Zango Caught Lying About Targeting MySpace?

from the gee,-what-a-surprise dept

Fri, Jul 28th 2006 1:43pm — Mike Masnick

Things keep getting worse for spyware/adware firm Zango -- but it appears to be mostly of their own doing. First, a security researcher spotted the fact that someone had set up a MySpace profile trying to get other MySpace users to include videos on their MySpace profiles that just so happened to sneakily install Zango. This, of course, is from the company that claims it's completely against sneaky installs and has the technology to stop such "rogue" installs... even though they don't actually seem to stop them. In response to this discovery, besides taking some cheap shots at the researcher who was helping them by pointing out this "rogue" distributor, Zango claimed that they don't target MySpace. Specifically, a spokesperson from the company said that the profiles were created by an employee, but were a mistake: "he didn't realize it was Zango business practice not to target MySpace. He should not have been doing this, and we want to tell MySpace that we didn't mean to target them." Apparently, however, that was news to some Zango affiliates. They've now shown the original security researcher emails from Zango telling them how to target MySpace with its adware and how to try to get popular MySpace users to embed the Zango-infested videos into their MySpace profiles as well. In other words, not only was it Zango practice to target MySpace, they actively encouraged affiliates to do so. Given the company's history, it's not surprising that they would be caught saying one thing publicly while doing something entirely different -- but it's still amazing that they thought no one would catch them in this lie.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

10 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2006 @ 1:52pm

Still amazing me...
"but it's still amazing that they thought no one would catch them in this lie."

That company has amazed me at every turn. I just don't understand why they still exist. How can a company prove to the entire world that it is lying cheating and stealing, and continue to exist?

I wonder if they patented that business model... I might have to try it, it sure sounds easier than anything else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lyin Biatches..., 28 Jul 2006 @ 2:51pm

Zango is great! Leave them alone. They do nothing to harm anyone and those people need to eat too.

Move along folks, Nuthin to see here...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NwEsT, 28 Jul 2006 @ 3:30pm

Problem Solved
If these people lie so obviously, why haven't they been sued apart yet?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2006 @ 4:26pm

Re:
Zango is crap! Disembowel them all. They do nothing to help anyone and those people need to die too.

Keep watch folks, plenty to concern here...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris, 28 Jul 2006 @ 5:57pm

Flame war?
Well it sure looks like a flame war to me, post stuff that actuall has to do with the article and not your personal oppion of their company and weither they should be sued or not.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DittoBox, 30 Jul 2006 @ 10:38pm

What utter BS
"he didn't realize it was Zango business practice not to target MySpace. He should not have been doing this, and we want to tell MySpace that we didn't mean to target them."

Oh please. They claim they don't do sneaky installs but they admit that this employee was targetting MySpace -which they claim is against company policy- by signing up to get sneaky installs into pages.

What crap. What utter, total crap.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sanguine Dream, 31 Jul 2006 @ 7:04am

I
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sanguine Dream, 31 Jul 2006 @ 7:06am

Im surprised...
MySpace hasn't sued them yet. And considering that Zango has trying to get MySpace users to use their infected vids to spread their dirty wares, I think MySpace would have a decent case.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bob Dole, 31 Jul 2006 @ 10:26am

Re: They can eat ramen and spam
Great??? It's adware. It's never great. I dont care if it's adware for naked chicks, viagra, cars, mortages or computer hardware. these people need to eat? they can work at mcdonalds and steal french fries like the rest of the employees.

Their right to exist and prosper ends where my right to not have to look at their crap begins.

wait--- why do i care? it's myspace anyway. let em have it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Skwalla, 24 Aug 2008 @ 6:43am

Zango is a legal program thats fuks upp our computer read this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zango

Zango are u gays paid by FOX or someting ??
to fuck upp the Internett...
[ link to this | view in thread ]