Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

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mseliger
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Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by mseliger » 2016-11-01, 20:56

It seems that the Firefox add-on Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data (like browsing history) and sells the data to other companies. There was a report in TV in Germany. See also here:
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/01/browsing-history-sold/
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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Moonraker » 2016-11-01, 21:31

well seeing as the large majority of extensions can and need to read every website you visit,i suppose the ability to sell your data is always there for most extensions.
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Web of Trust sold user browsing histroy and more.

Unread post by half-moon » 2016-11-01, 21:49

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/01/browsing-history-sold/

Just another reason to not trust WoT.

EDIT: Shit, didn't see a topic like this already existed. I go through forum sections from bottom to the top.

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-11-02, 00:29

Merged the two topics.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by mseliger » 2016-11-03, 19:54

Mozilla has deleted the add-on from the add-on site because it does not fit with the Mozilla rules for add-ons.
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dark_moon

Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by dark_moon » 2016-11-03, 20:15

The same also happened with Ghostery.
Mozilla doesn't remove this yet, but it sold the data too.

GreenGeek

Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by GreenGeek » 2016-11-03, 20:26

But Ghostery has long admitted to selling certain data and gives you the choice to opt out - quite different.
(I quit using Ghostery some time ago when I started using uMatrix.)
Anyway, WOT has been known to be undesirable for a long time. Same for many others that make similar claims.
Trust (almost) no one - protect yourself whenever possible.

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Tomaso » 2016-11-03, 21:24

Really, this comes as a surprise to you?
I've read nothing but warnings against using WOT for years!
Even at Firefox's add-ons site, people have been calling it a scam and begging Mozilla to remove it for as long as I can remember.
About time they finally took action!

Thehandyman1957

Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Thehandyman1957 » 2016-11-04, 02:44

I saw the writing on the wall years ago when Avast tried to bundle it with their security software. :thumbdown:

My big heads up with WOT was when they started taking web sites I used all the time "for years" without
any problems and giving them bad ratings.

The problem with these kind of rating programs is that it gives unprecedented power to a company to take
bribes from monied interests to keep "unwanted" web sites from getting good ratings.

It's the same old game of "protection racket" that the mob uses.

So if you have a web site that comes against say, government corruption or even just comes out with your dirty
laundry and you want to shut down the site quietly, you just pay to give it a bad rating,
and suffocate their advertising money and soon they are done.

There is huge money to be made with a ratings system that most think is legit.
And super easy to shut down those that you want to be gone.

As I understand it, WOT was supposedly controlled by user input. But how easy is it
to get a bunch of people to write bad reviews for a web site to make it look dangerous. :think:

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-11-04, 09:27

Thehandyman1957 wrote:As I understand it, WOT was supposedly controlled by user input. But how easy is it
to get a bunch of people to write bad reviews for a web site to make it look dangerous.
Let's just say: "Boaty McBoatface" -- if you get the reference, you know what I'm talking about when dealing with public rating systems ;)
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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by coffeebreak » 2016-11-04, 13:59

Tomaso wrote:About time they finally took action!
Agreed. Sad comment on Mozilla that it took a press exposé for them to remove it. Same for Google and Chrome Store.

But looks like they're still allowed to offer the extension directly on their own website.

Mywot.com displays a big green 'Add to Firefox' or 'Add to Chrome' button on its front page, depending on what type of browser you use to load the page.

Moonchild wrote:Let's just say: "Boaty McBoatface" -- if you get the reference, you know what I'm talking about when dealing with public rating systems
Any monetarily-free "safety service" whose business is to go where you go and vet the sites you visit can be presumed to collect and sell your data, IMO -- and said service also has plenty of incentive and opportunity to distort and/or misuse its ratings for gain, regardless whether it crowdsources the rating process.

Beauty of it for these "service"-providers is the opportunity, if they care to use it, to take it out of both ends. Crowdsourcing makes it easier to obfuscate who does what, but ultimately, I believe this does not come down to end-users with pitchforks.

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Moonchild » 2016-11-04, 14:50

coffeebreak wrote: Moonchild wrote:Let's just say: "Boaty McBoatface" -- if you get the reference, you know what I'm talking about when dealing with public rating systems

Any monetarily-free "safety service" whose business is to go where you go and vet the sites you visit can be presumed to collect and sell your data, IMO -- and said service also has plenty of incentive and opportunity to distort and/or misuse its ratings for gain, regardless whether it crowdsources the rating process.

Beauty of it for these "service"-providers is the opportunity, if they care to use it, to take it out of both ends. Crowdsourcing makes it easier to obfuscate who does what, but ultimately, I believe this does not come down to end-users with pitchforks.
XD very wordy way of saying "I didn't get the reference"
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by coffeebreak » 2016-11-04, 14:52

Moonchild wrote:XD very wordy way of saying "I didn't get the reference"

Which is...?

To elaborate: I took the reference to be this and understood it as a comment on the public's judgment, intelligence etc.

I'd say responsibility for problems with these "public ratings" services lies with the entities that own them, rather than with the people they make use of.

You may have found it wordy, but it's my point of view.

If you were referring to something else, or meant something else by the reference, what was it? XD

Thehandyman1957

Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Thehandyman1957 » 2016-11-05, 03:39

Moonchild wrote:Let's just say: "Boaty McBoatface" -- if you get the reference, you know what I'm talking about when dealing with public rating systems ;)
Or,
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world ... .html?_r=1
The initiatives are often hilarious but don’t often succeed. Remember when Slovak lawmakers overrode the public’s vote in 2012 to rename a pedestrian bridge after the actor Chuck Norris? Or the debacle in Austin, Tex., a year earlier, when people unsuccessfully tried to name the city’s waste management service after Limp Bizkit’s frontman, Fred Durst?

The point is, the public can be swayed very easily. Heck, look at our circus, er I mean elections. :crazy:

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Pallid Planetoid » 2016-11-05, 11:51

GreenGeek wrote:But Ghostery has long admitted to selling certain data and gives you the choice to opt out - quite different.
Where is this "opt out" setting? Is this it in the settings "general" tab:
Ghostery Privacy.png
and if not then where? Thanks. ;)
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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Aube Bleue » 2016-11-06, 03:56

I just noticed that DuckDuckGo has removed Web of Trust from their settings. They're pretty reactive! Pale Moon's default search engine doesn't disappoint privacy-wise. :thumbup:

https://www.reddit.com/r/duckduckgo/com ... uckduckgo/

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by coffeebreak » 2016-11-06, 07:04

Mywot is no longer offering the extension on its own site either that I could see (they do still link to Google Play where it appears to still be available for download.)

Ghacks follow-up article: Mozilla and Google remove WOT extension from Store

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by Pallid Planetoid » 2016-11-07, 13:46

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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by 1210_bex » 2016-11-07, 17:51

For those of us who don't have a photographic memory regarding the quality all websites, WOT provides/provided a quick reminder, even though it had flaws as mentioned here.

Any suggestions for an alternative that runs on Pale Moon?


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Re: Warning: Web of Trust (WOT) harvests your data

Unread post by coffeebreak » 2016-11-08, 15:21

No longer offered on Google Play (mywot still links there, but store has removed it).


For the curious, this is the bug that asks Mozilla to remove wot from AMO: bug #1314332.
Not especially long, and all of it interesting (at least to me).

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