Yahoo, YouTube ads spreading viruses
The $US43 billion online-advertising industry built by companies such as Yahoo and Google is jeopardising consumer privacy and giving hackers an easy path to infect computers, a US congressional investigation has found.
Now, armed with a better understanding of the opaque mechanics of web ads, Senator Carl Levin and other lawmakers are asking whether stricter rules are needed to protect consumers, setting up a battle with companies that shaped the internet.
The tensions played out at a Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington on Thursday when executives from Yahoo and Google testified before lawmakers leading the investigation. "Self regulation alone has not been enough," Levin, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the investigations subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told reporters in Washington.
