A History of Revision Part 4

On the 7th April, a Wikipedia Editor left the following comment on the Zango Wikipedia page after yet another removal of information relating to FTC Settlements:

"(reverting more unexplained removals, by anonymous user from Bellevue, Washington area - please take it to the talk page)"

Now, what's interesting here is that someone did just that - Daniel Todd, Head guy at Zango. He left a message on the Editor's talk page, of which you can see a sample below:

"Numerous parties have a vested interest in keeping information about Zango inaccurate."

..an interestingly vague statement. I think you'll find anyone involved in Security has a vested interest in keeping their infomation wholly accurate because, you know, they'd look stupid. So who do you mean? What nameless demons are we talking about? Are we actually referring to random boobs on the Internet? Yawn, I get them all the time whether they're leaving fake comments from myself on articles about Yapbrowser or super idiotic messages such as this one. It's called the Internet, deal with it.

"While I am not concerned about positive/negative information if it is accurate... [snip]"

Stop right there. Please explain why endless individuals from Washington, Bellevue keep removing information that is accurate relating to the FTC settlement and non consensual installs. The following link at the end of this section (highlighted in bold) has been removed three times:

"The settlement bars future downloads of Zango's adware without consumers' consent, requires Zango to provide a way for consumers to remove the adware, and requires them to give up $3 million in ill-gotten gains."[http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/11/zango.htm Zango, Inc. Settles FTC Charges] [[November 3]], [[2006]] These restrictions remain in force for twenty years."

1st April - Above link removed by 24.16.59.121
4th April - Above link removed by 24.16.59.121
7th April - Above link removed by 24.16.59.121

In addition, the following sentence with link (highlighted in bold) has been removed twice:

[http://www.benedelman.org/news/022006-1.html Nonconsensual 180 Installations Continue, Despite 180's "S3" Screen]Benjamin Edelman [[February 24]], [[2006]]

4th April - Above link removed by 206.169.156.2
7th April - Above link removed by 24.16.59.121

Finally, the below sentence with link (highlighted in bold) has been removed once:

It's worth noting that since the FTC ruling has passed, security researchers continue to find Zango involved in [http://www.vitalsecurity.org/2006/11/presenting-zangozones.html problematic installs].

1st April - Above link removed by 24.16.59.121


Besides those edits, there are numerous other removals of work relating to Zango on other pages, including the below edit from the Spyware page. The following section was removed entirely:

Stealware and affiliate fraud

A few spyware vendors, notably [[180 Solutions]], have written what the [[New York Times]] has dubbed "[[stealware]]", and what spyware-researcher Ben Edelman terms ''affiliate fraud'', a form of [[click fraud]]. Stealware diverts the payment of [[affiliate marketing]] revenues from the legitimate affiliate to the spyware vendor.

Spyware which attacks [[affiliate network]]s places the spyware operator's affiliate tag on the users activity - replacing any other tag, if there is one. The spyware operator is the only party that gains from this. The user has their choices thwarted, a legitimate affiliate loses revenue, Networks' reputations are injured, and vendors are harmed by having to pay out affiliate revenues to an "affiliate" who is not party to a contract.[http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/180-affiliates/ The Effect of 180solutions on Affiliate Commissions and Merchants]

Affiliate fraud is a violation of the [[terms of service]] of most affiliate marketing networks. As a result, spyware operators such as 180 Solutions have been terminated from affiliate networks including LinkShare and ShareSale.

6th April - Above text and links removed by 206.169.156.2

As mentioned here, the 24.16.59.121 IP Address is located in Bellevue, Washington. You can see a list of edits from that IP here (note this IP is used by Daniel Todd to comment on the Wiki Editor's Talkpage). The 206.169.156.2 IP Address takes you back to the 180 Solutions DNS entry - and Daniel Todd himself left a message on the Zango Wikipedia page from this IP Address, while not logged in under his Username (in fact, you can see a long list of edits from sockpuppet entries via this IP Address here, including one frankly hilarious offering regarding Scatology).

So please, tell me.

Why are these entirely valid and legitimate links being hosed when you claim you're "not concerned" about accurate information being presented?

At any rate, I'm done slicing this one into bite-size chunks so I'll leave the final word to Mr Todd - though the emphasis in Italics is entirely mine:

"Can you please let me know how you determine the accuracy of some information and how best to proceed if my desire is an honest and accurate representation of the history of Zango?"