December 14, 2003

• This sounds very interesting, but I don't think I'm peachy keen about switching away from my Opera Browser, or downloading any program that tracks my internet use. I have a world domination to plan, you know. Of course, the option would be then to download Mozilla to try this, and keep Opera for the important alien transmissions.
• The program doesn't track your surfing. It only marks the sites you visit when you press the 'Stumble' button on the bar. Not to start into a browser war or anything (oh.. what the hell), but I don't think there's anything that Firebird+extensions can't do that Opera can. /former tenor
• Opera is a nice program and very fast, but the main advantage is that it is already on my computer. I am very lazy, and don't feel like redoing my bookmarks.
• Previously discussed on MeFi one year ago. "Yeah, their privacy statement was written by a very sneaky legal team. Basically it says, We won't divulge your personal information without your permission. However, if you install the toolbar, you've given us permission to hand out your email address, IP address and browsing history to anyone and everyone that will give us a buck for it." The consensus was that this was a crappy program with a shady private policy. I would advise against it.
• naxosaxur: Are we trying to make this like Mefi? Read the 2nd following comment from your link : "StumbleUpon may share information about you with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties. However, we only divulge aggregate information about our users and will not share personally identifiable information with any third party without your express consent." I don't see anything about giving consent by installing the toolbar. Consensus? That thread has a total of 10 comments, 7 of which don't relate to StumbleUpon's policy/practice. 1 which you quoted, 1 which I quoted and 1 that selectively cut-n-paste this from the privacy policy: With Whom Does StumbleUpon Share Information? StumbleUpon may share information about you with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties. and prompted the comment that you quoted and was refuted by the comment that I quoted.
• Well, one solution, if people are interested in trying this, but don't feel like being watched, would be to have a dedicated browser. I'm already stuck with three browsers - Opera, Netscape (I like the mail program) and IE (because the world is evil). So I only use the StumbleUpon with one browser, and they have no idea what else I look at.
• Gyan, If you did any research on StumbleUpon, you would quickly see that spyware detection programs such as Ad-Aware and Spybot flag/quarantine/remove the StumbleUpon toolbar, as it has been recognized and acknowledged as spyware. I'm just trying to protect unknowing Monkeys from installing unethical programs on their computers. Nothing more than a public service announcement, okay?
• naxosaxur Your original PSA mischaracterised the thread you linked to, and selectively quoted to support your view. Hardly a service. Here's the current privacy policy. Read Q21 in their FAQ. Ad-aware removes the toolbar since it communicates with their server. But the FAQ tells you what communication is occuring. Look at this comprehensive listing of spyware toolbars where toolbars are characterized as L(legitimate), X(malware/spyware), O(open to debate) and ?(unknown). Google toolbar, for example, is L. So is StumbleUpon.
• Hmm, still, I'd agree with jb, StumbleUpon could too easily come back to bite me and my plans for world domination. Which I do not have. Nope. Nothing to see here.