Building traffic
PassThisOn is a highly visited viral marketing site that encourages visitors to pass on jokes and silly pictures. The company asks consumers via reoccurring pop-up windows whether they want to change their home page, a question that is always posed with a more enticing offer, such as "Do you like freebies?" or "Do you want to win something every time you open your browser?"
If consumers agree, they are ushered to PassThisOn or one of its partner sites every time they open their browser, a sure-fire way to build viewership.
Wallace defended the practice, saying the site discloses everything and acts only after it receives permission from Web surfers.
A statement at the bottom of PassThisOn's home page reads: "PassThisOn.com prompts and changes consumers' browser behaviours to offer a better user experience and a more targeted advertiser-to-consumer communication system."
Still, Wallace admitted he had received complaints from "certain users with certain browsers" whose settings were being changed without their consent.
"This was an Internet Explorer hole, but since then we made changes and now nothing like that occurs," he said. "It only happens now with users' permission."
However, critics question whether the opt-in feature adequately discloses enough information about how the user's preferences will be changed and the difficulty in restoring the previous settings.
"The way they've arranged it is that you're not exactly saying yes to change your home page but saying yes to getting all these freebies, so the wording is contradictory. They're playing games here," said Smith. "Is PassThisOn.com going to let users know how to opt out?"
Geez, if I did that to them, I would be prosecuted for hacking. Guess the laws written the the people don't apply to Companies.
Have a Nice Penguin Day..!
R Spinks