“AOL Time Warner’s Netscape unit is snooping on searches performed by users of its latest Navigator browser at Google and other search sites. According to a network traffic analysis performed by Newsbytes, Netscape is capturing Navigator 6 users’ search terms, along with their Internet protocol (IP) address, the date Navigator was installed and a unique identification number.” Read the report at NewsBytes. Our Take: Yet another reason to use the original Mozilla and not the Mozilla-Netscap(-ed) package by AOL.
Netscape Navigator Browser Snoops On Web Searches
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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…just go to Google yourself. I don’t ever bother with the Search function…why go through setting it up when I can bookmark Google & be done with it? (Faster, too…)
Just another example of a company intentionally spying upon and decieving its users. I’m sure they’ll excuse it by saying its only intended to give their valued users a better and more satisfying web-surfing experience.
I think it’s time we pushed congress for legislation to stop this type of business practice. It is both unethical and dangerous. Anyone disagree?
I agree with your take, but you’re showing the Mozilla logo.
Netscape Navigator has a different logo doesn’t it? I was actually hoping that the article was about the release of 0.9.9 Oh well.
Loking forward for Mozilla 0.9.9 for BeOS.
ciao
yc
Oh they have one better than that! They are doing it to pay the people who’s sites they’ve come from. Yeah that’s it!
] why go through setting it up when I can bookmark Google & be
] done with it? (Faster, too…)
Because you can do a search with Google (or your favorite search engine) without using the mouse. In Mozilla and probably NS 6:
1. Ctrl-L takes you to the title bar
2. You type your query, e.g. [britney spears] you hit the down arrow to go to the [Search Google for “britney spears”] option in the pull-down menu that automagically pops ups
3. You hit ENTER and presto, the Google results page is displayed in your window.
Correction, step 1 should be:
1. Ctrl-L takes you to the *address* bar
I don’t think having my information collected is nearly as annoying as having these companies using my hardware, time, bandwidth and money to do so. There should be legislation in place that forces companies to state in plain English in the software license what information is being collected and how it is being sent.
On the other hand, I don’t see how this can be legal at all. I read somewhere that Microsoft could not hide “easter eggs” inside copies of Windows because they sold Windows to government agencies and there could be no hidden functions inside the software. Is it really legal for them to collect certain data and uniquely identify computers that may be used by the FBI and CIA? I certainly hope not.
It could be understandable if they wanted to collect frequently used searchterm, there are reasons for that. But IP adress? That’s just stupid.
I personally don’t care about them storing info about me. I have nothing to hide. But they could at least ask the first time you search for something “is it ok if we keep this information?”, eh.. guess they were hoping that no-one would find out huh?
Oh well. I don’t use Netscape anyway.
You can do the same thing with regular bookmarks too. It just requires quite a few more keystrokes and careful usage of the [Alt]-(menu letter), arrows, [Tab] and [Shift]-[Tab] keys. This is assuming Windows, of course.
Notice that the article says this practice wasn’t outlined in their privacy policy. This also happened recently when MS was caught spying on people’s DVD viewing habits and that wasn’t in the privacy policy either. (It did say the info was being stored on the hard drive, but not collected by Microsoft).
How do these corporations expect ‘consumers’ to trust them with their personal info and ohter such valuables when they keep pulling shit like this?
To the one reader who says he has nothing to hide: Given the radically changing political climate in our country right now, you may have that notion today. But what happens when even mentioning the word ‘terrorism’ in a search could single you out at someone for the FBI to keep an eye on. We’re heading in that direction at breakneck speed. Large institutions controlling information you’re not aware they control: gee, doesn’t that sound like both Big Government and Big Corporate America?
an older version of office has easter eggs… word has a flight simulator, and excel has a pinpall game, or something like that…
So, FBI keeps an eye on me. Let them do so, I still don’t have anything to hide.
I still think that they should inform the user about which information that is being recorded.
But I think that anyone who sends information in plaintext over the net has no-one but themselves to blame if they are being watched. But they should at least be aware that they are sending that information
“So, FBI keeps an eye on me. Let them do so, I still don’t have anything to hide.”
You don’t have to have anything to hide…in fact you don’t even have to do anything illegal for the FBI to “keep an eye on you.” Try reading about the harassment and personality attacks civil rights leaders had to endure from the FBI. Heck, BusinessWeek had an article not too long ago about the FBI raiding the home and making threats to a natural born American citizen of Turkish descent–just because someone where he works called the FBI and made up a lie about an opinion the man supposedly expressed.
Do any search engines do this?
It wouldn’t be hard, a cookie storing a personal id and thats all.
Not only do we have to worry about spywares/adwares, now we have to worry about our own browsers spying on us. Now, I understand that we have a choice of browsers, but some of us like to use Netscape as our preferred browser.
Personally, I never really liked Netscape or IE. Both are bloated and slow. Opera is my favorite browser of choice for windows or linux. It is pretty fast and not as bloated as Netscape or IE. If Opera ever goes this route, I guess I have to start looking for another browser.
>>>If Opera ever goes this route, I guess I have to start looking for another browser.
Where do you think the ad-sponsered version of the Opera browser gets its ads?
People who control the open community (Internet) will create a state
in a state. “Big brother is watching you” becomes a reality.
>>>>>>If Opera ever goes this route, I guess I have to start looking for another browser.
>>>Where do you think the ad-sponsered version of the Opera browser gets its ads?
From the ads server, why does that matter?
If the ads bother you, then pay up.
The only personal information that is recorded is what you tell it.
Not all ads are bad, i personally don’t mind the Opera ads at all, however when i have money again i will be registering.
I still think that this is much ado about very little. The only thing it tracks is queries from the address bar – if it bothers you, don’t use it.
As for the mouseless navigation, I like to avoid the mouse as much as possible; however, a single click on the personal toolbar is as easy as ctrl-L, (I don’t see a lot of computers today without a mouse) and I don’t have to be redirected thru Netscape (which is what I actually meant by being faster).
There are far more insidious things to worry about as invasions of privacy than this.
“The only thing it tracks is queries from the address bar.”
How do you know that for sure? If they’re being dishonest about this (by blatantly leaving out of their privacy policy), what other kinds of information might they be harvesting and not telling us about?
Let’s start making new laws that kick ass on these bad things companies do. Let’s put some of these scum bags in jail.