Hi again. Thanks for the quick reply. You make some good points. I don't mean to complain too much - I think your site is wonderful.By the way, there were several instances of your data server's IP address that you didn't obscure. If you don't want it readily available, you might want to search and obscure them. (And thank you for inserting a warning that you were doing so. I respect you for that.)
I'm not sure if search engines execute javascript functions when they crawl the web. I know the technology exists to do it (I know a company that does something similar). But you also bring up the good point that robot.txt or .htaccess can be used to hide access to my links page. And for that matter, if I am too paranoid, I can turn off javascript in my browser.
>The description of the service clearly states in
>plain English: ...
Ah, but it *doesn't* state in plain English that you keep copies of those transactions on your server. The reason I came to truefresco is that a different site uses your service. The webmaster of that site didn't know that you have access to every targetPage/referPage/userIP that comes along, and that you store some or all of that information on your server. Your description makes it seem like its all being done in javascript. I'm a programmer (not an artist), so I knew that it had to be stored on a central server somewhere.
I would like to see you add to your description that:
1. you store targetPage/referPage pairs on your server
2. this information is erased after 5 days
3. the visitor's IP address is not stored
4. the information is not provided by you to third parties.
To clarify that last point - if I use your service, then obviously my own web page provides the usage information to my own visitors. But the information it provides is restricted to that page. Only people who know my page's address can see the access information. Thus, I control who has access to my page's usage information by controlling who knows about my page. Point 4 means that you promise not to give your database to anybody else.
By including the above information, the webmasters who want your service will better understand what they are agreeing to. If you *don't* make those statements, then I believe that many of your "customers" will be fooled, and I can disapprove of that.
Obviously you can only make those statements if ET (Extreme Tracking) doesn't have access to the data. Did ET supply the code? Did they give you any policy statements about the data it collects? You implied that it does not store IP addresses. Did ET actually say that they don't? It's risky to assume that if they don't mention anything about IP addresses.
>All we do is host the record of referring page
>to user page, pay for bandwidth, and making sure
>there is enough CPU on the server to provide
>something that over 20,000 people want (you are
>the first complainer)
It's funny ... when I first saw the list of referring pages, I thought "Oh Cool!" Then when I saw my own links page, I thought "Ah, unexpected consequences."
Perhaps I was the first to recognize that it stores the information on your server. I wouldn't expect non-programmers to realize it. Even I didn't realize it until I had thought about it for a while.
---
I guess the real reason I'm complaining is the feeling I got when I saw my links page displayed to the world. I've always known that my browser supplies the referring page when I access a web site. I know that the web sites I visit collect information like my IP address, my usage patterns, etc. I only spend time at sites that I feel reasonably confident will use that information wisely.
But when I brought up that site's page and saw my links page displayed ... I felt like the site was abusing my trust. I gave them the information assuming it would be kept private, and there it was for the whole world to see. No, I don't have anything on that page that is vital to keep private. I wouldn't keep critically secret information on my web site. But I still felt slightly violated.
So my complaint is *really* with the web site I first visited. I registered my complaint there, and the service is already taken down. My only complaint to you is that your description does not really tell web masters what *they* need to know to decide.
