Monday, March 26, 2007
Site Meter is placing spyware cookies on user websites
I thought something was wrong with my blog. I noticed that load times seemed to have slowed down slightly. I thought it might have been because of a few of the WordPress plugins I was using. I tried deactivating some of them to see if that helped. It didn’t.
I then read a story on Digg. It pointed to a post on the StatCounter blog about “another” website counter service that was putting malware junk on people’s machines. They wouldn’t come out and actually say which service was doing this, but it was fairly obvious they were referring to Site Meter.
I decided to clean out my browser’s cookies and test Site Meter. I use Firefox, so I went Tools>Options>Privacy and selected Show Cookies. I then selected Delete All Cookies. I selected Close to save what I had just done and then reloaded my blog in Firefox.
I should have had NO cookies. Instead, my browser immediately had four (4) new Specificclick spyware cookies. Just by simply reloading my blog.
Needless to say, I won’t be using Site Meter any longer.
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Aw man- now i gotta check our site for this crap. I hate the Interweb.
Do you guys use Site Meter?
Hey,
Have used statcounter.com for a year now - very happy with the service - worth a look for real-time stats for all you counter refugees!
Use statcounter. They are the best.
INTEGRITY rules!
LET THIS BE A LESSON
Those companies who give in to the temptation to scam the public with hidden spyware and malware, WILL BE EXPOSED quickly…
And those companies will die a quick and painful death.
How many people are going to be recommending — what’s it called? — Site Meter?
It’s history. And no one will ever remember it even existed.