RE: PC-WORLD responds on their use of "Double-click"
From: don (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 08/22/04
- Next message: jack: "RE: New kind of popup"
- Previous message: Doublej: "Re: Java problem - What setting do I need to change?"
- In reply to: Chuck: "PC-WORLD responds on their use of "Double-click""
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 17:35:12 -0700
run a firewall and no ad's popups or general nuicences like
that.
or use firefox from mozilla.org and it will block them too.
they track what ad's you have seen everywhere on the web
(untill you delete your cookies) ,so you don't get too many
ad's of the same. it's the one's locked into your browser
that give ad's for what you have been sufing for.
>-----Original Message-----
>On a recent visit to PC WORLD http://www.pcworld.com/news/
Spybot alerted
>me to multiple attempts to download "Double Click" onto my
machine. I was
>shocked. As a site that has always been "Anti-spyware" I
was concerned, and
>asked them what was up with their use of Double-Click, a
very well known
>piece of Spyware. Well they wrote me back, and I was
thankful for their
>reply. I found it refreshing that they did take the time
to answer me back,
>and thought some of you might enjoy their reply as well,
since it is also
>very educational.
>
>Here now is that reply........
>===============================
>Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 2:44 PM
>Subject: Re: Feedback
>
>Thank you for your message, Chuck. We appreciate your
feedback and take it
>seriously.
>
>First, please be assured PCWorld.com never uses spyware.
>
>Some ad control software alerts about the cookies on
PCWorld.com because
>its settings are not very picky about how it defines
"spyware." Such ad
>control software erroneously reports all cookies as bad.
As PC World editor
>Andrew Brandt notes, "That's just plain silly in some
cases." But
>PCWorld.com *never* captures personal information, such as
a user name.
>
>Such ad control software may, for instance, misreport
Doubleclick, which
>serves ads for PCWorld.com and hundreds of other sites.
PCWorld.com has
>*never* permitted Doubleclick to capture personal
information from
>PCWorld.com visitors. Within that essential consideration
for your
>privacy, Doubleclick gives us the best deal for serving
ads. As a result,
>we are able to keep PCWorld.com, including the extensive
archives of past
>issues and information, open for free.
>
>Some ad control software may also misreport HitBox
cookies. HitBox is the
>agency which is contracted to do counting oin PCWorld.com.
Web sites must
>count visitors in order to keep track of what content is
doing well or
>poorly, understand our audience, improve our services, and
in order to help
>us to sell the advertising which enables us to provide
PCWorld.com to you
>free. HitBox also tracks (as aggregate numbers only) the
screen
>resolutions our visitors use. That lets us know how best
to configure our
>pages for you. In some cases, HitBox data can be very
persistent, with
>the cookie following you from site to site, but that
depends on how some
>companies construct the contracts with Hitbox. In the case
of PCWorld.com,
>the cookie can be used *only* for monitoring traffic on
PCWorld.com and
>other IDG publishing sites. It tells us, for instance
(and, again, only in
>aggregate numbers), how long visitors read articles, and
how many times a
>week or month they visit the site. That is all it is
permitted to do.
>
>PCWorld.com will function normally if you choose to block
those cookies.
>You will still be able to read the content. However,
blocking Doubleclick
>cookies could affect your site experience by allowing the
same ad to be
>displayed to you repeatedly. Ads on PCWorld.com have
"frequency caps" to
>prevent them from being displayed more than once to the
same visitor, but
>if cookies are blocked those frequency caps have no way to
function.
>
>Blocking HitBox could also cause HitBox to report every
time you click a
>link to go to a different page within PCWorld.com as a
different "unique"
>visitor, which artificially inflate our "unique visitors"
count by a tiny
>fraction of a percentage, but would not affect your
experience of the site.
>
>There is an important distinction between such tracking
cookies and
>"spyware." The cookies used on PCWorld.com are *not*
spyware. Spyware is
>actively malicious software which seeks to uncover
personal information
>about you which you may--quite reasonably--consider
private. Some spyware
>attempts to hide its existence. Sometimes it even
installs applications on
>your hard drive. PC World's editors have written many,
many times that we
>are vociferiously against such spyware. It truly is
invasive and unwelcome,
>and in the content our editors have written and will
write, they help you
>and all of our readers get rid of it. There is no spyware
associated with
>visiting PCWorld.com.
>
>Finally, please be aware that some companies which purport
to sell
>"anti-spyware" applications are trying to induce fear to
make the threat
>seem much greater than it is. Such software companies
believe that causing
>unreasonable, unrealistic fear is a great sales tool.
Unfortunately, fear
>sells a lot of worthless $30 programs.
>
>It can be hard to know whom to trust, but we believe it is
not hard when it
>comes to PC World. We have made our position abundantly
clear, and we have
>earned our reputation for editorial excellence and integrity.
>
>In order to understand how seriously we take the privacy
of our site's
>visitors, you may wish to read PCWorld.com's privacy
statement, which you
>can find at www.pcworld.com/resource/privacy.asp You will
probably find
>points two and three (about how we use cookies and clear
GIFs) of
>particular interest.
>
>Thanks again for your message, and for your interest in
PCWorld.com.
>
>Michael England
>PCWorld.com Customer Service
>
>
>.
>
- Next message: jack: "RE: New kind of popup"
- Previous message: Doublej: "Re: Java problem - What setting do I need to change?"
- In reply to: Chuck: "PC-WORLD responds on their use of "Double-click""
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
