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Netscape Pays $100,000 To Settle Privacy Issue
crazyhorse44 writes ""The New York Attorney General's office said on Friday Netscape would pay $100,000 as part of a settlement of complaints about a feature used by the unit of America Online to track what users downloaded online. Netscape, once the browser pioneer that has fallen second to Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer in recent years, would also delete all URLs and related data it has obtained through its SmartDownload browser software and undergo privacy audits, the Attorney General's office said. The settlement comes after a two-year probe, begun in 2002, into Netscape's collection and retention of information that identified files downloaded by users, which contradicted its statement to consumers that none of the information was saved." Story at Wired."
"The settlement comes after a two-year probe, begun in 2002"
Here was the first Linux www browser worth that name, that wasn't perfect but it was working, that became more and more bloated and unstable, while at the same time Microsoft decided to give away IE for free, effectively killing off Netscape. Then Netscape sold out to AOL like a cheap whore and the browser has now become a giant marketing turd.
The happy end of the story ? Netscape released the source code of the browser, enabling the Mozilla project to begin. Thanks guys !
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Read obliterated, wiped out of existence.
Best euphemism I've seen in a while :)
(Disclaimer: I use nothing but mozilla)
Why do they do this??
What's the point of saving this kind of information? Can anyone actually come up with a good reason for saving this info. I mean, really, who cares what files people download (except RIAA and MPAA that is).
I fail to see what use AOL/Netscape will have of this info.
In regards to the low amount of money, it was probably because they were only saving filenames. It may be personal info, but IMHO still not too bad. I mean, if they'd tell me they were collecting this, I probably wouldn't care, even if I was using Netscape.
Mozilla lends $100,000,000 to AOL to keep Netscape alive. Despite trying to get back in the news with a dead products after the IE steamroll, and competition from Opera and AOL-sponsored Mozilla, Netscape is failing miserably.
Such 'settlements' are illusory and just PR stunts.
Wired News? Or Wierd news?
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Given the number of Netscape users these days, that should be about $25,000 each :-)
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Marketing. Simply marketing. If you analyze the data you get and find that people who tend to download items of type A (say, Pr0n) also download items of type B (say, MP3s of Britney Spears) you can sell that information to the mainstream pr0n merchants for loads of money so they know they should get Britney to do a centre spread. To rehash an old joke:
Stephen
"Don't write down to your readers, the only people less intelligent than you can't read" - Sign on Newspaper Office Wall
Since when is what files you download private? I mean is it, or is it not legal for me to post the access_log for my website publicly?
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Ouch! Georgi Guninski must be feeling a little hard done by; he resolved a number of privacy problems for Netscape, but probably only got $1000 a pop.
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