Note that many websites have their own advertising, unrelated to adware.
Adware is any software application in which advertising is displayed while the program is running. The authors of these applications include additional code that delivers the ads, which can be viewed through pop-up windows or through a bar that appears on a computer screen and sometimes through text links or in integrated search results. Adware may or may not track personal information. It may also gather information anonymously or in aggregate only. Users should check the EULA and Privacy policy to ensure if the adware on their machines conforms to their standards.
Comment:
From thier website:
Relevant Offers When You Need Them
SaveNow, with TrueRelevance, is a program that delivers you relevant offers, coupons, comparison shopping results and advertisements based on your browsing habits.
The goal of SaveNow is to show users information about relevant products and services ? right at the moment when they need it. However, to ensure that our consumers have an enjoyable online experience, WhenU limits the frequency of these offers so as not to be intrusive.
When consumers download the popular music-swapping software BearShare, they are also downloading SaveNow, which comes bundled with it.SaveNow is either a comparison-shopping service or a form of adware, depending on who's describing it.
Displays advertising content. Monitors internet traffic, collects search profiles, and can execute code from a remote server using its update feature only. Relevant searches may cause it to display a special offer, coupon, or other advertising content. The adware may also display advertisements.
Note: WhenU has made changes in distribution practices and to our knowledge no longer uses third parties or bundling to distribute their application. Distribution appears to be in-house only and bundles only contain WhenU products. Research shows that WhenU now makes it clear that advertising will be shown in the End-User License Agreement (EULA)
Users who desire this shopping application should not remove.
It resides on consumers hard drives and pops up advertisements and coupons. The ads are served from the WhenU.com site and are now more clearly labeled.
WhenU claims they do not track user data they do not use cookies, track clickstream data ,compile a centralized database of users that they do not engage in any type of user profiling.
It is notable the advertisements that SaveNow serves will set cookies for 3rd party affiliate/tracking networks.
Comments submitted by Ben Edelman, a Harvard Law student and PhD candidate, to the FTC cite possible violation of WhenU's privacy agreement.
Excerpt from Edelman's comments:
16. I have reviewed the WhenU privacy policy, and I have concluded that WhenU violates this policy when it transmits to its servers some of the specific URLs viewed by WhenU users. The policy reads, in relevant part, as follows: 'As the user surfs the Internet, URLS visited by the user (i.e. the user's 'clickstream data') are NOT transmitted to WhenU.com or any third party server.'
17. In my examinations, it is true that WhenU software does not transmit to its server all URLs visited by WhenU users. But WhenU software does transmit to its server some URLs visited by WhenU users. Since WhenU's privacy policy seems to promise not to transmit any URLs visited by WhenU users ('URLs are not transmitted'), I consider WhenU's transmissions to be in violation of its privacy policy.
Mr. Edelman full article can be viewed at:
http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/whenu-privacy
Note: WhenU has made changes in distribution practices and to our knowledge no longer uses third parties or bundling to distribute their application. Distribution appears to be in-house only and bundles only contain WhenU products. Research shows that WhenU now makes it clear that advertising will be shown in the End-User License Agreement (EULA)
Users who desire this shopping application should not remove.
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