Deja News doesn_t want to be data news.
Published:
4 May 1999 y., Tuesday
As first reported by Wired News, Deja News has been stealthily recording the IP addresses of users who click a "mailto:" email link on a newsgroup posting. If the email_s sender had registered with Deja News, the company could associate the sender_s profile with the recipient_s email address. The company could even add details about the subject of the newsgroup message that prompted the email response. The potential for tracking correspondence proved worrisome to R. Smith -- the programmer who noticed the bug last weekend -- because Deja News archives messages from Usenet. The many thousands of discussion forums that make up Usenet are not proprietary to Deja News, which simply provides a Web gateway to the postings. The IP tracking also raised the hackles of privacy advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union, that was concerned that the company could be tracking private correspondence. But Deja News said Friday afternoon that it would head off any chance of that happening. "We have used none of this information for any purpose other than to better understand aggregate usage patterns," said Deja News CEO T. Phillips in an email to reporters. "However, we recognize the concern of our users over potential misuse. Therefore, we are implementing a plan to discontinue the collection of this data." Philips said the service had been collecting the data for about a year. He gave no indication as to when the practice will end. The Deja News privacy policy states that the company will "give notice to everyone prior to collecting any personally identifiable information." The company is a member of Truste, a nonprofit watchdog group that makes sure members adhere to its privacy policies. Truste said that it was investigating the IP tracking issue to see if there was any chance the company had violated its privacy-practices statement.
Šaltinis:
Deja News
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Software company announced new structure_ of it_s business.
more »
Microsoft reportedly has called off a plan to mass produce its small-size Surface Mini tablet.
more »
Microsoft has built a new tool to help users of Windows 8.1 devices determine the causes of battery drain during the system's sleep mode.
more »
A new rumor has just started spreading about Microsoft's entrant into the smartwatch business.
more »
Wincor Nixdorf is promoting the new version of its PC/E Direct Marketing software and providing banks with an effective and modern marketing tool to individually address customers on ATMs, self-service terminals or digital signage screens.
more »
Hewlett Packard has launched its answer to Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 - its brand-new HP Pro x2 612. This device is the company's first commercial detachable PC.
more »
Unisys Stealth has been named the recipient of the TechAmerica Foundation American Technology Award (ATA) in cybersecurity. The ATAs represent outstanding achievement, with winning products exemplifying the “Best of” the United States technology sector.
more »
Microsoft showed off a test version of a real-time, spoken-word translation service for Skype calls, the first time the world’s largest software company has demonstrated the breakthrough technology publicly in the United States.
more »
Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Apple Siri and Google Now, was announced at the company's Build conference in April, and is set to arrive on Windows Phone 8.1 devices later this year.
more »
Google Inc plans to offer Wi-Fi network hardware and software at a discount to small and medium-sized businesses.
more »
Dell is making a line of PCs using plastics obtained by expanding its recycling program.
more »