Pop-Up Ad company surrenders

D Squared Solutions has signed a deal with the FTC, which had filed a civil suit against it last year.

D Squared agreed not to send pop-up ads using the Messenger function enabled on Windows that do not require an open Web browser to display. The company also won't sell ad-blocking software and it is barred from sending other ads unless users can choose not to receive them.

The trade off is that the company founders Anish Dhingra and Jeffrey Davis, do not have to admit any wrongdoing and will not face any penalties.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, the FTC said that D Squared was able to send pop up ads every ten seconds. It claimed that the technique misled consumers into thinking there was nothing they could do to stop the ads and would have to buy the software.

However Dhingra and Davis denied extortion saying that they only intended to send one a day to computer users. Their brief Anthony Dain has said the ads are "annoyances you have to deal with in a free society" although he didn't say why.

The full story can be found here. µ