Attention Web Users:
We'd like to bring your attention to an issue that has the potential
to affect the entire Web community. There's a new form of technology
that alters webpages without the knowledge or permission of website owners.
The most widespread version of this technology is a program called TopText.
TopText comes bundled with the popular file-sharing programs KaZaa & iMesh,
as well as several other freeware programs.
If you've noticed yellow underlines with green edges showing up
on a lot of the pages that you visit, you have installed (intentionally or otherwise)
the TopText application. These underlines are not the work of the people who created the pages,
but are added when TopText alters your browser settings without your knowledge.
If you click on one of these links, you'll be taken to the website of an advertiser
who paid the makers of TopText (eZula, Inc.) for the underline.
This raises a number of concerns. For example,
the page that the link leads to may not be appropriate for children.
Furthermore, unreviewed links may be introduced into shopping cart links,
product recommendations, editorials, online legal documents and posts to online forums,
adding confusion and potentially misleading you, the user.
But perhaps the most frightening concern TopText and similar applications
raise is that they may spell an end to the free Web. A huge percentage of
the Web's most popular sites owe their very existence to advertising dollars.
TopText steals those dollars away from them without any compensation.
If this technology is allowed to spread, free sites will be forced
to charge fees for their use. And this will dramatically limit the number
of people who will be able to afford to use the Internet as a resource.
Please take the time and
participate in our poll and voice your concerns on our forum thread.
Also be careful to avoid a similar software to TopText called Surf+, which uses green highlighting. If the pages you view are already being altered by Surf+, you can find uninstall information here:
http://www.filemix.net/surfplus/s_faq.htm#13
Special thanks to Heidi of Knowledgehound.com for the great article.
|
