Myware and Spyware

smooth wombat writes "A new startup aims to provide you with a piece of software that stores all of your sufing habits. Where you go, how long you stay, how many hours online you spend surfing, etc. Why? So you can then offer that information to companies in exchange for something of value. Seth Goldstein's company is in the early testing stages of a service called Root Vaults which right now only works with Firefox. You can choose whether to send this data to your Root Vault, some other service, or just store it on your computer. There are a few restrictions on the use of this data. From the article: 'Any company that uses this data must agree to four basic principles: the data is the property of the user, it can be moved from one service or device to another at will, it can be exchanged for something of value, and the user has the right to know who is using it and how.'"

Comments

Depends on the PRize

[Alex P Keaton in da]

What is this thing of value? If they offer me something that I really want, I would consider it, on my work machine. No way I would let anyone monitor my home habits however. What could monitoring me at work hurt? All they would see is slashdot and various news sites....

Re:Depends on the PRize

[whitehatlurker]

What exactly do you do at home, behind clsoed doors, when nobody is looking?

I correct spelling and grammar on slashdot. It keeps me occupied. And you?

Re:right to know?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why sell it to them? Do what they do and 'LICENSE' it.

Its worth a free ipod

[ad0gg]

Send your browsing habits in and [b]complete a few easy offers[/b] and you can have a free ipod!!!

Make it up

[matt me]

We all know the web isn't the "click here for free mony [sic]" place pop-ups have led us to believe. In deed putting adverts on your personal website, sending free ipod links, selling spam emails, google referrals, beanz, whatever you don't earn money like this. But anyway, why can't we just make up some data and then send it?

Incoming!

[meringuoid]

A perl script to automatically surf pages on a spare machine and fill this thing up with valid-looking but nonetheless phony data, in 5... 4... 3...

finally, software for sufis

[Anonymous Coward]

"a piece of software that stores all of your sufing habits."

As a whirling dervish, I've been looking forward to software to keep track of my total number of spins.

Re:Frequent Shopping Card @ Grocery Store

[sammy baby]

When I read the phone number, I couldn't help singing it. Only there aren't enough digits in a standard US phone number to sing, "One two three fouuuur five, six seven eight niiiine ten, eleven twelve."

Re:Frequent Shopping Card @ Grocery Store

[the chao goes mu]

Singing? 867-5309.

Re:Grocery stores do it too.

[TiggertheMad]

Of course, in the days before discount cards they would have given those discounts to everyone and called them "sales". So, actually, they are giving out fewer discounts than they would have and getting marketing info for free.

True, but you can fight back. For example, Safeway is currently collecting data on one 'Wombat Jones' of South Gnome Alaska. And to further confuse things, I trade these cards around with my friends as often as I can. If you pay cash, they cannot attach the shopping data to any real person, and you still get the discount.

The more they try to gather information about me, the more I feel obligated to isnure that it is incorrect. I don't object to them collecting sales information for stock control purposes, but as soon as they try to figure out who shopper #00023217002 is, I draw the line.