I don't like the idea of it

trelog — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:18:39 +0000

I don't like the idea of it at all. I don't think the sites I visit or the ads I click on are anybody's business other than my own.

decibel.places wrote: I

Greg K — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:00:20 +0000

decibel.places wrote:

I think if you are gathering any statistics beyond referrer URL [...] a detailed privacy statement is necessary.

In that case just about every site needs the privacy statement. Every default install of apache logs data, such as IP address, date, time, action on the server, referring page, your browser identifier.

There are still people that are amazed that even that basic information is grabbed.

-Greg

Surely you can get any

Darling — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:43:42 +0000

Surely you can get any private data typed in by logging keystrokes?

decibel.places

Megan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:13:00 +0000

decibel.places wrote:

Getting back to User Tracking, I think if you are gathering any statistics beyond referrer URL (yeah, in PHP it is referer - the programmer who can actually spell is a rare beast) - maybe even for that - a detailed privacy statement is necessary. For really detailed stats, I think you would want the users to agree to a legal TOS, which justifies why you are collecting all that personal info (like a dating site?)

I agree with this. Not that people ever read the TOS or privacy policy, but at the same time there should be some openness about it. I'd feel uncomfortable if I knew a webite was tracking everything I did. For many sites this could also be combined with all the other things they know about you (e.g. Google, Amazon, Facebook). It's like you're being followed.

We are developing a privacy policy for our sites (at work) because we're using Google Analytics.

Edit: okay, I agree with the requiring a privacy policy or TOS bit, not that it should be required for anything beyond referrer logging - somewhere in between probably. If it can be traced to an individual IP, definitely.

I think tracking website

webgeek — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:35:02 +0000

I think tracking website visitor activities is good as long as you use it to improve your website conversion and sales rate and don't spam user or use his personal information for illegal purposes.

There are many such softwares such as RealTimeQuery to track live visitors.

mouse movements, buttons

greg — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:38:31 +0000

mouse movements, buttons pressed, keystrokes...
who cares if someone records all of them. As pr0gr4mm3r said, it's only private data that means anything. Name/address/dob/age/credit card/etc

Welcome to airstrip one! I'm

Darling — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:03:40 +0000

Welcome to airstrip one!

I'm amazed that this sort of thing is allowed to go on (although the internet is notoriously difficult to police). I know, at the moment, it is only being used for more targeted advertising but with the number of blunders with personal information recently (laptops being left on trains, hard drives full of credit card details being sold on eBay etc.)it can't be long before some unscrupulous characters get their hands on our keystrokes.

well, your key presses can

decibel.places — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:07:52 +0000

well, your key presses can be captured... so even if you don't submit anything, the text can be scraped-

I put in a listener for the Enter/Return key on a site, the other keys have codes too

So don't enter your info unless you REALLY trust the site (I almost never enter my DOB - it's great to be 38 again!)

You could also turn off JavaScript, if you're really paranoid, but many sites depend on it (although JS is hell on Section 508 accessibility, are you listening Target?)

What about proxy services like Tor and Vidalia? I installed them after reading about them at d.o. but using them creeped me out!

I don't think where I moved

pr0gr4mm3r — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:51:04 +0000

I don't think where I moved my mouse and what links I clicked on are all that interesting. I am only concerned about keeping my personal information private. If someone wants to know my path through a website, I'm not that concerned.