Terafall asks:
Will my data be tracked if I use web apps that can put to the desktop? For example…
1) Email like Gmail,Hotmail in Thunderbird
2) Chat like MSN,AIM in Pidgin
3) Twitter in DestroyTwitter
7 Answers -
trashbots
June 14, 2012I don’t think so. Unless you have malware or spyware running on your computer, I don’t think your data might be stolen or tracked. However, some apps might collect anonymous data to help improve their systems or for bug fixes.
Susendeep Dutta
June 14, 2012You can face data theft when your PC is infected with some kind of malware,viruses etc. and if some hacker hacked the servers of these app providers.Elsewhere these apps collect data statistics to improve their working which you can opt out.
Mihovil Pletikos
June 14, 2012if you use any google product or facebook you know that they are tracking everything and can access anything…. but other than that, if you don’t have any malware you should be safe
Kannon Y
June 14, 2012E-mail providers still gather usage statistics on their users, even if they’re using IMAP/POP3 e-mail clients (like Thunderbird). For example, Google still scans the texts of all your e-mails in order to generate a marketing profile. Although you don’t see them, the ads displayed in your mail.google.com account are based upon the content of your e-mails. It’s creepy, isn’t it?
Unlike the other e-mail providers, fortunately, Google allows you to opt out of their tracking program simply by unchecking a few boxes.
Ultimately, your internet provider (like Comcast, etc) keeps tabs on where you’ve been and who you are, so really the only thing you’re blocking are targeted ads. It’s somewhat unfortunate, because oftentimes these are things I’m actually interested in.
Rhys Davies
June 14, 2012Most track your data so that they can improve your experience
Oron
June 15, 2012It depends waht you mean by “tracked”. The service providers obviously “know” what data they are providing, but, to take your first example, they will not be snooping around your emails any more or less if you store it in Thunderbird than if you read it online. Obviously, if you are viewing it locally you will not be seeing adverts on the side of the page, but once again, once the information gets onto Google’s/Microsoft’s servers, they form part of your account and the data is indexed as it would be otherwise.
freethinker
June 15, 2012Not sure if this still applies, but you should also be weary of Wi-Fi especially public Wi-Fi. Anyone on your LAN can sniff packets and steal login credentials, or atleast they used to be able to.