On Wednesday 04 February 2009 08:34:45 Steve Frost wrote: > Hi Chris > > Google toolbar is 100% spyware free. Sorry to go off topic folks, but I feel I should correct that impression so that people can make informed choices. Google toolbar is spyware if certain advanced features are enabled. It reports every page you view to Google in order to build up a profile of your interests for targeted advertising - the very definition of spyware. This 'feature' called PageRank can be disabled in the settings. Google has to make money somehow, they wouldn't pay programmers to create their toolbar software and distribute it free of charge unless there was something in it for them. Googles income comes from targeted advertising and to those ends they are collecting information about you in whatever ways they can. This includes through your searches, through websites hosting Google adverts or hit counters, through reading your email in Google Mail, through Google toolbar, the documents you view or create in their new 'Office' software or their new Chrome web browser. Their whole business model is built upon spying and spyware. If you feel you can trust Google and the governments to which they impart this information upon request, then none of this should matter. -- Stuart Morgan

I'm sorry but that is absolute total uninformed codswallop. Google toolbar is 100% spyware free, period. Pagerank is not spyware, pagerank is a part of the agorithm that Google use to rank web page. The pagerank feature of Google toolbar merely displays the pagerank of the current page. Also by definition, if it's a documented feature and it can be disabled, it's not spyware. Steve Stuart Morgan wrote: > On Wednesday 04 February 2009 08:34:45 Steve Frost wrote: > >> Hi Chris >> >> Google toolbar is 100% spyware free. >> > > Sorry to go off topic folks, but I feel I should correct that impression so > that people can make informed choices. > > Google toolbar is spyware if certain advanced features are enabled. It reports > every page you view to Google in order to build up a profile of your interests > for targeted advertising - the very definition of spyware. This 'feature' > called PageRank can be disabled in the settings. > > Google has to make money somehow, they wouldn't pay programmers to create > their toolbar software and distribute it free of charge unless there was > something in it for them. Googles income comes from targeted advertising and > to those ends they are collecting information about you in whatever ways they > can. This includes through your searches, through websites hosting Google > adverts or hit counters, through reading your email in Google Mail, through > Google toolbar, the documents you view or create in their new 'Office' > software or their new Chrome web browser. Their whole business model is built > upon spying and spyware. > > If you feel you can trust Google and the governments to which they impart this > information upon request, then none of this should matter. >

I think what Stuart's getting at is that if you are concerned about privacy then you need to be aware of what the toolbar will do (track browsing habits and send to google) if you don't disable it. You can always use Firefox if this does bother you, despite what some people say it is generally more stable and secure than IE, plus the search box in the top right provides the functionality of the google toolbar without all the other features. Tony On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:43:47 +0000, Steve Frost <frost.steve@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > I'm sorry but that is absolute total uninformed codswallop. > > Google toolbar is 100% spyware free, period. > > Pagerank is not spyware, pagerank is a part of the agorithm that Google > use to rank web page. > > The pagerank feature of Google toolbar merely displays the pagerank of > the current page. > > Also by definition, if it's a documented feature and it can be disabled, > it's not spyware. > > Steve > > Stuart Morgan wrote: >> On Wednesday 04 February 2009 08:34:45 Steve Frost wrote: >> >>> Hi Chris >>> >>> Google toolbar is 100% spyware free. >>> >> >> Sorry to go off topic folks, but I feel I should correct that impression >> so >> that people can make informed choices. >> >> Google toolbar is spyware if certain advanced features are enabled. It >> reports >> every page you view to Google in order to build up a profile of your >> interests >> for targeted advertising - the very definition of spyware. This 'feature' >> >> called PageRank can be disabled in the settings. >> >> Google has to make money somehow, they wouldn't pay programmers to create >> >> their toolbar software and distribute it free of charge unless there was >> something in it for them. Googles income comes from targeted advertising >> and >> to those ends they are collecting information about you in whatever ways >> they >> can. This includes through your searches, through websites hosting Google >> >> adverts or hit counters, through reading your email in Google Mail, >> through >> Google toolbar, the documents you view or create in their new 'Office' >> software or their new Chrome web browser. Their whole business model is >> built >> upon spying and spyware. >> >> If you feel you can trust Google and the governments to which they impart >> this >> information upon request, then none of this should matter. >> > > > ............................................. > Want to contact the local community? > Please visit Hampshire Parish Jottings > http://hants.parishjottings.org.uk > ............................................. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ENG-HAMPSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

On Wednesday 04 February 2009 13:43:47 Steve Frost wrote: > I'm sorry but that is absolute total uninformed codswallop. Sigh. > Pagerank is not spyware, pagerank is a part of the agorithm that Google > use to rank web page. > > The pagerank feature of Google toolbar merely displays the pagerank of > the current page. When page rank display is enabled in Google Toolbar it contacts the server with your IP address and the URL of the page to establish the ranking. This information is stored by Google alongside the other data they collect linking the IP address to searches etc. Would you dispute this? > Also by definition, if it's a documented feature and it can be disabled, > it's not spyware. That's what the definition has evolved to become, it's not the original definition by any means. The original usage from the late 90s refered to any software or hardware which automatically 'phoned home' information about your computer, your computer usage or your web browsing habits. Following an uproar from users of such products many firms ceased the behaviour, some asked explicit permission to obtain this information whilst the rest continued as before but tried to hide the behaviour from the end user. It was this last group that has effectively redefined the wider understanding of what is meant by Spyware. Those larger firms still collecting this information, such as Google, have also tried to redefine the term to distance themselves from the attached bad press. Collecting such personal information such as browsing habits is still deeply unpopular with people if they are aware it is happening. With all that your internet usage can say about you: your hobbies and interests; what you buy (online); who you work for; what you read; your political affiliations; which banks you have accounts with and more intimate details (if you catch my drift). Should evidence of this be needed, look to Phorm, an organisation which last year signed a deal with major UK ISPs including BT and Virgin Media to track your browsing habits. It caused a major storm with questions in Parliament, Police investigations into violations of Privacy and Data Protection laws and users besieging their ISPs with complaints resulting in a climbdown. People were aghast at the idea this information would be collected, even though Phorms system would have stripped the data of all identifying information including IP addresses. The irony is that Google et al have been collecting exactly this information, without stripping IP address for years, and continue to retain every last bit of it in vast digital archives. More recently they have begun to make this data available to governments on request. Most disturbingly in China where it lead to the arrest of citizens showing interest in democracy and other banned topics in their Google searches, page views and forum postings. Now I should be interested to know what, if anything of the above, is not accurate (or absolute total uninformed codswallop). -- Stuart Morgan

I think you need to make the distinction between malicious spyware, say a trojan that gathers data and returns it to a company who then sell it on and software like Google's toolbar which by definition is spyware however it is far from malicious On Wed, 4 Feb 2009 16:46:40 +0000, Stuart Morgan <stuart@tase.co.uk> wrote: > On Wednesday 04 February 2009 13:43:47 Steve Frost wrote: >> I'm sorry but that is absolute total uninformed codswallop. > > Sigh. > >> Pagerank is not spyware, pagerank is a part of the agorithm that Google >> use to rank web page. >> >> The pagerank feature of Google toolbar merely displays the pagerank of >> the current page. > > When page rank display is enabled in Google Toolbar it contacts the server > with your IP address and the URL of the page to establish the ranking. This > > information is stored by Google alongside the other data they collect > linking > the IP address to searches etc. Would you dispute this? > >> Also by definition, if it's a documented feature and it can be disabled, >> it's not spyware. > > That's what the definition has evolved to become, it's not the original > definition by any means. The original usage from the late 90s refered to > any > software or hardware which automatically 'phoned home' information about > your > computer, your computer usage or your web browsing habits. Following an > uproar > from users of such products many firms ceased the behaviour, some asked > explicit permission to obtain this information whilst the rest continued as > > before but tried to hide the behaviour from the end user. It was this last > group that has effectively redefined the wider understanding of what is > meant > by Spyware. Those larger firms still collecting this information, such as > Google, have also tried to redefine the term to distance themselves from > the > attached bad press. > > Collecting such personal information such as browsing habits is still > deeply > unpopular with people if they are aware it is happening. With all that your > > internet usage can say about you: your hobbies and interests; what you buy > (online); who you work for; what you read; your political affiliations; > which > banks you have accounts with and more intimate details (if you catch my > drift). > > Should evidence of this be needed, look to Phorm, an organisation which > last > year signed a deal with major UK ISPs including BT and Virgin Media to > track > your browsing habits. It caused a major storm with questions in Parliament, > > Police investigations into violations of Privacy and Data Protection laws > and > users besieging their ISPs with complaints resulting in a climbdown. People > > were aghast at the idea this information would be collected, even though > Phorms system would have stripped the data of all identifying information > including IP addresses. The irony is that Google et al have been collecting > > exactly this information, without stripping IP address for years, and > continue > to retain every last bit of it in vast digital archives. > > More recently they have begun to make this data available to governments on > > request. Most disturbingly in China where it lead to the arrest of citizens > > showing interest in democracy and other banned topics in their Google > searches, page views and forum postings. > > Now I should be interested to know what, if anything of the above, is not > accurate (or absolute total uninformed codswallop). > -- > Stuart Morgan > > ............................................. > Want to contact the local community? > Please visit Hampshire Parish Jottings > http://hants.parishjottings.org.uk > ............................................. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ENG-HAMPSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >