Is viglink.com Safe?

After giving it a second look it is still difficult to rate. It is an affiliate link service. The way it works is it scans articles and generates links to products from there. I was expecting it's privacy policies to be worse than they are. In the end this one was very difficult to call.

This appears to be another distraction from a less-annoying web-browsing experience. Blocked. "By identifying commercial products mentioned within a publisher’s content, VigLink automatically invigorates those terms by transforming them into revenue generating hyperlinks whose destinations are determined in real-time, advertiser-bid auctions." Source: http://www.viglink.com/

According to Multiple reviews, it appears that multiple tests confirmed malware, trojans, viruses, browser control hijacked and a variety of 'trusted' websites are using this*...(?? for what??plausible deniability for the infections..?). In Any case, after reading* all the reviews, this site/link/cookie appears At The Very Least Suspicious and UN trustworthy.

This is an advertising site, with links on several reputable sites. This site doesnt use any malicious codes or malware. It does track users on the sites it advertises on but using something like CCLeaner (Free or paid versions available) TLF or OTL will deal with any issues in the browsers Cautious green, because I have only recently accessed this site, but did extensive checks before hand.

According to Google Safe Browsing Diagnostic, this domain is infected with several trojans and exploits. This might be caused by other domains linked to it, but it is still dangerous. Block and stay away! You can read their current listing here; http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=viglink.com

What is the current listing status for viglink.com? This site is not currently listed as suspicious. What happened when Google visited this site? Of the 206 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 63 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2013-05-03, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on ***** Malicious software includes 37 trojan(s), 19 exploit(s), 1 scripting exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 2 new process(es) on the target machine. Malicious software is hosted on 63 domain(s), including 4termalnorm.info/, automatedversion.biz/, ***** 44 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including hearthstoneonline.com/, mdcinteriors.com/, ***** This site was hosted on 7 network(s) including AS14618 (AMAZON), AS16509 (AMAZON), AS19528 (NRIV). Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware? Over the past 90 days, viglink.com appeared to function as an intermediary for the infection of 5 site(s) including svpply.com/, baby-gaga.com/, *****

Safe Browsing Diagnostic page for viglink.com What happened when Google visited this site? Of the 127 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 18 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2013-03-11, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on ***** Malicious software includes 7 trojan(s), 6 exploit(s). Malicious software is hosted on 18 domain(s), including cccamforum.com/, mdcinteriors.com/, ***** 13 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including mdcinteriors.com/, freeformsusa.com/, ***** This site was hosted on 5 network(s) including AS14618 (AMAZON), AS16509 (AMAZON), AS6423 (EASYSTREET). Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware? Over the past 90 days, viglink.com appeared to function as an intermediary for the infection of 5 site(s) including svpply.com/, zoombucks.com/, *****

VigLink offers tracking services to websites to monitor where users go off their client publisher's ("client publisher" in this sense is legalese for people who place VigLink's affiliate links within their online content) websites. Disclosing usage of affiliate links to the website's users is required by law for many publishers. VigLink asserts that the information collected from viewers of client publisher's websites is non-identifiable. Using VigLink's services, a website could track external links placed on their website, and how many of their users went to those websites. The concept is that a client publisher will place affiliate links on their website to various merchants networked with VigLink. Out of thousands of clicks from the client publisher's website by viewers, a small handful will purchase something from an affiliate merchant website. A percentage of the commission is then split 75%/25% between the client publisher and VigLink. According to VigLink, "VigLink does not change the user experience one bit. No links are inserted or removed on the page, there are no double-underlines or pop-ups, and mousing over a link looks "clean."" Websites who use VigLink's services are required by the The US Federal Trade Commission to disclose they are using affiliate links in their user agreements/privacy statements. VigLink does offer an opt-out service that places an opt-out cookie on the user's browser telling VigLink to ignore and delete data gathered from the user. If the user clears out cookies stored on their browser, they will delete the opt-out cookie, as well, and need to opt out again of VigLink's services each time they clear their browser's cookies to regain the deleted opt-out cookie. For those interested in opting out of VigLink's services, the opt-out URL is provided here for your convenience: http://www.viglink.com/static/support/optout Also, here is a direct link to the Federal Trade Commission's Section 255.5 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. ***** And here's VigLink's FTC disclosure page and their privacy policy: http://www.viglink.com/policies/ftc http://www.viglink.com/policies/privacy