Comments on: Trust Violated = Permission Withdrawn

By: Now You See Me, Now You Dont! – The Startup Gardener

Now You See Me, Now You Dont! – The Startup Gardener — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:06:38 +0000

[...] If you use the great free web browser Firefox, there is a really easy to install/use extension called Ghostery that will protect you from being seen by Google Analytics and other profiling tools. I’m a happy user, and so are many others (it’s been downloaded over 1.3 million times!) and I have to say that I quite like the fact my I’m not being tracked by unknown third parties as I browse the net. When you do install it, just make sure that you turn “blocking” on as by default it is turned off (as it should be). [...]

By: Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder – The Startup Gardener

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder – The Startup Gardener — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:40:47 +0000

[...] I think that most people don’t realise that their movements being quietly track by the likes of Google, and if they did realise they would probably be a bit miffed. I also suspect that many would sigh and quietly resent the fact and resign themselves to the fact that there is nothing they can do about it. But there are ways to defeat these tracking bugs, one that I know of is really easy to do. If you use the great free web browser Firefox, there is a really easy to install/use extension called Ghostery that will protect you from being seen by Google Analytics and other profiling tools. I’m a happy user, and so are many others (it’s been downloaded over 1.3 million times!) and I have to say that I quite like the fact my I’m not being tracked by unknown third parties as I browse the net. When you do install it, jsut make sure that you turn “blocking” on as by default it is turned off (as it should be). [...]

By: Jimmy McGrath

Jimmy McGrath — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:04:27 +0000

That’s a good idea Monica, there are guidelines for extensions but I suspect that they mostly involve what the plugin does to the computer it is installed on, rather than content on remote machines. Anyway I’ll check it out and report what happens.

Cheers.

By: Monica

Monica — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:57:33 +0000

Wow! That’s disgusting! I’m surprized Mozilla aren’t doing something about it… Aren’t there guidelines to building Firefox extensions? I would email them.

By: Jimmy McGrath

Jimmy McGrath — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:28:29 +0000

It just occurred to me how foolish the developers of ScribeFire are. Of all of your users that you want to make the happiest are those who like to blab about stuff, and the loudest blabbers on the internet are bloggers. ScribeFire’s whole userbase is made of bloggers. If they do something dodgy, what’s the chance people are going to silent in their consternation?

How can they think what they are doing is a good idea? It beggars belief.

By: Jimmy McGrath

Jimmy McGrath — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:13:11 +0000

Sean, I totally agree. I was really surprised when I found I was automatically using buzz, then I was really, really surprised when I read about Google was sharing all my contact list with the whole world. You would think that a company the size (and supposed smarts) of Google would have more sense. With great power comes great responsibility and all that. At least they didn’t do it with my business emails accounts which they are hosting. It is so important to respect the trust people give you, ’cause the backlash can be quite severe. This is just one more reason not to host my email with them.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:35:27 +0000

That is exactly how I feel about Google Buzz. I thought I opted out when I logged in — turns out I only opted out of the “Tour”. Find out I’m sharing info and following people I had no clue about. Including my reader settings being shared automatically!