| reply to Daemon
Re: AIM now bundling weatherbug... ugh ----------------------------------------------------------
Once you have that click-trail, you'll presumably deliver targetted advertising.
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For all of you who are concerned about WeatherBug.com being spyware, yet again, I need to insist (and concur with Omidius) that we do not collect any usage data, or any click trails. In fact, we don't even (to the best of my knowledge) target advertising, with the one exception of when you register, you get to choose which advertiser you would like to sponsor your installation.
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First off weatherbug is nothing more than a spyware program that directs your computer to homeland security... YEP GOOD OLE HOMELAND SECURITY. I have no beef with the gov't, its just I don't like being spied upon when the real terrorists no how to get around it. Blah. Homeland security just means more invasion into the privacy and little if any effect on terrorism. THE NEW SCARE.
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We do not report any usage data to Homeland security, either of our product or of anyone's browsing habits. Personally, if you want to look at the Westminster Dog Show Swimsuit Edition website, I could care less, and honestly so could the government. That aside, the sheer volume of weather data we deal with is more than enough to handle without worrying about finding out what 30+ million users are doing at any one time. Do you have any idea how much data 7000 weather stations produce in 24 hours when reporting every 3 seconds?
Second, while we do have a relationship with Homeland Security, it is to provide our weather data, and not any information on users. Period. Specifically, in the event of a biologic/radiologic/etc. attack, wouldn't you kind of like to know where the fallout is going to be so you WON'T be there? The National Weather Service simply cannot provide the level of accurate data that we can (we have 5 times the weather stations they have and ours are constantly reporting, not delayed)
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Check out the magazine 2600 vol 20 #4 winter 2003-2004. Or for further proof check out »starlight.pnl.gov/. Read the language of the privacy statement you'll understand if you do. It's simply packet switched networks. So use a sniffer and find out for yourself if you don't believe my claim.
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GodKhaine, have you ever run a webserver? This is standard logging data (I take it you're referring to the gathering of IP information yadda yadda) that IIS can provide. Shoot, you think THAT's being reported. Heck, even if we did, we'd be reporting it to a government that has trouble upgrading from a 40 year old computer to streamline it's tax filing system, and couldn't audit its way out of a paper bag. |
