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Now that's some clever concepting and branding: the allusion to Pac Man is very cute. Maybe take the idea further and tell people more specifically what they

Now that's some clever concepting and branding: the allusion to Pac Man is very cute. Maybe take the idea further and tell people more specifically what they "really" are: Ghost Scripts something of the like instead of calling them web bugs.

Timothee 18y ago
The linked page to EFF is very informative actually. After reading ghostery.com, I had no idea what this was about. The EFF page made it clear to me. (I actually never really thought about that problem before) I think ghostery.com should explain better what it is on their own page. The small text sounds as if web bugs are a good thing. On a related note, it seems to me that advertising companies like DoubleClick aren't in the news as much as they could. I feel like I never hear anything about them, and in particular in terms of privacy issues, while they should be amongst the first to be suspected and talked about. No?
- Create 18y ago
  Then the "free" world on the net is more Orwellian, than you could imagine in your wildest dream. All the scare stories about China internet surveillance are a joke in comparison to what goes by in the name of advertising. And this is the trouble with GOOG, and zeitgeist: "It's data that's practically a printout of what's going on in your brain: What you are thinking of buying, who you talk to, what you talk about." --Kevin Bankston, staff attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation Add to this GOOG CEO's AAPL board membership and their 1984 Superbowl ad, and be scared to death with the alu macbook digital restriction management. ps: DoubleClick is related to GOOG (layoffs); the latter also swept up urchin.js -- look for this program on your PC, and dig into what it does. Far more than a "stray" pixel. As to understand why this fuss about advertising: it is an extremely latent and powerful means of exercising power. I would suggest Adam Curtis, Century of the Self in particular. (e.g. from Brewster Khale's archive.org)
  - Create 18y ago
    For those who vote down: take your time to also put down what is factually wrong; or what is untrue nor real in the above.
dhimes 18y ago
"bug" is appropriate in the "spy" sense of "bugging" a room. "Web Spies" might get the point across better. Wait until you see Persistent Identification Elements. That's what is being used now, because people have caught on to cookies.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  It makes sense once you understand what Ghostery is doing, but it has too many other well-known and totally different meanings. When you first read the page though, it's just confusing. Just call them spyware cookies or some catchphrase everyone will understand immediately. When you're trying to explain what you do it's best to go with words people know and leave coining new terms to Snoop Dogg.
  - dcancel 18y ago
    I created Ghostery so I could see what trackers, analytics and widgets sites I visit use. Very different use case than the misnomer "spyware cookies". Spyware cookies are something invented by Spyware software vendors to sell more software. "Spyware cookies" miss the issue IMHO. It is the responsibility of the sites you visit to remain transparent; focusing on "cookies" incorrectly makes it a 3rd party service issue, i.e. tell me who allowed the cookie to be set in the first place not just that it exists.
    - mattmaroon 18y ago
      Ok, perhaps there's a better term then. I hadn't given it much thought. I just feel like "web bug" is too confusing.

Timothee 18y ago

The linked page to EFF is very informative actually. After reading ghostery.com, I had no idea what this was about. The EFF page made it clear to me. (I actually never really thought about that problem before) I think ghostery.com should explain better what it is on their own page. The small text sounds as if web bugs are a good thing. On a related note, it seems to me that advertising companies like DoubleClick aren't in the news as much as they could. I feel like I never hear anything about them, and in particular in terms of privacy issues, while they should be amongst the first to be suspected and talked about. No?

Create 18y ago
Then the "free" world on the net is more Orwellian, than you could imagine in your wildest dream. All the scare stories about China internet surveillance are a joke in comparison to what goes by in the name of advertising. And this is the trouble with GOOG, and zeitgeist: "It's data that's practically a printout of what's going on in your brain: What you are thinking of buying, who you talk to, what you talk about." --Kevin Bankston, staff attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation Add to this GOOG CEO's AAPL board membership and their 1984 Superbowl ad, and be scared to death with the alu macbook digital restriction management. ps: DoubleClick is related to GOOG (layoffs); the latter also swept up urchin.js -- look for this program on your PC, and dig into what it does. Far more than a "stray" pixel. As to understand why this fuss about advertising: it is an extremely latent and powerful means of exercising power. I would suggest Adam Curtis, Century of the Self in particular. (e.g. from Brewster Khale's archive.org)
- Create 18y ago
  For those who vote down: take your time to also put down what is factually wrong; or what is untrue nor real in the above.

dhimes 18y ago

"bug" is appropriate in the "spy" sense of "bugging" a room. "Web Spies" might get the point across better. Wait until you see Persistent Identification Elements. That's what is being used now, because people have caught on to cookies.

mattmaroon 18y ago
It makes sense once you understand what Ghostery is doing, but it has too many other well-known and totally different meanings. When you first read the page though, it's just confusing. Just call them spyware cookies or some catchphrase everyone will understand immediately. When you're trying to explain what you do it's best to go with words people know and leave coining new terms to Snoop Dogg.
- dcancel 18y ago
  I created Ghostery so I could see what trackers, analytics and widgets sites I visit use. Very different use case than the misnomer "spyware cookies". Spyware cookies are something invented by Spyware software vendors to sell more software. "Spyware cookies" miss the issue IMHO. It is the responsibility of the sites you visit to remain transparent; focusing on "cookies" incorrectly makes it a 3rd party service issue, i.e. tell me who allowed the cookie to be set in the first place not just that it exists.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    Ok, perhaps there's a better term then. I hadn't given it much thought. I just feel like "web bug" is too confusing.