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Hi,
It seems that you did the right thing (I did it myself too).
The first thing I found about it was the following:
Alexa
Virtually nothing in this life is truly free. Somewhere, somehow there is
surely a hidden cost to anything that you get for nothing. Sometimes it is
obvious - you pay directly for the product (that's the best situation
because the cost is obvious). Sometimes it is not as obvious, as with
ad-supported software. In this case, the money is made by selling ad space
on your screen and in front of your eyeballs. Occasionally, as with much
freeware, the cost is simply that the author wants people to see that he or
she can create code or write or do something useful.
Alexa is a free, ad-based product which installs itself into your Internet
Explorer or Netscape browser. It ads a bar which has a series of links into
your browser which gives quite a bit of information about each web page that
you visit. For example, the contact information, related links, reviews of
the site, traffic and some other information is displayed.
Alexa has an additional purpose, however, as is explained in their privacy
policy.
"ALEXA COLLECTS AND STORES INFORMATION ABOUT THE WEB PAGES YOU VIEW, THE
DATA YOU ENTER IN ONLINE FORMS AND SEARCH FIELDS WHILE USING THE ALEXA
SOFTWARE, AND, WITH VERSIONS 5.0 AND HIGHER OF THE BROWSER COMPANION
SOFTWARE, THE PRODUCTS YOU PURCHASE ONLINE. ALTHOUGH ALEXA DOES NOT ATTEMPT
TO ANALYZE WEB USAGE DATA TO DETERMINE THE IDENTITY OF ANY ALEXA USER, SOME
INFORMATION COLLECTED BY THE SOFTWARE IS PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE. ALEXA
AGGREGATES AND ANALYZES THE INFORMATION IT COLLECTS TO IMPROVE ITS SERVICE
AND TO PREPARE REPORTS ABOUT AGGREGATE WEB USAGE AND SHOPPING HABITS."
So what does this and the remainder of a very long privacy policy translate
to in plain English? Alexa watches you surf the internet and transmits the
URLs of the sites that you visit back to their computer system. Their stated
intention is to build up a list of related links for each page that you
visit. They also watch your shopping patterns to get an idea of what you are
purchasing online, and presumably where you are purchasing things on the
internet.
It's very interesting that Alexa is owned by Amazon.Com, and one of the
"great" features of their browser bar is something they call a "shopping
feature". This allows Amazon (and other business partners) to offer you
comparative shopping advice while you surf through other sites.
Alexa now has a well written and lengthy privacy policy, but it was not
always that way. In fact, there is a pending (as of May) class action
lawsuit because Alexa didn't have a privacy policy posted on it's website at
all. This meant that people who downloaded and installed the bar were not
made aware that their movements through the internet were being watched and
recorded.
Personally, I am not thrilled by a corporation watching me surf around the
internet. I am also not interested in having a robot (albeit an intelligent
one) directing me to other shopping sites - this seems to be, well, a little
sleazy and unethical. It kind of feels like, well, if I was shopping at the
local grocery store and someone was walking around handing out
advertisements for the competition. I just don't feel comfortable with this
way of doing business.
I view this product as a major threat to privacy. My advice to anyone would
be to do without it - the product is not that useful. It is most definitely
spyware, although now that Alexa has taken the time to write up a privacy
policy at least we are a little more informed as to what they are recording
and what they are attempting to accomplish.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Waugh" <ianwaugh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <sampah2002@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <ianwaugh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2002 2:17 PM
Subject: Re: here's an awful spam thing
> In-Reply-To: <3D1FB4AC.00001A.27989@xxxx>
> Whoops! This one slipped through the net....
>
> It's actually Alexa and it's a setting in the registry related to
> software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions
>
> I've deleted it now but would appreciate any info on it anyone can
> supply.
>
> Cheers,
> Ian
>
>
> > Thats a new one on me - what is the file extension (.exe, .jpg etc) -
> > make
> > it easier to find out about - and exactly what does Ad-aware say
> > about it???
> > I do know that on two of my systems, one with IE 5.5 and the second
> > with IE
> > 6 I do NOT have any file called "alex"
> >
> >
> >
> > Bob
> >
> >
> >
> > -------Original Message-------
> >
> >
> >
> > From: ianwaugh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Date: Sunday, June 30, 2002 08:31:38 PM
> >
> > To: omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Cc: ianwaugh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Subject: Re: here's an awful spam thing
> >
> >
> >
> > In-Reply-To: <memo.625937@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > Anyone...?
> >
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Ian
> >
> >
> >
> > > Ad-Aware reports a file called Alex which is associated with
> > > Internet
> >
> > > Explorer. Is this a good guy or a bad guy?
> >
> > >
> >
> > > Cheers,
> >
> > > Ian
> >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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