’s fast becoming one of the hottest ways to generate traffic on the Net,” says Jason McClain, president and CEO of PrimeQ Solutions, an Internet marketer and lead generator....these free applications often replace ads, redirect links and disable existing browser cookies. "revenuetoday.com
Without the end user realizing what is happening, spyware/malware can steal his attention, steal his keystrokes, see the page he is viewing, and hijack his browser, or even his computer. There are studies that show an average computer has 20 intruder programs. The widely publicized, bizarrely frightening visions of midnight Zombie computers operating under remote control make one wonder about leaving your cpu connected to the DSL while you sleep.
So how did we get from pushy ad men to internet muggers? Some people realized that there was the smell of money to be made, legally or illegally, and that most people cruising the web are babes in the woods about security. The invasive techniques that serve the purpose of the aggressive salesman, serve other purposes just as well.
The solutions to this are not clear. Software makers should make an effort to build in safeguards. But as fast as they build them, people think of ways around them. Then again, sometimes the maketeers make friends. Microsoft "softened" its position on a company which has been involved in spyware.
One partial solution is to get Firefox. It has built in pop-up blockers, controls for cookie acceptance, and extensions that let you block flash and ads (Adblock). Another is LavaSoft, which helps you look for spyware. But these tools can't help you if you open your arms and welcome intruders.
In fact, the whole cycle is a business unto itself. What would firms who make security programs would do for a living if there were no security threats?
I suppose that in time, this period of the internet will be looked upon much as we do the wild west of the early - mid 1800s, exciting, full of opportunity, a frontier community where honest people helped each other and law and order wasn't yet established. Eventually, Marshall Earp has to show up. But at the moment, the internet is something of a frontier wilderness, with lurking varlets, and highwaymen. Watch your address bar to see where you are being taken, and look out for varmints.
They think of themselves as entrepreneurs and businessmen. The people they harass see them at best as petty annoyances, and at worst as muggers.
A common instances of intrusive marketing is the tracking cookie. Normal cookies belong to the site you choose to visit, and are useful for shopping carts, sign-ins, and custom settings. But tracking cookies are set by third party sites that have banners on multiple sites. www.spywareinfo.com/
They can track you as you browse. Marketeers protest that the tracking is anonymous, and only intended to let them optimize your internet experience. But should you believe them? Spywareinfo.com notes that Double Click once bought a large database of names and addresses with the intent of identifiying indivduals, and spying on their browsing habits. The threat of lawsuits from state attorney generals evidently forestalled them. So it's clear that cookies can become an ugly privacy issue.
The normal advice to limit cookies to clean your cache on a regular basis, and block third party cookies. But that doesn't get rid of all of them. Recognizing that consumers don't like cookies and use programs to clean them out, United Virtualities is offering flash based cookies (PIE, or persistent identification element) that can't be deleted by normal cleaning.spywareinfo.com/ offers a couple of links to macromedia's flash control panel, which lets you set whether you will accept flash cookies.
There are other ways to plant spyware on your machine. One current ploy is to
"entice end users to download free software in exchange for being served advertising." “It’s intrusive, evasive and it’s just a very nasty thing to do; and it’s fast becoming one of the hottest ways to generate traffic on the Net,” says Jason McClain, president and CEO of PrimeQ Solutions, an Internet marketer and lead generator....these free applications often replace ads, redirect links and disable existing browser cookies. "revenuetoday.com
Without the end user realizing what is happening, spyware/malware can steal his attention, steal his keystrokes, see the page he is viewing, and hijack his browser, or even his computer. There are studies that show an average computer has 20 intruder programs. The widely publicized, bizarrely frightening visions of midnight Zombie computers operating under remote control make one wonder about leaving your cpu connected to the DSL while you sleep.
So how did we get from pushy ad men to internet muggers? Some people realized that there was the smell of money to be made, legally or illegally, and that most people cruising the web are babes in the woods about security. The invasive techniques that serve the purpose of the aggressive salesman, serve other purposes just as well.
The solutions to this are not clear. Software makers should make an effort to build in safeguards. But as fast as they build them, people think of ways around them. Then again, sometimes the maketeers make friends. Microsoft "softened" its position on a company which has been involved in spyware.
One partial solution is to get Firefox. It has built in pop-up blockers, controls for cookie acceptance, and extensions that let you block flash and ads (Adblock). Another is LavaSoft, which helps you look for spyware. But these tools can't help you if you open your arms and welcome intruders.
In fact, the whole cycle is a business unto itself. What would firms who make security programs would do for a living if there were no security threats?
I suppose that in time, this period of the internet will be looked upon much as we do the wild west of the early - mid 1800s, exciting, full of opportunity, a frontier community where honest people helped each other and law and order wasn't yet established. Eventually, Marshall Earp has to show up. But at the moment, the internet is something of a frontier wilderness, with lurking varlets, and highwaymen. Watch your address bar to see where you are being taken, and look out for varmints.
posted by jbell at
5:36 PM
<< Home