I'm not done.  I'm still P*SSED OFF.  The letter below probably ought to go to the Department Education at both state and federal level.

Can you imagine your kids getting this kind of crap while in class?  It could happen. 

Sure, maybe a firewall could block this garbage, but why do I have to fund either a firewall on my personal PC or a school PC to block something that's a violation of my privacy and probably illegal?  And if a firewall has become so ubiquitous to our home and school computing, why is it PC's are sold without them (hardware or software)?  There's a reason why people don't call you on your home phone to solicit you for adult-content...outsiders accessing your home PC for the same purpose should be no different.

Don't get me wrong, you want adult-content, go ahead.  I don't have a problem with it.  But guerrilla tactics for promoting adult-content is over the line.

D*mn it, I've been putting up with this stealth advertising for a couple of weeks, since it was just me being affected a couple times a day and advertising for innocuous stuff.  But nobody messes with my kids and privacy at the same time, especially with adult-content!

10:30:53 AM    comment []

It would also be easy to send messages to children on computers at school if administrative messaging is not turned off. (In a local area network, administrators typically use this system to advise users of scheduled outages; for this reason messaging may not be turned off.)

My consent to use my personal computer and software for this promotion was not requested, nor was access to advertise this content to any household member, including my children requested by the marketer.  The concept of “guerilla” or “stealth” advertising any product to children in either private or school venues without my express consent as a parent is deplorable, let alone advertising for adult-content sites.  I consider this an unfair and deceptive practice, completely devoid of good faith. 

I was not given any notice in advance of receiving this advertising material, no choice as to whether I want this kind of material submitted to my home or viewed by my children, and the method of transmission by-passes any security on my system.

Please look into this situation as soon as possible.  I am concerned about letting my children have access to our home computer or even the computers at school; while this messaging application appears only to allow text at this time, the next step will be sending obscene text or graphics.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding this letter.

Sincerely,

[s] My Legal Name Here

10:25:05 AM    comment []

Somebody just P*SSED me off royally.  That's it, I'm going to the Federal Trade Commission.

Have you gotten one of those pop-ups yet, guerrilla advertising which uses the administrative messenger feature in your operating system?

I just did (at 8:25 EST, fercryingoutloud), promotion for an XXX site.  This completely by-passed any parental controls set on this computer.

Yes, I could modify the settings in my operating system, but that's going to thwart any usage I intend as administrator for a local area network in my house.

This is purely an invasion of privacy, as well as pandering to children illicit materials since the sender has NO WAY of knowing who's at the keyboard.  This is a private system and NO ONE should be able to access it without my express permission.

I'll post information about my complaint to the FTC once I finish drafting it, in case you're having the same problem and want to take this up with the government.  I'm also sending the same complaint to my State Attorney General due to the nature of the content -- no one should be permitted to conduct business like this in this (or any) state.

If you have any other suggestions, I'd be glad to hear it.

8:41:16 AM    comment []