July 6, 2000

12:24 PM

"Netscape is using SmartDownload to eavesdrop," I thought Microsoft was the ONLY evil!
posted by Mick (6 comments total)

No, Microsoft is merely the current most powerful evil.
posted by dogwelder at 2:21 PM on July 6, 2000

It's true, they DO have a near-monopoly. But the Justice Department of Hell is working on that.
posted by dhartung at 2:52 PM on July 6, 2000

Actually, Hell has already approved the merger.
posted by harmful at 3:00 PM on July 6, 2000

I tried posting this once before and it seems to have vanished. (that's happened a couple of times.)

It isn't the "smart download" feature that they're using, it's the "what's related" feature. When that's enabled, your browser reports to a special Netscape address every time you make a page change, telling it where you are and where you're going. What they're doing is building for each possible address a list of all the places people go next, and when you ask "What's Related?" for a given web site, you get told the most common sites that other people went to after being at that one.

It is, of course, a major violation of privacy and it's the very first thing I turn off whenever I install Netscape.

posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:12 PM on July 6, 2000

meetoo


This was mentioned in the RISKS Digest (A moderated forum on risks to the public in computers and related systems) at *least* a year ago, if not more.

If this isn't on your reading list (issues go out about bi-weekly, usually; it's also available as news:comp.risks), it should be.
posted by baylink at 3:58 PM on July 7, 2000

GRRR.

Matt? You didn't fix the pseudo-tag munching yet.

That should have read:

<AOL>
meetoo.
</AOL>

...
posted by baylink at 3:59 PM on July 7, 2000