bedelman

I believe in class actions as the most efficient way for large groups (of consumers or small businesses) to resolve disputes. Have to think about the specific claim. Yesterday's write-up covers a scheme harming other affiliates (creators, influencers, reviewers, etc.) and also harming merchants and networks. I don't know if users are direct victims of the stand-down violations and concealment.

Your diagnosis is correct. VPT has been most focused on building our testing automation, then improving reports and dashboards. We knew this spike of traffic was coming, but we didn't finish sufficient WordPress optimizations. Apologies.

choult: The factors you mention are the factors that led me to propose the "Honey's Dieselgate" title and to compare Honey to VW.

Of course I agree that health is more important than affiliate commissions. So the comparison only goes so far.

Was the VPT site not working for you, so you had to resort to archive.org? Original link https://vptdigital.com/blog/honey-detecting-testers/ . Anyone having trouble -- contact Ben Edelman (easily found by web search) and I will genuinely value the opportunity to get to the bottom of what is wrong.

Ben here. My real (substantive) write-up is https://vptdigital.com/blog/honey-detecting-testers/ . Happy to discuss / answer questions / etc.

Thanks for these suggestions. You may be right. I split the article into pages based on feedback from early readers that it was too long. Custom nav bar in the top-right, but maybe still not quite right. I've never previously posted anything of this length or complexity.

Thanks also for reading so carefully. My web stats say many people stopped at the summary!

Bloomberg reports both that Applovin says they did get user consent ("Users never get downloads with any of our products without explicitly requesting it") and that they're nonetheless shutting down the app install business because it was, supposedly, "not economically viable."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-15/applovin-...

Yup, can see what package installed a package both via ADB and even in the Settings > Apps GUI. Of course that's a slightly different question from whether the install was nonconsensual.

lukec11, I would enjoy chatting with you about methods and findings. Send a note? https://www.benedelman.org/mail/

Are you sure BlueStacks installs apps without user consent? I know BlueStacks as an emulator to play Android games on PC and Mac. That's a legitimate business, 100% consistent with what users want. Versus what I (author of the piece linked above) reported is that AppLovin is installing apps that users don't want -- installing silently, installing when users tap X, installing after a quick (5 second) countdown.

Ben Edelman here, author of the page you linked above and the full article at https://www.benedelman.org/applovin-nonconsensual-installs/ (linked from top of this page). Happy to answer any questions.

Previously FLP was uploading files that users can read with a web browser -- HTML, PDF, and also XML with metadata. I could and did link directly to HTML and PDFs, including circulating these materials with coauthors and research assistants and members of the press.

If FLP begins uploading only huge tarballs, and not the individual constituent files, I won't be able to do any of that.

I'm the author of the article linked at the start of the thread. Replying to try to focus the discussion on the specific change I was writing about.

Piker, can you say more about how "the change" make the documents "accessible" (or more accessible)? They were already at Internet Archive just fine. Several sites already copied the documents from IA and added their own presentation, cross-linking, notifications, and other services on top. I don't see the proposed changes as helping with this. Indeed, by sending the latest data only to CourtListener but not to IA, the proposed changes stand in the way of the other sites and services you envision -- as it seems they'll now have to license the data from FLP/CL (on a paid basis), rather than get it free directly from IA. These are the general concerns I was trying to present in my article.

You should consider filing a formal comment with DOT about your experience, and especially your surprise at the unexpected charges. This is straightforward using the Comment Now button on http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=DOT-OST-2013-0... . DOT is currently evaluating my complaint against BA on this subject.

Indeed. DOT fines tend to be small in this area. On the other hand, it is notable that DOT considered and rejected each of AA's defenses. That could be useful as precedent.

Some passengers may also have meritorious claims they'd like to bring against AA on an individual basis.