FTC, Students Clash Over Pop-Up Ads
A student-run ad company is taking on the Federal Trade Commission over pop-up ads.
Two University of California-San Diego students are scheduled to appear in federal court to defend their pop-up ads against an FTC ban, the Associated Press reports. The FTC sued D-Squared Solutions, San Diego, to stop it from running pop-up ads (for software that blocks pop-up ads, ironically). Co-founders Anish Dhingra and Jeffrey Davis argue that their ads are transmitted legally, are truthful and don’t damage recipients or their computers. The FTC says it acted on consumer complaints that the ads disrupted home-computer use and people didn’t know how to turn them off. The FTC called D-Squared’s ads “high-tech extortion,” and compared its owners to vandals throwing bricks through windows to sell security systems, per AP.
