Dealing with Pop-ups

MAIN PAGE

MISSION

BACKGROUND

ETHICAL DISCUSSION

LEGAL DISCUSSION

GUIDANCE

LINKS

About us

Presentation

MISSION

Virtually every Internet user is continually bombarded by a form of advertising called pop-up ads. Although the issue might not seem to pose one huge readily apparent physical problem, the cumulative effect of the frustration each Internet user faces everyday deserves a study of ethics and policy. Pop-up ads raise important ethical questions on multiple levels, from their simple pop-up behavior to the more malicious tactic of retrieving personal information via spyware.

Technology plays both sides of the issue. While it has given us tools with which to block such ads, technology is constantly being developed to allow the ads to get through.

On this website, we examine the intrusive nature of pop-up advertising at different levels. We identify the way in which certain advertising tactics – such as displaying a window that masquerades as an error message from the operating system – cross ethical boundaries. We also explore the legal grounds on which these intrusive advertising tactics are being challenged and how they may be regulated.

Unless these issues are studied and confronted, the voices of individuals all dispersed to different parts of the world might not unite for a long time and fail to demonstrate the demand for better business practices and third party regulations.

Through this presentation, we offer suggestions to help the individual user regain some of the control they have lost over what they see and when on the Internet. We  provide knowledge on what these advertisements are and how to deal with them on a daily basis, and develop some ideas for future policy making.