Over the last few months, KOB.com, the official website for New Mexico's KOB Channel 4, issued a statement saying that they accepted no adult advertising in answer to complaints from users.
The station further reported that these unwelcome pop-ups were the result of a virus, but according to spyware expert Ben Edelman, that's not accurate – they're just another form of spyware.
"Many advertising programs – most folks would call them 'spyware' or 'adware' – show popup ads," Edelman, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, told XBIZ.
He explained that these programs sneak onto computers and track web browsing. Later, the spyware produces relevant pop-ups on other sites.
But the pop-ups don't always have to be relevant, as in the case of the New Mexico NBC affiliate and possibly in the case of a Connecticut substitute teacher who encountered adult pop-up ads while teaching a seventh-grade class.
This raises two important problems for adult webmasters: unwanted negative publicity and unwanted competition if a pop-up for a rival site appears over their own.
To avoid this, Edelman recommended that webmasters check out the affiliate programs they join.
"Some sites mistakenly allow such [spyware] programs into their affiliate networks, then pay commissions accordingly," he said. "That's undesirable."
Exceptionally determined webmasters could also infect test computers with spyware to see what kind of ads they get, but Edelman said this would take a lot of resources and time – he does this kind of testing for clients himself.
Edelman has been tracking this issue on his blog, with specific examples of nonadult sites producing adult pop-ups, complete with screenshots and surfing logs.