FIREFOX Addon

[tony]

I wasn't to sure where to put this. I have just come across this addon and after using it definitely won't be getting rid of it.
http://www.newtabking.com/index.php

LifeHacker states..

Firefox on Windows only: Firefox extension New Tab King adds a useful dashboard with recently used bookmarks and links to the Firefox blank tab page, so you can quickly access frequently used web sites.

Using the extension is simple enough—just use the Ctrl+T shortcut key, and the new tab page will show up with shortcuts to launch applications, the most used web sites and recently closed tabs—very similar to Google Chrome's new tab page, but in a list instead of a grid. Although you can customize the background image, there aren't a lot of other options to choose from—but it's an interesting extension that will hopefully get better over time.

Personally I love it so far.

Anyone else using it?

Tony

[Bob]

I was going to install it until I took a glance at their privacy policy. I can't pretend to understand these legal ramblings. But to my ... er ...innocent eyes it does seem like they're hedging their bets a bit much. For instance:

Our Disclosure of Your Information

We do not sell, lend or rent any personally identifiable information about you to any third party outside of NewTabKing, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, operating companies and other related entities. We only disclose personally identifiable information to third parties when it is reasonably necessary in order to allow us to perform our services.

Then a few lines later:

Additionally, NewTabKing may share transfer or assign your personally identifiable information if NewTabKing is merged or reorganized into a new entity or into a parent affiliate, subsidiary, operating company or other related entities.

Does that mean I have to trust them not to sell out to someone unscrupulous?

But maybe this is all pretty standard anyway...

Bob
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paranoid android

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Bob

We only disclose personally identifiable information to third parties when it is reasonably necessary in order to allow us to perform our services.

This gives them permission to do anything. Who is to determine what "allows them to perform their services"? To me it looks like a very fancy tracking cookie!

[bk_7312]

Do software companies always tell the truth regarding your privacy in their privacy policies (even in a fancy way)? What if they accidentally (or purposely) leave out something important? I for one never really reads them because I'll always throw them to EULAlyzer.

[tony]

Interesting, I hadn't read all that jargon, but now I have I have set my Cookie Monster addon to reject their cookies. Will that resolve the matter?

Also did you know that Google is doing the same thing?? There is an opt out clause but you have to search and find it. At this present moment I can't remember how and where it is!! But do search for it as Google are collecting your info and selling it on.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by tony

Also did you know that Google is doing the same thing?? There is an opt out clause but you have to search and find it. At this present moment I can't remember how and where it is!! But do search for it as Google are collecting your info and selling it on.

Yes, I don't like the idea of search engine profiling. There's an interesting suggestion from a certain "anon" on the Best Free Web Browser page [Mon, 04/27/2009 - 15:31]: a Firefox extension called TrackMeNot.

The developers claim it "Protects users against search data profiling by issuing randomized queries to popular search-engines. " (Perhaps not exactly ecologically sound?)

The anonymous user who suggested it seems to have an uncannily high level of experience. So I think I'll give it a go - no idea how to test it though.

[Bob]

After giving this a go out of curiosity I disabled it because, to me at least, it seemed a waste of resources - bot for myself and for the environment.

I'm also skeptical about how effective it might be for any 'serious' prevention of search engine profiling.

You can view the contents of the queries it fires out every few seconds and my first impression was that a search engine profiler might classify you as a 'newsomaniac' - itself perhaps not such a good thing in certain countries.

Furthermore, if you had some proclivity you wished to conceal - like being a trainspotting anorak or a closet freeware freak? - I suspect that spikes related to high relative frequencies of 'personal interest' searches might emerge in the profiling.

Just my impressions...