WoT sells your browser history

[Joe A.TT]

Guys, when I first heard about this issue I immediately went and read their (WOT's) privacy policy. I must say I wasn't very happy then. Now that Remah has made me aware of another issue, I am feeling more disenchanted than ever. The piss-poor, too-little, too-late excuse posted on their forum doesn't help either. Sorry, I have lost all "Trust" in Web of Trust. Unlike you guys, I am not waiting. I am uninstalling WOT right now!

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Joe A.TT

Guys, when I first heard about this issue I immediately went and read their (WOT's) privacy policy. I must say I wasn't very happy then. Now that Remah has made me aware of another issue, I am feeling more disenchanted than ever. The piss-poor, too-little, too-late excuse posted on their forum doesn't help either. Sorry, I have lost all "Trust" in Web of Trust. Unlike you guys, I am not waiting. I am uninstalling WOT right now!

Whilst an aversion to what they have done is understandable and for some a reason to stop using it, I think this action needs to be separated from the service they provide which I believe still has value. They are after all just one of many who sell on your data, including Windows.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/29869...vertisers.html

[Anupam]

I don't like this news one bit, and I think WOT broke the trust of people.

Also, read on their forum that they turned closed source quite recently.

But, fact remains that WOT is quite a useful service, and I would like to keep using it. If there is some other service as good as WOT without being heavy on my browser, or slowing it down, then please post about it. Maybe I will switch.

I hope WOT get their act clean.

Right now, they have gone from Web of Trust to that of Web of Distrust

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Anupam

I don't like this news one bit, and I think WOT broke the trust of people.

Also, read on their forum that they turned closed source quite recently.

But, fact remains that WOT is quite a useful service, and I would like to keep using it. If there is some other service as good as WOT without being heavy on my browser, or slowing it down, then please post about it. Maybe I will switch.

I hope WOT get their act clean.

Right now, they have gone from Web of Trust to that of Web of Distrust

Unfortunately there is very little trust around anywhere where money is concerned. Pretty much everything we see or come into contact with in life is designed to make money for someone but not us.

Also, for as long as our site policy for links is based on WOT ratings, the mods/adminions don't have any choice but to use it. Checking single links in posts for example could easily be accomplished without the add-on but scrolling checks for the security list or book pages would be impossible without it.

[Sope]

It's rather ironic that if you perform a search for the WOT website reputation at the WOT website it still gets a very health "trustworthiness" score

[trainman261]

I personally simply use the LinkExtend - it's the only toolbar I ever use, and aside from all the other things I use it for, I use it for website ratings. It only seems to work with WOT anymore - but at least it does that. AFAIK, there are no problems with LinkExtend in the way there now are with WOT. I mean, come on WOT, do you not realize how many people are still on Windows 7 because they don't like the spying on Windows 10?

[Joe A.TT]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

They are after all just one of many who sell on your data, including Windows.

That's the problem. If everyone thinks it's okay because everyone else is doing it, then we are the ones that allow them people like WOT to do whatever they want. Should I pirate copyrighted stuff because everyone is doing it? No. I believe we all have get back to making a clear distinction between what is right and what is wrong and not allow others to make that choice for us.

[Remah]

I don't think so because everyone else is doing it to me. I think so because I knew what I was signing up for. I made the decision to trade-off the value of my browsing history for the value of improved security. I don't see that as either good or bad, just somewhere inbetween, say OK.

I had a really good look at MyWOT severak years ago and found their practices for dealing with website owners could be improved. They may have felt, at least until this latest furore, that it was OK to maximise the benefits from the opportunities available to them on the user side. Hopefully they have learned a positive lesson here.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Joe A.TT

That's the problem. If everyone thinks it's okay because everyone else is doing it, then we are the ones that allow them people like WOT to do whatever they want. Should I pirate copyrighted stuff because everyone is doing it? No. I believe we all have get back to making a clear distinction between what is right and what is wrong and not allow others to make that choice for us.

I wasn't implying that it was "okay" because others do it, just highlighting the scale of this type of activity. As an example I see folks complaining about privacy issues all the time yet they have Facebook and Twitter accounts. Considering the majority of stalkers and burglars use social media to target victims, it doesn't make a lot of sense to then complain about privacy issues concerning WOT or other apps with a similar policy.

[deya]

As far as I can tell, you can't even get the WOT extension from their own site now, and it also looks like DuckDuckGo has removed the option to show the WOT ratings in their search results.

So as of now, you don't seem to be able to install WOT from anywhere other than the Google Play Store for Android. Very odd.