DAEMON Tools SearchBar: Privacy Policy and Issues

[vik]

http://www.whenu.com/products/searchbar/mini/DaemonTools/privacy.html

---

Privacy Policy


UPDATED: SEPT 9, 2005

By downloading WhenU Daemon Tools SearchBar ("the Software"), you give permission to WhenU.com ("WhenU") to display relevant contextual information and offers. The Software selects which ads and offers to show you based on several factors, including: Web pages you visit, search terms you use while searching online, content of the Web pages you view and your local zip code (if you have supplied it). SearchBar displays contextual ads and offers in the form of rotating text links accessible from within the application.

The Software protects your privacy by uploading a database of content in small chunks to your desktop and then determining on your desktop whether to retrieve information from WhenU or third-party servers. To protect your privacy, the same database of content is sent to all desktops. Decisions regarding which ads to retrieve to an individual desktop are all processed on the individual user's desktop - and isolated from WhenU servers. In this way, WhenU is able to deliver to you relevant coupons, information and advertisements without sending all of your browsing activity back to WhenU and without establishing any profile about you (even anonymously) on WhenU servers.

Your privacy is also protected in the following manner:

Your personally-identifiable information is not required in order to use the software. WhenU does not know your individual identity and does not attempt to discern it in any way.
As you surf the Internet, your "clickstream data" (i.e. a log of all the sites you visit) is not transmitted to WhenU or any third party server.
WhenU does not assemble any personally-identifiable browsing profiles of you or your individual machine.
WhenU does not assemble any anonymous machine-identifiable browsing profile of you or your machine.
WhenU does not track which ads and offers you see as an individual user - all of our analysis and tracking of ads is done in the aggregate.

The Software does send back a limited amount of information from your desktop in order to count the number of users in our network and optimize the performance and relevance of the ads. For example, the Software may send WhenU a communication that includes information about the webpage you were viewing when you saw or clicked on a particular ad. WhenU has intentionally designed these communications back to WhenU to be highly protective of user privacy, in the following ways:

Each individual desktop is assigned an anonymous, unique machine ID. This machine ID is used only to enable WhenU to count unique, active desktops in the network. The machine ID is not used to determine which ads to serve individual users or to create browsing profiles of users.
When ads are requested and/or displayed by the Software, impressions and click-throughs, including the factor (e.g., the URL, keyword, search term, or some combination thereof) that caused the ad to be displayed are reported to WhenU. To protect your privacy and prevent WhenU or any third party from assembling individual user profiles or knowing which websites you visit, your unique machine ID is intentionally excluded from these limited ad-optimization communications sent back to WhenU.

The Software does not place any cookies on your desktop. It is possible that a third party advertising on our network might place a cookie on your desktop. If you wish to opt-out from third party cookies, please click on the following link and follow the instructions: http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp.

Certain text links within SearchBar represent paid listings provided by third-party partners. Clicking on these links will subject you to the privacy policies of such third-party partners, which may be different than the terms described in this Privacy Policy. Certain usage statistics may be collected by such third-party partners for the purpose of detecting fraud and otherwise monitoring the integrity and performance of their product or service.

WhenU is committed to serving highly relevant, contextual coupons and offers, while still providing consumers with industry-leading privacy protection. For any further questions about our privacy policy, please email privacy@whenumail.com.

WhenU may update this Privacy Policy at any time. Updates to this Privacy Policy may be found at http://www.whenu.com/products/search...s/privacy.html.
For any material change to the privacy protective nature of the Software, WhenU will request your permission prior to making such change.


WhenU.com, Inc. © 2005 All Rights Reserved

[Doggerz]

maybe its just me...

Ok so we led to believe that whenu.com can be trusted, after their known problems in the past. So they have changed their working practises have they ?.
So why do they still have a user license aggreement that can't make its mind up ... ill cut and paste instead of adding the entire thing ....
in the license section we get:-

WhenU reserves the right to periodically update and/or upgrade the Software at WhenU's discretion. Your installation of the Software indicates your acceptance of potential future updates and/or upgrades to the Software. For any material change to the privacy protective nature of the Software, WhenU will request your permission prior to making such change.

thats cool it will ask us when it updates sounds good .... untill ....
we get to diclaimer of warranty

YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES THAT IT IS FREE OF DEFECTS AND ERRORS, FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGING. WHENU RESERVES THE RIGHT TO PERIODICALLY UPDATE AND/OR UPGRADE THE SOFTWARE AT THE COMPANY'S DISCRETION. YOUR INSTALLATION OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF POTENTIAL FUTURE UPDATES AND/OR UPGRADES TO THE SOFTWARE.


As you can see there is definitly a section saying youve already agreed to any changes we make in the future ... So if they decide to go back to their bad ways, who can stop them. 'WE' the users have already agreed to it and there is nothing we can do about it ..

Hmmm trustworthy, I think NOT..

[vik]

as replied in another thread:

Well, your concern is understandable (nowdays it is possible to see similar EULA statements in various software EULAs. As far as I remember last Netscape browser EULA also has something like that)

Regarding WhenU: they are now desperately trying to clean up their name and I really doubt that they would risk again making something really questionable and unacceptible and therefore ruin their image.

But anyway: probably you are right, if you have some concerns regarding specific software it is better choose not install it.


If you wish, you may express your concern directly to WhenU:

"feedback@whenu.com"

[maddogbyrd@yahoo.com]

Yea Right

I did a proper examination of your tool bar it is loaded with optional spyware the minute you use it to access the web.

I have published a way to disable it and keep daemon tools

[Copytrooper]

There is no optional spyware loaded, that is the actual installation which requires internet access. And btw, even if you "forgot" to disable the installation, you can still cancel at this point (i.e. cancel the WhenU EULA).