Companies Struggle To Reverse McAfee's False Positives On Yahoo Search

However, McAfee contends that in most cases there is a fact-based reason that clean or legitimate sites are designated as a security risk. Keats said that site safety ratings are achieved through a testing process with crawlers that search the Web and compile copious sites into a database for scanning.

"The technology is designed to be scientific repeatable evidence based," said Keats. "This is not McAfee's hunch that it's doing x or y."

When legitimate sites are given a red security warning, often it's because their Web page has somehow connected to a malicious or harmful site, such as linking to a spam-producing site or a screensaver that bundles adware, Keats said.

"It's a process of education between McAfee and the site owner," said Keats. "Nine times out of 10, the site owner is unaware that they've done something that is in fact risky."

Keats said that McAfee technology errs in cases equaling a small faction of a percentage point of the 20 million Web pages the company has tested.

Despite attempts to correct the mistake, Lewis said that the misunderstanding cost his company a week of lost time and thousands of dollars in lost online revenue as well as lost business from potential users who might have reconsidered clicking on his site after viewing the red warning icon. He also noted that the mistake was only corrected after he posted details of the incident on his blog.

While Lewis said he has no immediate plans for litigation with Yahoo in the near future, he said he's "not ruling out anything."

"We'll see how Yahoo handles it over the next few weeks," said Lewis. "Many people out there are questioning the management at Yahoo, and I can see why Yahoo is no longer a leader in the space."

Meanwhile, AnyCoupons isn't the only site that claims to have been unfairly labeled with a security warning. Earlier this month, Yahoo had listed Google as a site that distributed malware, according to a May 11 Techcrunch report--an error that was remedied within a few hours of discovery.

And IAC's Excite.com, a personalization news and media Web portal, is currently undergoing a process to re-evaluate mislabeled red security alerts for several of its domains on Yahoo's search page—a "misunderstanding" company executives say has hurt the company's business.

"Anytime we see any company erroneously detecting [security threats in] our software, it's detrimental," said Michael Primiani, senior vice president of strategic partnership and product operations at IAC CAP. "It's obviously detrimental to our business and to our reputation."

Primiani maintained that in the past, McAfee had been "very communicative and open in terms of reviewing the products."

"We don't like the fact that we're being flagged, but we're hopeful for a positive result," he said.

While McAfee is still attempting to rectify mistakes, AnyCoupons' Lewis said he is disappointed in the way Yahoo handled customer service in the face of the error.

In the meantime, Lewis said his company is undergoing a rigorous reinstatement process on Yahoo's Paid Inclusion program--a service that guarantees listing on a search engine ranking in exchange for payment-- after the search engine Yahoo terminated its listing due to its "spamming" designation. Lewis also said his company has been blacklisted from Yahoo Search marketing.

"It wouldn't have been an issue had Yahoo or Outrider recognized that my company has had relationships with each of them for several years and that I used to work at what is now Yahoo's paid search division. I'm not looking for favors. I just think that there are ways to operate companies and ways to treat your partners," said Lewis in his blog. "This isn't it."