# Who allows the pop ups?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-allows-the-pop-ups/270020>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 19, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-allows-the-pop-ups/270020 "2004-10-19T13:19:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![craigr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@craigr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/craigr)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-allows-the-pop-ups/270020/1 "2004-10-19T13:19:19Z")

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Dear Cecil,

I visit [www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com) and I am blessed with popups that Goodgle doesn’t catch. Assuming I am not the victim of spyware, who puts the popup javascript into my incoming data stream? Is the owner of [www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com) responsible If not, who? – CR

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**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-allows-the-pop-ups/270020/2 "2004-10-19T15:01:25Z")

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Who put the pop in the popup bop shebop?  
Who put the spy in the spy-o-eye-o-ware-ware?

I think it’s usually the case that the owners of [www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com) have sold some ad space to [creepazoid.adshovers.com](http://creepazoid.adshovers.com); the code on [www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com)’s pages includes a reference link which gets filled with content over which [www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com) has no control. The folks at [creepazoid.adshovers.com](http://creepazoid.adshovers.com) are most likely the culprits, although I suppose it’s possible that they accept ad content from one of their clients, [sleezy.redirect.com](http://sleezy.redirect.com), and include it in their rotating ad content, and that the spyware stuff gets incorporated into the mix through the design submitted by [sleezy.redirect.com](http://sleezy.redirect.com). That assumes that [creepazoid.adshovers.com](http://creepazoid.adshovers.com) doesn’t spend much effort or time examining what is provided to them by their clients, and that the clients provide their own ad code rather than paying [creepazoid.adshovers.com](http://creepazoid.adshovers.com) to design it for them.

The folks at [www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com) are still culpable for having sold ad space to an org that puts up spyware (and it is their responsibility as sellers of ad space to do some detective work in that regard, IMHO), and [creepazoid.adshovers.com](http://creepazoid.adshovers.com) is similarly responsible for whatever client-supplied ad copy they include in their rotation if they do in fact accept and receive ad code from their clients.