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Myware and Spyware

Posted by Zonk on from the choose-but-choose-wisely dept.

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.'"

4 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How much by croddy · · Score: 2, Informative

    it's like a focus group. the purpose is not to gain statistically significant demographic information, but rather to understand why and how people exhibit certain behaviors.

  2. Google is all over this market. by gasmonso · · Score: 1, Informative

    They're going to have a tough time competing with the vast amounts of data that Google is collecting on everyone and has been collecting for some time.

    http://religiousfreaks.com/
  3. Re:right to know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    It seems to me that they are going for the licensing bit music companies are using sort to speak. They are paying to use it but they don't own it in the end. Personally, i don't think much good can come out of this but I guess we will see. (Who's to say what my privacy is worth but yourself. To me, it's worth more then "something of value" since that value is probably very very low (info on one person is useless, you need alot of people in order for it to begin gaining some use)

  4. Re:Who owns the information? by 31415926535897 · · Score: 3, Informative
    One question I ask myself is if I can copyright my personal data. And when I see the information being misused, can I then sue for copyright infringement?

    That's a really good idea, but I am pretty sure that your personal data would be classified as fact and therefore not "copyrightable." Although, watch for the lawsuits against MLB and the MLBPA for the licensing of player statistics. If the MLB wins, then I think you have a good case for copyrighting your personal data.