{"id":138063,"date":"2014-08-24T06:08:10","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T06:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=138063"},"modified":"2014-08-24T06:08:53","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T06:08:53","slug":"secret-government-website-spy-nobody-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/secret-government-website-spy-nobody-told\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Government Website Spy Tech Nobody Told You About"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"color: #494949;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #494949;\">Today it has been revealed that a Virginia-based firm, AddThis, has developed secret website technology that covertly tracks visitors without their knowledge. The technology is being put to use by the Welsh Government, the National Assembly and a range of councils including \u00a0Anglesey Council, Blaenau Gwent Council and Conwy Council.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #494949;\">The official line is that the invasive software is &#8216;merely&#8217; responsible for search-based targeted ads.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #494949;\">A spokesman for the\u00a0Welsh Local Government Association said:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe use of such tools is based on nothing more than the need to ensure that council websites keep pace with people\u2019s viewing habits, and that they offer the right information in the right way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a positive way of ensuring that visitors get what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #494949;\">However Emma Carr of Big Brother Watch warned:<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #494949;\">\u201cToo often websites collect far more data than the organisation requires or could ever hope to use. Public sector websites need to ensure that they are meeting the gold standard in users\u2019 privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Privacy International spokesman Mike Rispolisi added:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompanies like AddThis have developed technology called canvas fingerprinting.\u00a0Canvas fingerprinting is much more quiet. It\u2019s really complex and a step beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #494949;\">\u201cThat allows for companies to build up these complex profiles about you.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #494949;\">On the legality\u00a0of informing visitors that they are being monitored in this way, Mr Rispolisi noted:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #494949;\">&#8220;There is no obligation on a site to tell visitors these trackers are being used.\u00a0It is problematic in general. But when there are governments involved, it is more of a problem because they are the ones charged with protecting us from these things.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The software has also caught the attention of the\u00a0<span style=\"color: #494949;\">Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).<\/span>\u00a0\u201cWhat governments do not necessarily realise is that when they build these widgets into sites it is often giving information to a third party provider,&#8221; said\u00a0<span style=\"color: #494949;\">Dave Maass.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RINF Alternative News Today it has been revealed that a Virginia-based firm, AddThis, has developed secret website technology that covertly tracks visitors without their knowledge. The technology is being put to use by the Welsh Government, the National Assembly and a range of councils including \u00a0Anglesey Council, Blaenau Gwent Council and Conwy Council. The official [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1239,"featured_media":138064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-138063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}