Difference between revisions of "Talk:IceCat/Web of Trust - WOT"
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Posted on 2011-04-20 18:53:49 by DBCJR | Posted on 2011-04-20 18:53:49 by DBCJR | ||
This is supposedly a safe browser add-on that will help protect against dangerous or fraudulent websites. Users are supposed to rate sites good or bad. But WOT actively rewards users who specialize in giving negative reports. Some of their top-rated users have done tens of thousands of negative reports, and it is obvious they are not really rating sites accurately. WOT's own statistics show that the overwhelming majority of ratings are negative. The developers of WOT are in the business of selling security seals for websites, so they have a vested interest in making website owners afraid of negative ratings. It is typical for harmless websites to have negative ratings, which cause scary warning messages to pop up in the browser of anyone who has installed with WOT plugin. If the website owners aren't using WOT, they may never even know they have been targeted. At the same time, there are a number of dangerous or fraudulent sites which have no ratings or good ratings from WOT. Overall, the ratings are worthless to consumers and possibly very harmful to people running reputable online businesses. Then, when you realize that this plug-in is worse than useless and uninstall it, it is never really completely uninstalled, but leaves hidden traces behind, in the same way that spyware does. Stay away from this terrible product. | This is supposedly a safe browser add-on that will help protect against dangerous or fraudulent websites. Users are supposed to rate sites good or bad. But WOT actively rewards users who specialize in giving negative reports. Some of their top-rated users have done tens of thousands of negative reports, and it is obvious they are not really rating sites accurately. WOT's own statistics show that the overwhelming majority of ratings are negative. The developers of WOT are in the business of selling security seals for websites, so they have a vested interest in making website owners afraid of negative ratings. It is typical for harmless websites to have negative ratings, which cause scary warning messages to pop up in the browser of anyone who has installed with WOT plugin. If the website owners aren't using WOT, they may never even know they have been targeted. At the same time, there are a number of dangerous or fraudulent sites which have no ratings or good ratings from WOT. Overall, the ratings are worthless to consumers and possibly very harmful to people running reputable online businesses. Then, when you realize that this plug-in is worse than useless and uninstall it, it is never really completely uninstalled, but leaves hidden traces behind, in the same way that spyware does. Stay away from this terrible product. | ||
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</pre> | </pre> |
Revision as of 18:41, 5 November 2016
THIS ENTRY IS BLACKLISTED
Issues
I've requested if this add-on should be banned on the behalf of the community via the mailing list directory-discuss@gnu.org.
Reasons
Web Of Trust (WOT) was found guilty to spy and sell the data of it's users via a malware in it's software (malicious feature).
Thus it cannot be in the directory, but this entry should still be open so that it can be used has a warning.
After the revelations the Mozilla foundation deleted it's entry (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/wot-safe-browsing-tool/) about WOT.
Articles
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/01/browsing-history-sold/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOT_Services#Privacy_issues
Backup article
https://web.archive.org/web/20161102080336/http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/01/browsing-history-sold/
From http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2707869/posts Web of Trust WOT Scam - possibly worst Internet scam Ripoffreport.com ^ Posted on 2011-04-20 18:53:49 by DBCJR This is supposedly a safe browser add-on that will help protect against dangerous or fraudulent websites. Users are supposed to rate sites good or bad. But WOT actively rewards users who specialize in giving negative reports. Some of their top-rated users have done tens of thousands of negative reports, and it is obvious they are not really rating sites accurately. WOT's own statistics show that the overwhelming majority of ratings are negative. The developers of WOT are in the business of selling security seals for websites, so they have a vested interest in making website owners afraid of negative ratings. It is typical for harmless websites to have negative ratings, which cause scary warning messages to pop up in the browser of anyone who has installed with WOT plugin. If the website owners aren't using WOT, they may never even know they have been targeted. At the same time, there are a number of dangerous or fraudulent sites which have no ratings or good ratings from WOT. Overall, the ratings are worthless to consumers and possibly very harmful to people running reputable online businesses. Then, when you realize that this plug-in is worse than useless and uninstall it, it is never really completely uninstalled, but leaves hidden traces behind, in the same way that spyware does. Stay away from this terrible product.
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