by Head of Search
Andrew Girdwood
Andrew Girdwood
Widely used antivirus vendor AVG has started to block clicks on the large Linkshare affiliate network. This means that users are unable to access the webpages the links point to, merchants do not get the traffic and affiliates are not paid.False positives from the antivirus scanner AVG are not unheard of. In July 2009 the AVG software mistook the hugely popular iTunes program for the Small.bog virus and stopped the software from running on tens of thousands of PCs.
AVG's automatic Search-Shield currently produces the following warning when a user tries to visit a website via the Linkshare link:
"Danger: AVG Search-Shield has detected active threats on this page and has blocked access for your protection.
The page you are trying to access has been identified as a known exploit, phishing, or social engineering web site and therefore has been blocked for your safety. Without protection, such as that in the AVG Security Toolbar and AVG, your computer is at risk of being compromised, corrupted or having your identity stolen. Please follow one of the suggestions below to continue."
Affiliate networks do occasionally fall foul of antivirus software when unethical affiliates use adware or scumware to intercept regular internet traffic (such as Google searches or Twitter clicks) and insert the affiliate tracking. Users who have downloaded the software, which is often given away free or masquerades as updates for other programs, are often unaware of the fact that they are being routed through an affiliate program.
There is no suggestion that Linkshare has any more significant adware issues than any other network. All successful affiliate networks in the United States and the United Kingdom actively police their traffic quality to ensure that adware is not being used. It may simply be a one off incident from Linkshare or another false positive from AVG.
Writing on Linkshare's UK blog, MD Liane Dietrich said;
"As you may have heard, an update over the weekend to some anti-virus software from a company called AVG is interfering with some LinkShare links between affiliates and advertisers. We assume this was unintentional. We discussed this with executives at AVG this morning, and expect this matter will be resolved soon."
