![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
LJ appears to be pulling the script that was usurping affiliate links (see http://community.livejournal.com/no_lj_ads/87066.html for example) but the question remains, why on earth would they sneakily be doing that in the first place? And regardless of whether anyone in particular lost revenue due to LJ being inserted as the affiliate (is my understanding), it's still an awful privacy issue.
edit: from here http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/585577.html:
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
marta has posted some information saying the code was supposed to add "this link came via lj" affiliate info to non affiliated links -- which makes a lot more sense (and sounds thankfully less sinister) than hijacking people's links and taking them to advertisers, but didn't work as expected. It's still being scrapped.
But, um. I may have misunderstood, but that sounds like they were hoping to inject their own affiliate info onto a "naked" link, and make money from (e.g.) Amazon links posted without the poster's knowledge or consent. Someone want to correct me?
edit: from here http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/585577.html:
marta has posted some information saying the code was supposed to add "this link came via lj" affiliate info to non affiliated links -- which makes a lot more sense (and sounds thankfully less sinister) than hijacking people's links and taking them to advertisers, but didn't work as expected. It's still being scrapped.But, um. I may have misunderstood, but that sounds like they were hoping to inject their own affiliate info onto a "naked" link, and make money from (e.g.) Amazon links posted without the poster's knowledge or consent. Someone want to correct me?