While working on dissertation research this weekend, I poked around iBiquity’s web site. Not quite prominently featured (i.e., off the main page), the company hypes its HD standard and, quite repeatedly, refers interested parties to HDRadio.com for more information.
But clicking that link is not so easy. You are presented with a verbose (and poorly-written) “legal disclaimer” dialog-box:
NOTICE: You are leaving our website. When you click on the button below, you will leave our website and will enter a website maintained by a third party that is not related to iBiquity Digital Corporation.. We are providing a link to the third party’s website for reference and convenience only, because we believe that website may provide useful content.
We are not, by referring or linking to the third-party website, incorporating its contents into our own website. We do not endorse or guarantee, and we disclaim any responsibility for: the content on that website, its performance or interaction with your computer, its security and privacy policies and practices, and any consequences that may result from visiting that website. By clicking on the button below, you acknowledge and agree to everything we say above.
I call bullsh*t, and it’s an easy one. Any simple WHOIS domain-name search turns up the obvious: iBiquity owns HDRadio.com. Administrative and technical contacts point straight back to the corporate HQ.
My question is, why all the disclaimage? And are you really that clueless, iBiquity? Are you effectively denying the validity/credibility of your consumer-marketing claims? (After all, HDRadio.com is the company’s consumer-marketing portal.) What’s so different about what how you’ll “perform or interact” with my computer, or your “security and privacy policies” vis-a-vis iBiquity.com and HDRadio.com? Are you so desperate to generate consumer interest in your dying product that you’re stretching online data-collection regulations? Hiding behind a trademark-disclaimer – that HDRadio.com is “managed” by the HD Radio Alliance – which is, for all intents and purposes, iBiquity (though that particular domain is registered to Clear Channel) – does not cut the mustard.
I’ve been around iBiquity’s site before, and this is, apparently, an “upgrade” of its “functionality.” Much like the HD Radio technology itself, it’s a questionable development.
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