CDR: Re: USA.net proxy: heh-heh-heh

[Declan McCullagh]

Interesting. I'm behind on stuff, having come back recently from two
weeks at Burning Man and in SF, and organizing my patent expiration
party. I'm only skimming threads right now. --Declan


On Tue, Sep 12, 2000 at 05:44:32PM -0400, George at orwellian.org wrote:
> Previously I whined that USA.net was changing the URLs
> in received email to proxy through their server, meaning
> they had logs of all URLs you visited when clicking on
> hyperlinks while reading your personal email.
> 
> That this violates their own privacy policy.
> 
> For some reason Declan failed to report it. ;-)
> Analog film chemicals must be affecting his judgement.
> 
> New note: if you bookmark the URL in the personal email someone
> sent you, it bookmarks it at the USA.net address.
> 
> ----
> 
> Here is the resulting URL in the new window USA.net opens
> when you click on an URL in your email:
> 
> http://www.netaddress.com/tpl/Info/Popup?hidden___url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F
> 
> I just tried scooping it and using it directly, trying amazon here.
> 
> It worked.
> 
> Anyone have direct access to their own server logs?
> What cookies/referrals/misc is logged on the receiving system?
> 
> Continue clicking, and it's still via USA.net.
> 
> It looks like a free "anonymizer" to me.
>