Sitemeter.com, spyware cookies, and bad PR

Many of you use a service called Sitemeter to monitor your traffic; I do, or at least I used to. According to this post, the service is allowing a third-party spyware firm to plant cookies on their customers' Web site visitors. The company was also apparently unwilling to respond to allegations, but did admit to at least one user that they have been beta testing a third-party cookie.

An excerpt from Geek News Central: "It has become obvious to me that the people behind Sitemeter are unwilling to respond to the allegations that a significant number of people have brought forth on their planting of third party cookies on their customers website visitors. I have sent an e-mail every day since this story broke asking them to respond to the charges that have been levelled against them. It is in my personal opinion that people need to run as fast as they can away from this service."

I have removed the Sitemeter counter from Blatherings, Inkygirl, and my Filk FAQ, will be removing it from my other blogs as well. I'm disappointed because I have been using Sitemeter's service for several years and been happy with it up to now, and also just bought an upgraded account for Inkygirl.

Sitemeter had every right to partner with anyone they wished, of course. Their biggest mistake, however, was not informing their customers what was going on; their privacy policy hadn't even been updated by the time the changes were made -- third-party cookies were already being sent out through customer sites without people's knowledge. Their second biggest mistake (which may prove fatal to the company) is not responding IMMEDIATELY to accusations. Instead, they've shut down comments-posting capability in their official blog.

Even if Sitemeter somehow manages to pull itself out of this mess, I have chosen to remove Sitemeter from my blogs because:

1. That little multi-coloured logo is no longer going to be a relatively neutral addition to sites; many are going to associate it with spyware, and may actively avoid sites that display it.

2. I no longer trust the company.

And now I'm looking for another online stats service. Any suggestions?

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UPDATE:

It seems that the cookie-placing firm had also approached another stats company called StatCounter, but they said no, so I might check them out. Also, a word of caution: since you probably have visited more than one site recently which uses SiteMeter, you may have more than once instance of the specificclick cookie in your cookie list to delete. In Firefox, I accessed my cookie list by going to Preferences - Privacy - Cookies, then clicked on 'View Cookies.'

Additional info:

- Betrayal of Trust: Is Sitemeter.com planting 3rd party cookie?

SiteMeter and Spyware (sort of): "While this is not true spyware per se - there is not physical software installed, nevertheless it is a tracking cookie which is being installed without permission."

- Wikipedia entry on 'cookies' (see info under "Privacy and third-party cookies")

Spyware Cookies: "A spyware cookie is any cookie that crosses the line from helpful to intrusive. Spyware cookies are not interested in making your surfing experience better; the sole interest is to gather free marketing data to promote a sale of a product or service."


- How to control cookies and How to delete cookies from AboutCookies.org.




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