Vonage Denies Spyware Charges

Vonage denies that it uses spyware to deliver its advertising, as charged yesterday by spyware researcher Ben Edelman.

Brooke Schulz, Vonage Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, told Networking Pipeline that Edelman's claims that Vonage uses spyware "are unfounded," and that the company polices relationships with advertising vendors, to ensure that no ads are delivered via spyware.

"Vonage has investigated every case of spyware that has been brought to its attention and terminated the relationship immediately with the entities in question who we find are in fact using spyware," Schulz said. "We believe Mr. Edelman's claims that this is a significant problem with our advertising are unfounded. Vonage takes this issue seriously and is committed to having good policing policies in place to prevent our brand from being sullied by unscrupulous spyware operators."

Edelman has charged that Vonage advertising appears in ads from at least a dozen software makers that he identifies a spyware, and said ads are sometimes displayed at sexually explicit sites. He claims that Vonage could to more to ensure that its ads do not appear via spyware.