] Have a personal Web site or blog? If so, get the latest
] campaign headlines and inside scoop posted instantly to
] your site through a live news feed from GeorgeWBush.com!
] Just choose one of the two styles available, copy and
] paste the single line of code to put these news feeds
] anywhere on your site. Its not an RSS feed, its a javascript thing you embed in a page. Its Bush after all, so it sucks, and is somehow more controlling then necessary. See, what's needed is some type of syndication format, so people could just display the press releases and crap on their site using whatever schema they desire.. Here, it looks simple, its just one line you put in your webpage, but you wind up with this ugly box that you can't do anything to control or tweak.. You have to like Bush's color scheme to support him on the web I guess. Also, it could say anything to anyone visiting your page, and you wouldn't know because its interpreted client side. It could also be used by the Bush team to monitor the readership of your site. From the Privacy Policy posted:
] How we use log files to better serve you: We use log files
] to assess the aggregate level of traffic to GeorgeWBush.com
] including what pages people are visiting, and to diagnose
] any potential problems with the Web site. This log file
] does contain an Internet Protocol or IP address that gives
] us insight on the general geographic area that visitors are
] coming from but not information on a specific individual.
] We do not use log files to track a particular individuals use
] of GeorgeWBush.com. I'm a paranoid libertarian conspiracy theorist. I admit that. So allow me to spin off on a tangent and start making connections.. They are clearly going to be looking at URL referral information. Thats a "duh". And here they say they are at least gaining "insight on the general geographic area that visitors are coming from", so they are looking up IPs against an IP/location lookup service like GeoIp, which is not cheap to do at scale, and not a "normal" thing to do. Ok, so that implies there is real effort going into data mining the logs. At the very least, your standard webstats + info on ip location. There is a real reason for them to want to know where users/votes are, thats not the thing.. I just _really_ don't like the idea of the _Bush People_, collecting and data mining stats across large numbers of websites using banner crap like this.. The aggregate vs. individual shit in the privacy policy does not do much to ease my sudden wave of paranoia. People are more dangerous in groups, and nothing about this statement does anything to make me think they are not looking at and/or tracking groups.. And possibly interested in what groups follow what websites, and the relationship between those website, for whatever evil goals.. In general, you don't care what any one person does, you care what more then N people are doing. I mean, common.. The phrase "How we use log files to better serve you".. Doesn't that make a shiver crawl up your spine? Yes yes yes, I see the irony.. "Using log files to serve you better" sounds like a slogan for MemeStreams.. But its not me saying it, its Bush. Thats scary. Hmm.. I'm hung up on this phrase.. You wouldn't even have to paraphrase it to use it as a header in a RIAA FAQ. Heh.. So when you see one of these on a site, email the webmaster and tell them you don't want georgewbush.com having the ability to track your visits to their site. George Bush News Feeds, Privacy, and Allegory |
