On Mon, 13 Aug 2001, Peter Lairo wrote:
>
> It is so easy nowadays to accidentally install software (e.g., user
> ignorance, viri, piggyback software, Micro$oft) that ANY such program
> could access the URL list in Mozilla (correct me if I'm wrong) - not
> just MediaMatrix.
So let me get this right.
You are starting from the assumption that the user has installed hostile
software on his machine. You are also assuming that the software's intent
is to send the history file to some evil company for Analysis.
You are further saying that the location bar is the way that such a piece
of software would most like to use in order to achieve this goal.
Am I correctly understanding you?
If so, then you should relax. As a programmer I can tell you that using
our native widget Location Bar is possibly one of the hardest ways of
getting hold of the user's history. The easiest is simply to copy the
global history data file.
> There are so many possibilities for unscrupulous "companies" to access
> this database (untrue?) of personal information without properly
> informing the user.
That is quite true. There are many, MANY ways of getting to the history.
> When online privacy is so important, and so easily lost; why make it
> even easier to violate peoples basic right to it?
The location bar doesn't make it easier. The location bar is one of the
most complicated ways of getting the data.
>> that EVERY COMPUTER between you and the remote server knows EXACTLY
>> what URL you visited? Including any passwords you sent?
>
> At least it's limited to that session and those servers, not my entire
> URL list being sent to one (or more) "companies" (and then maybe sold to
> who knows else).
The location bar doesn't contain your "entire URL list". It only contains
the current site you are visiting.
> Im AM worried about other privacy violations too.
This isn't a privacy violation in the least. The only way this can become
a privacy violation is if EVERY other safeguard on the system has been
broken, at which point whether or not the location bar is accessible is
the least of your troubles.
> We should seriously consider the following question: What benefit do
> we have from providing this information - at this potential cost?
We have great benefit for any user who wishes to use a tool that monitors
the location bar. The cost is virtually nothing. Therefore, there is no
particular problem.
--
Ian Hickson )\ _. - ._.) fL
Netscape, Standards Compliance QA /. `- ' ( `--'
+1 650 937 6593 `- , ) - > ) \
irc.mozilla.org:Hixie _________________________ (.' \) (.' -' __________
