Study: Spyware Profiting Off Google Ads

A Harvard law student studying the effects of spyware accused Google of funding spyware earlier this week through its Google AdWords program. Benjamin Edelman said that Google's payments to these unscrupulous companies may be totaling millions of dollars per year, even if the ways these companies are making that money are flying directly in the face of Google's own policies.

Last year, Google published a set of guidelines for software that uses its advertising services within the programs themselves. "We believe that software should not trick you into installing it," the guidelines read.

However, according to Edelman, the two toolbars using Google advertising he researched -- Ask Jeeves and IBIS WebSearch -- both break this rule.

Ask's toolbar is installed without consent in several programs, including the iMesh and Kazaa P2P file sharing applications. Also, in its advertising, Edelman claims that Ask does not make it clear what the user is installing, or even mentions that it is a toolbar in installation.

"AJ's revenues ultimately largely come from Google: Enter a search term into an AJ toolbar, and most of the resulting ads are Google AdWords ads," Edelman wrote. "Google apparently pays AJ approximately $278 million per year," he surmised from recent financial releases.

Even worse, according to Edelman, is the IBIS WebSearch Toolbar, which is partially funded by InfoSpace. He offered documented occurrences of the toolbar installing itself through security holes in Windows without "notice or consent." The IBIS toolbar will also force a user to install the program once it clicks on a link to download, which violates Google's policy to allow users to decline an installation easily, Edelman said.

"Because IBIS WebSearch syndicates and shows many Google ads for many keywords, IBIS shows ads even for advertisers who otherwise refuse to do business with spyware firms," Edelman said. "Indeed, thanks to syndication from Google, IBIS even shows ads from firms that have filed suit against makers of such software."

Edelman recommends that Google spend more time researching their AdWords users to ensure that they are following the company's own policies. However, with such large amounts of money flowing from Google to these companies, both of which are large and credible Internet firms, stronger enforcement isn't that likely, he says.