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opinions from the head lemur

[Posted] April 04, 2000

Cookies in the Back Door

In this morning's news at Yahoo, I found PlanetClick.com. This site sets forth the noble goal of letting surfers rate sites, and presenting the results.

In the Press Release:
"Planet Click's people-centered system reflects larger Internet trends that put power into the hands of consumers and tap the collective wisdom of the Web," observes Scott Danielson, president and CEO of PlanetClick.com, Inc. "Using technology to allow experienced surfers to directly determine the top ten sites for every topic seems like such a simple, obvious idea now, but it wasn't easy to execute properly."

"At many search engines and directories, sites can just buy their way into the top ten, or sneak to the top by tweaking tags and code," notes Danielson. "But with Planet Click, the only way into the top ten is to earn positive ratings from real people who've had a good experience at your site. It's that democratic approach that puts the best stuff on top every time."

Source:Yahoo Press Release

I saw, I clicked. A site without cookies! I thought this was cool. I did notice the space at the top and at the bottom that ads are gonna just drop into. Yes I am suspicious, and cranky.

Laudable but flawed. You already know how this story will end. Vote For ME!!

But Wait!! before you race over to make lemurzone the most popular destination on the web, in the Terms and Conditions we see;

PlanetClick.com enables visitors to rate other web sites and provide comments about those sites. If you post comments on the PlanetClick.com web site, you grant PlanetClick.com and its affiliates a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sub-licensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such comments throughout the world in any media. You additionally grant PlanetClick.com and its affiliates and sub-licensees the right to use the name, nickname or pseudonym that you submit with your comments. (my Italics)

Are you beginning to connect the dots here? If they can't get you with a cookie, they will get you when you share a site and or rate with them.

Just think! Your name across the internet
Hi! my name is Clueless! And I want to introduce you to xyz123.com your source for everything.
This can be used as an unsolicited testimonial, as a header and/or filler in Targeted E-mail, surface mail, television, radio, ice cream trucks, sandwich boards and every place they want to.
(Yes you granted them a license to do this)

That nonsense aside, we move to the Privacy Policy the link is on the very bottom of the page in a small font.

In their Privacy Policy on Cookies:
Some web sites use "cookies," which are small files that attach to your browser, to track or collect information about your online activity. PlanetClick does not use cookies anywhere on our site. However, the third-party ad server we use, DoubleClick, as well as some web sites that advertise on PlanetClick may use cookie technology. We do not control the use of cookies by DoubleClick or our advertisers. (my Italics)

Let me see now, They say that they don't use cookies but their ad-server DoubleClick does.

Are the lights on over there? Who is running this site? PlanetClick.com, Inc. or DoubleClick? This question is a legitimate one as by reviewing or adding a site, I am agreeing to let you use my name and remarks in any way you choose, at any time, for any reason.

It is an interesting idea, but doomed. People would really rather be given a choice. The choice you are offering is a zero sum game. I don't think you will get a lot of folks to play.

References
Press Release
planetclick.com
Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy

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@theheadlemur

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