Is it Even Legal for PTCL to Force Popup ADs to its EVO/DSL Users?

PTCL has reportedly started displaying popup and forced ads for its various products and promotions for users that browse internet through PTCL EVO and DSL broadband services, we have checked.

These advertisements are actually injected with-in the websites that users browse while using EVO and DSL services.

For further clarity, check below the screen-grab of PTCL advertisement that was forced upon a user while he was browsing ProPakistani website:

These ads are displayed at a set frequency (in terms of time) no matter what website a user is browsing to essentially kill the browsing experience of end-user.

For those who don’t know, there is a way possible for network operators, such as PTCL, to inject javascript code into websites that are browsed on their networks. And this is exactly how PTCL is able to inject ads on to websites that are browsed on their network.

Check here responses from countless ProPakistani readers who confirmed that they are shown these ads while browsing internet through EVO and DSL broadband services.

So is it even legal or at least ethical for ISPs to inject ads on websites that are not maintained by them? Take example of ProPakistani for instance — PTCL is by no means managing the content of ProPakistani, neither they share any cost for operating ProPakistani — yet they are capitalizing our audience by showing them ads and that too without informing the end-user or the website owner.

This is a bad precedent and if accepted and if it becomes a norm then it won’t take long for other ISPs and Telcos to bombard their users with such forced ads.

Secondly, PTCL is charging the end-user for internet connectivity and hence service should come without any hiccups or any advertisements.

Thirdly, ads shown by PTCL come without any notice or disclaimer and they portray as if websites (such as ProPakistani) are running an ad campaign from PTCL with such dimensionless creatives that cover almost whole of the page.

Since PTCL doesn’t own these websites where it runs such ads, neither they ask nor discuss sizes of the banners, these huge sized banners annoy users and trigger them to install ad-blockers that ultimately kill the publishers’ business.

And lastly, this is a bad precedent. If accepted now and if it becomes a norm then it won’t take long for other operators to bombard their users with such forced ads. Even worse, if not stopped by PTA, you may also see Ufone ADs on PTCL network in future or maybe PTCL ads while browsing on Ufone 3G and of course more.

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