WebOfTrust Extension removed from Chrome & Firefox webstores due to them selling user data

[undersc0re]

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/news/349328/web-of-trust-browser-extension-cannot-be-trusted

If you have Web of Trust installed in your browser or on your mobile device, it's time to remove it because they have been spying on their 140 million users.

If you don't know what Web of Trust is, it's a browser extension and android app which will tell you how safe a website is, based off of community ratings.

Quote

The NDR investigation discovered that while you have the WOT extension installed, extensive data collection is going on in the background. But WOT not only collects and records data on a per-user basis, it then analyzes and sells it on to third parties.

NDR found that it was a simple task to link the anonymized data to individual users of the service. The data retrieved included:

• Account name
• Mail address
• Travel plans
• Illnesses
• Sexual preference
• Drug consumption
• Confidential company information
• Ongoing police investigations
• Browser surfing activity including all sites visited

I used this extension a lot and for me to find this out really did shock me. I've since removed the extension and highly advise others to do so.

More information (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOT_Services#Privacy_issues

[Just Monika]

Removed WOT just now upon reading this article. I've been using WOT for many, many years and it's always been one of my core addons in Firefox, and it sickens me that an addon called "Web of Trust" has outright betrayed everyone's trust by selling them out.

[ThinkWithPortals]

Wow, that's ironic. An extension about making the web more trustworthy selling data behind user's backs...

[Trey222]

That is just sickening. I am glad when I thought about using WOT about a year ago I decided not to. 

[haloharry97]

I do not care as long it does not sell my gps location :3 I do not care if they want to know what porn site i go to or what i watch.

[KuJoe]

What makes me laugh is the people who will uninstall these addons but continue using Google products.

[AresKrieger]

Ublock Origin is the only extention I need, it doesn't matter if a website is dangerous if you block all the crap on it now is it, and it blocks google's tracking if you want it to.

[Nowak]

That's wicked disappointing. Why call yourself Web of "Trust" when you yourself can't be trusted?

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, Daring said:

That's wicked disappointing. Why call yourself Web of "Trust" when you yourself can't be trusted?

Something tells me that "WebOfWeSellYourData" would fly with users. 

[Nowak]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

Because no one would use "WebOfWeSellYourData"

Good point x3

[suicidalfranco]

literally scums and twats 

[Murdoch]

I did notice that the Noscript extension had removed the option to check out what WoT says about a particular website, now I know why.

 

Pretty shocking behaviour, I'd be pissed If I used that extension, fortunately I only run Noscript + Ublock origin.

[iamdarkyoshi]

4 hours ago, Nicholatian said:

Sad to see things like this go to the wayside, while the big boys like Google et. al. get away with it with most people ultimately not caring.

 

Not saying you shouldn’t care, though. You most certainly should IMHO.

Well... Google's services are basically free, so I guess farming data and advertising is pretty much the only way to go

[Murdoch]

4 hours ago, KuJoe said:

What makes me laugh is the people who will uninstall these addons but continue using Google products.

The thing about Google is that users are at liberty to make an informed choice about sharing their data. Sure many people are stupid and won't actually be informed, but you can't say Google aren't pretty clear about their business model.

 

With that said, I haven't used Google Search for years, DuckDuckGo FTW!

 

 

[Akolyte]

It's not like this wasn't coming... I used this a couple of times a couple of years ago and removed it soon after.  Something like that is either making money off of a pro version, advertisements or selling user data.  

That is aside from the extension and the website looking as dodgy as that Hola extension.  Chrome has good web filtering anyway.

 

But I think it's a shame that so many things like Web of Trust and Hola etc are all making money off of selling user data.  It not only reduces the trust people have for the web today, but makes the name "Web of Trust" pretty ironic.  

[KuJoe]

3 hours ago, Murdoch said:

The thing about Google is that users are at liberty to make an informed choice about sharing their data. Sure many people are stupid and won't actually be informed, but you can't say Google aren't pretty clear about their business model.

 

With that said, I haven't used Google Search for years, DuckDuckGo FTW!

I wish Google was more transparent, the vast majority of people don't realize that Google is primarily an advertising company. I think I've only met 2 people in real life who actually knew that and I'm talking about people in IT so I can only imagine what the average internet user knows about Google. I'm not saying Google is evil and I still use Google products/services and probably one of the few people who actually pays them for their services, but getting up in arms about a small company who tracks your data when Google knows more than your own family is like being mad that your car smells like smoke when your house is on fire.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 hours ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Well... Google's services are basically free, so I guess farming data and advertising is pretty much the only way to go

So, how much does this extension cost?

[iamdarkyoshi]

11 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

So, how much does this extension cost?

Nothing, and so they had to make money somehow I guess...

[Murdoch]

18 hours ago, KuJoe said:

I wish Google was more transparent, the vast majority of people don't realize that Google is primarily an advertising company. I think I've only met 2 people in real life who actually knew that and I'm talking about people in IT so I can only imagine what the average internet user knows about Google. I'm not saying Google is evil and I still use Google products/services and probably one of the few people who actually pays them for their services, but getting up in arms about a small company who tracks your data when Google knows more than your own family is like being mad that your car smells like smoke when your house is on fire.

 

In my experience, most people are aware that Google uses your Gmail and Search history to sell targeted advertising, where Google themselves act as the go between. What Google don't actually do is sell your personal data directly to any company that wants to buy it. So there's a key distinction there, Google are also completely upfront about this in their terms of service.

 

What WoT did was track people's entire browsing histories, without the knowledge or consent of the people using the extension. And then sold that data directly to third parties, with very little effort made to anonymize the data. And it's worth noting, you say people can't be "up in arms" about what WoT did if they use Google services, yet, the people using WoT are the minority of people that have probably taken action to restrict the data they share. And those actions were completely undermined by a service that was supposed to be used to help protect against these practices.

 

It's also a "slippery slope" point you are making, because it's the same one that is made when companies like Microsoft start data mining, "why do you care Windows 10 snoops on your online behaviour, Google already knows everything anyway". This argument is self defeating because you've conceded that Google have lowered the privacy standards across the board.

 

Which is somewhat frustrating because while I use Google products, I own an Android phone, and I use YouTube. I took actions to prevent much of my personal information being shared with them. I don't use Gmail (although I have an account), I don't use Google Search and I don't use Chrome. My Phone is Rooted and running Cyanogenmod, with the most basic Google Play services package installed (thanks open Gapps) without breaking functionality. And ofc I block all Google-analytics and other data tracking scripts on Websites (I will agree that people really aren't aware of just how much data tracking goes on, when visiting an advertising supported website such as a news website).

 

P.S. all of the actions I take to limit the data I share, would have been completely bypassed had I installed the WoT extension. Luckily I did not, but I easily could have. I was aware of its function, due to integrated links to WoT within the Noscript extension.

 

[KuJoe]

@Murdoch great points. I still feel that the majority of people getting upset over this don't really care about their privacy because of how little effort they put into protecting it. I really hope that the same people upset over this take the time to educate themselves on online privacy instead of just uninstalling the extensions and considering themselves safe. I personally don't care about my own online privacy because I started on the internet long before online privacy was ever a concern so it's not worth it for me.

[Belgarathian]

On 11/5/2016 at 2:02 PM, iamdarkyoshi said:

Well... Google's services are basically free, so I guess farming data and advertising is pretty much the only way to go

So is WebofTrust... But Google at least is up-front about it, asks for permission, and doesn't farm personal data such as user names, etc.