Open letter to the owner of slstats.com

*burp*
http://slstats.com/site/contact/

I thought sensors stopped at noscript bariers.

Ah was not aware that scanners could reach into No script land. Thank you.

EDIT : Stupid phrasing..

Did you have to go to the cached page at Google to get that, or is it clearly available when visiting his site?

It certainly breaks the UK data protection act, The one thing that does interest me however is where has the link to the opt-out details gone to?? so does this mean he is continuing to collect this data just now we cant c it unless we partake in this data collection?

Also a Quote from his site:

"The controversial aspect is that Second Life residents, who didn't give their explicit approval, had their profiles and names listed on this site. Interestingly enough, such data (and more) is available within Second Life for anyone to see. There are no membership fees required. And so, since said data isn't actually private, and no Terms of Service, Community Standards or laws were violated, this was perfectly okay. Or is it?"

I think he answers his own question, that the data is freely available in SL for anyone to see and i agree it is if we have ticked the box but we agree for it to displayed on LLs sites not a 3rd party site does this man and his alts not read the forums

When Linden Labs starts selling or passing my details to a third party site then i will untick the box, until then i would like my details kept on LLs site and not passed on without me opting in to a future spamfest as this project develops, and thats where it will be heading, i can see potential advertisers drooling at the data that will have been collected, in this "Second Life's premier useless statistics site!", all those UUIDs to IM with "UCE"

So Mark no more BS just be straight with people and use "HONESTY" not "TRUTH's" and if u miss the point of that read my Profile in game.

I wish you every success in your fantastic project, just get the OPT IN correct and put the details easily available on the website, along with the details of your companies/websites in the SL search feature so i can point people to the right place to OPT OUT until you can find the time to get it sorted to OPT IN only, as it should have been from the start, as you cant be found in SEARCH as of time of posting & if i was suspicious i would possibly say you didnt want to be found

peace

The only way I could find it on the main site was to go to the How It Works page, and go down to the Feedback section - the link there is to the contact page.

I note that the "privacy policy" link makes no mention of the opt-out and, at the time of writing, the "about" page makes a number of sneery references and is full of "well you're just going to have to get used to this" language.

That has pretty much hardened my attitude towards this site.

No - that isn't the data in question.

The profile data and names - yes, it's fine to track that. The problem is that slstats.com also tracks who associates with who. A person's page can show who they've talked to recently.

Now, that information is available in the sense you could fly up and see it, true, but on the other hand a) you couldn't do that for everyone at once, and b) the people involved could see you too.

Mark's original argument, that there is no privacy in digital worlds and that's just how it is, kind of falls flat. By that logic, the same applies to the World Wide Web. In that case, Mark shouldn't mind posting his credit card number here! After all, he's sent it to Linden Labs over the World Wide Web in order to get his land on SL, and there's no privacy online, right?

I could be wrong, I have no scripting knowledge so I probably am. Why couldn't the people comoplaining just ask the friend to take it off when they are around them?

It has had the same effect on me. Initially, I thought the outcry over it was overblown, but Mark's actions have changed my mind. He is making things worse, and doing a good job of turning people aganst the site who were either supportive or indifferent before.

We used to do it to the spam bots that used to trawl the websites i think its a great idea Although OPT IN from the start would have been better imho, the idea is sound just the roll out, that was the worst thing that they did. Then the rude and condesending replies from Mr B in other threads portrays him as person that cares only for the data he can gather for future uses, which would have included selling it im certain, as hes not in this totally for the love of it, hes a developer who is here to make money from his website in the long term

All Hail the Mighty Linden $$$$$

Peace

YEah, I had scripts on one of our subsites that generated on-the-fly pages with from 1-5 email links, and a link to another pages that was also geneated, ad infinitum. Fed those email harvestor bots tons of first rate, primo crap addresses back in the day.

I agree totally with you Yumi to me to it has the future smell of a Spamfest as LL goes OS. The only foolish thing this guy has done is present it as an OPT OUT model which died years ago, ALL responsible websites are OPT IN not OPT OUT That and treat people like idiots what a great way to start a business here where reputations are everything if you want to make an impact

Peace

"There's no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department on Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now."

This site is actually run by IGE.

Wasn't it obvious enough?

What is IGE doing in SL? I have no clue.

I find Mark is making an impact. I've been able to evaluate my time on SL, and the strength of my friendships.
I now declare this thread dead. You're eather for SLstats or againt it, and no amount of arguing and ad hominem attacks is goint to change that for most people.

Aye Sir

Yes, he is making an impact...showing us all just how scummy a website operator can behave.

I read a few pages of the thread a couple days back and then decided to opt out. I am glad I have done so.

I am am not foolish enough to think I am anonymous when I am on-line, but I was put off by the post Mark/Torley made that seemed to suggest that those who embrace it are the knowledgable and savy, while those w/ concerns are ignorant and prone to panic. I found the post to be somewhat condescending.

I don't know what, if anything, can be done w/ this information and think if folks are interested in this type of data collection that's great. But something about the way this was all handled makes me think of a sleazy salesman or conman.

Not half.

Absolutely! I was fairly indifferent but am now suspicious.

Torley's post in answers was WAY out of line, going from neutral community rep to basically a cheerleader for a single player's third-party website. I find it disappointing, in that now I have FAR less respect for Torley's postings, due to her brushing off of player concerns as 'noise' and acting as personal secretary to Mark. He should have been told to post his own damn reply, not have it posted for him by a linden in official linden coloration.

Then we should treat the watches as any spam bot thats not against the TOS Now wheres my scripter

I can understand why it was done the way it was, but I think it would have been better if they had moved the thread out of Second Life Answers so that Mark could post his own response.

Or he could have posted a new answer thread and she moved it like she did the other people's into one consolidated thread. It comes off (the way it was done I mean) as extreme favoritism...a linden shilling for a third party site and at the owners beck and call. Which diminishes the trust factor (not to mention respect) for the lindens in general and the specific.