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Shareaholic for Firefox does not contain any spyware. Privacy is critically important. The API call that Michael refers to is related to the "Stats Monitor" f
by meattle 17y ago
Shareaholic for Firefox does not contain any spyware. Privacy is critically important.
The API call that Michael refers to is related to the "Stats Monitor" feature of Shareaholic for Firefox that can be turned off at any time.
The Stats Monitor shows users the Compete.com stats for the page they are on. The API call is intrinsic to the functioning of this feature. For example, only by knowing which web page the user is viewing can the browser tool show the user information about that web page or Web site.
To disable the Stats Monitor, go to "Shareaholic Options" -> Display Options -> Uncheck Stats Monitor.
And, all users are now made aware of this feature upfront:
http://www.shareaholic.com/tools/firefox/welcome http://www.shareaholic.com/tools/firefox/welcome
http://www.shareaholic.com/tools/firefox/upgrade http://www.shareaholic.com/tools/firefox/upgrade
The Stats Monitor is only available in Shareaholic for Firefox.
- windsurfer 17y agoIsn't an opt-out feature that shares user information by definition spyware? If not, what is spyware?
- tzs 17y agoIt's not spyware if it is necessary in order to supply functionality that was advertised for the program. It sounds like that is the case here.
- windsurfer 17y agoBut the functionality does not require a unique user id to be sent to the stats server.
- meattle 17y agoWish it was not needed, but Compete.com requires it from developers to prevent fraud usage of their API. fwiw, the Compete Stats API is usually a premium/paid service from Compete.com and the stats are generally not made available for free at scale. Anyways, that is why it was made easy to shut off completely in case people didn't want to deal with it. Also making this behavior very clear in the next update within the extension itself (not just the welcome/upgrade pages). Privacy is critical.
- shmichael 17y agoAs far as I can tell, the "stats monitor" feature is not advertised on the front page. In fact, I tried navigating the site for a while but couldn't hit the Firefox welcome/upgrade pages that contain the disclaimer. Most people upgrade their plugin via Firefox's addon manager, and skip the "what's new" page that opens up. This is because we trust whoever made the plugin to not introduce any malicious behavior in future updates. Judging by the intrusive nature of this feature, I believe it should be opt-in rather than opt-out.
- bhseo 17y agoIs it compete.com, consumerinput.com or both that you are querying each page view? AFAIK, you can just query the Compete API (http://developer.compete.com/ http://developer.compete.com/). I haven't seen anything that says you have to query both. ConsumerInput seems to be the brand Compete uses to recruit users and software developers to cut out the middlemen like ISPs. I guess you are trying to get some extra money, which is fine just make sure the users know next time. Here are sample API queries for each: http://api.compete.com/fast-cgi/MI?d=google.com&ver=3&apikey=1234567890&size=large http://api.compete.com/fast-cgi/MI?d=google.com&ver=3... http://dcs.consumerinput.com/fast-cgi/MI?ver=3ss&userid=xxxx®istrar=shr&d=http%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com%2F http://dcs.consumerinput.com/fast-cgi/MI?ver=3ss&userid=... (As a sidenote, both APIs are handled by Mashery) Compete's API only takes the domain as input. ConsumerInput takes the whole URL. I think you are trying to be even sneakier by telling people that you need to hit ConsumerInput to get the Compete data for a domain. Of course it could be that Compete is forcing you to do that because of high-volume API calls. It would be good to know if that's the case.