Is the WOT extension a scam.?

Yes I did have that problem with FF (icon never shows on toolbar) but it works fine in chrome

 

hi
i have tried bitdefender traffic light extension but does mark safe even same dangerous site
i guess the only wot has a good database

 

btw http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/01/browsing-history-sold/ and Adguard's statement https://blog.adguard.com/en/official-statement-on-web-of-trust-case/

 

I've tried WOT before and just found it to be a waste of time.

 

There is, however, a new extension in Firefox called "Trust my Web." It came up after a search for Web of Trust. Maybe there won't be a resurrection of Web of Trust after all, it would be....um, confusing?

Edit: Link for that:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/trust-my-web/?src=ss

There's a bunch of substitutes in Firefox add ons for Web of Trust, it seems.

 

www.siteadvisor.com

 

Hindsight binoculars are wonderful things.

 

I still believe in user ratings with this kind of tool.
But the mass rating, gold/platinum members, trusted seals, introduced a misuse and abuse habit that ended up in this.

I hope to see WOT reinvented as an open source, simpler add-on, but with user feedback still at its core.

 

Also interesting is that the German IT guy who was involved in the disclosure of WOT´s hidden sale of detailed user data - setting up an unknown subdomain, installing WOT, finding his subdomain and his WOT user profile data later in commercially acquired datasets of data trading companies - suspects Ghostery and AdblockPlus of similar hidden practices (https://www.kuketz-blog.de/wot-addon-wie-ein-browser-addon-seine-nutzer-ausspaeht/).

 

It certainly needs to be re-invented. I have used Site Advisor when I ran McAfee, although I haven't run McAfee for a long time. Webutation was OK but now appears to be abandonware.

All I can really say is that this is a quite disappointing development. I doubt WOT was scamware from the start, but somehow it went over to the darkside.

Rather than say 'I told you so' or other pointless hindsight binocular sentiments, all I can say is that I believe that this is a sad event for internet security. I realised WOT were monetising in some way but I assumed that it was more carefully done and with no possible security breaches.

WOT wasn't perfect, and user ratings were the least useful aspect to it IMO, but it was one more line of defence. One which we don't really have now.

 

I noticed he mentioned them, and my translator converted that section to:

I didn't bother to look for what he said about Ghostery, but I looked for an Adblock Plus related entry. I found: https://www.kuketz-blog.de/adblock-plus-ein-trojanisches-pferd/

Translated and distilled, it appears he objects to "Acceptable Ads" related aspects including the opt-out approach with buried/hidden checkbox for that. I think it is great he considers that a problem. However, that doesn't have the "developer collecting information" and "developer sharing information" angles that this WOT charge involves.

A new version of ABP was released recently (for Firefox anyway). Every install and every update of software (extension, browser, AV, OS, etc) has to be re-verified as safe/acceptable in terms of phone-home. So some may need to recheck ABP. I'd mention that phoned-home timestamps have some potential to serve as a unique identifier that allows collected information to be linked together. So that is one thing to look for. If anyone finds anything else interesting, please post about it in an ABP thread.

 

I have to agree with you @Joxx on the "Mass Rating Tool". It was given to Platinum Members Only. When I reached Platinum I tried the tool once on 3 websites only. I didn't like it because it looked to me as many members abused it, plus it didn't give a True Review on each website. WOT should have done away with the Mass Rating Tool. I guess the tool will be done away with because there will be no more WOT after this. I was going to delete my account at WOT but decided not to. I'll wait to see if there is a Class Action Lawsuit coming up. But WOT has been Uninstalled on All Computers.

 

We have two threads now about the same issue?

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/your-browsing-history-may-have-been-sold-already.389647/

 

Yep. As is dancing on WOT's grave.

Pointless is your point of view. Not sentiment, we were there; history as we lived it. And yep... We absolutely told you so!

The weight of WOT's universal snowballing popularity early on and its internal totalitarianism tended to crush any criticism, in social media and pro journalism. "How DARE you say that about WOT?!!" Guess what sites then ended up on WOT's danger list? Or who got their WOT forum posts deleted and accounts banned? Really, take a guess. (Not really.)

I corrected my post #73. I thought Gold members had access to it also. I recall Silvers didn't.

I might be mixing up all that "precious" metals members trash and which ones had moderator powers of varying degrees in the WOT forums and other areas and scopes.

It's been quite a few years and my hindsight binoculars are a bit foggy at the edges.

 

Well, it seems like overkill to me. I'm sure you had a good dance though. I'm not going to make a song and dance about it.

Great Yoda impression. I'm impressed lol.

I must have been out that day as I didn't get the message. WOT's always been a bit suspect but I didn't realise how bad things had become. I assumed that using WOT was relatively safe even though I took many of the user comments with a pinch of salt.

I decided a long time ago to cease contributing on their forums. It's all very well dancing and even having a party on WOT's grave, but WOT's demise still leaves a small void that many had relied on as a defence layer for quite a few years.

To be honest, I won't be dancing or partying over this. I find it rather sad that a security app goes over to the dark side and inevitably gets wasted by the X-Wing fighters of computer journalism. Having said that, I don't think I'll miss it that much.

Dance ewoks, dance!

 

You have plenty to fill WoT position...

I distrust every type of security soft based on user rating, how can you trust a rating coming from Average Joes who don't have a clue of what they are actually rating or do biased rating because they get offended by the website/company staff that discard them after dumb demands/questions, etc...

I remember the huge wave of bad ratings given by ignorant WoT users against Iobit after their drama with MBAM, bunch of noobs acting as sheeps... Iobit have 2 good softs that works very well; Iobit managed to get and use MBAM signatures, this was bad move but this is business matters. Iobit website content was not offending, malicious, etc... but it was flagged as such by those WoT users.

WoT principle was flawed from the start and now we can see the result, it should have gone since ages.

 

Apart from Site Advisor I'm not sure what else there is.

AFAIK WOT was never based solely on user ratings, although I agree with you that the user ratings were untrustworthy. As to whether WOT was flawed from the start, I can't say, but I think there was a change of ownership in the past year or so which had a lot to do with what's happened.

I remember when Ghostery ws a useful, light extension. But it got bought out and went downhill IMO.

 

@Daveski17

Most big vendors have their own one integrated in their suite (webroot, norton, etc...) , i also remember NVT UrlVoid , Dr Web, Bit Defender TrafficLight, etc...

 

Yeah I used Site Advisor with McAfee some time ago. Regardless of what's happened with WOT, the extension itself was light and trouble free in the main though.

 

The usefulness of WOT really depends upon the audience or user and what you are hoping to accomplish. For most of the people who are on Wilders, it probably isn't or wasn't too useful. But, I argue that for some other people and/or uses it can be fairly useful.

I help manage my 78 year old mother's computer from 1200 miles away. I seldom get "home"; much to my mom's chagrin. A couple times per month, I have to get on Teamviewer and help her with one issue or another. Normally, it's multiple browser add-ons or other PUP's that she unknowingly installed. (That is until I installed Unchecky on her machine.) Other times, it has to do with some shady website she got stuck on/in. The list goes on and on. For me, for my mother, I found WOT very helpful. She has learned (after much pain) that she can/should only go to green WOT websites.

In addition, I have 2 brothers who think they are computer savvy, but are not. I've gotten sick of fixing their mistakes/machines as well. I finally encouraged them to install WOT. I now spend much less time having to troubleshoot their issues as well.

Again, it's not perfect and there are other probable alternatives. But, it is easy to install and saves me at least a little bit of time in having to help family members.

 

"Web of Trust (WOT) Add-on taken down by Chrome & Firefox"

http://news.thewindowsclub.com/web-of-trust-wot-add-on-taken-down-86981/

 

According to the link in this post it was taken down by WoT themselves.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...-been-sold-already.389647/page-3#post-2629619

 

"...Additionally, after Mozilla notified us that they were removing the WOT add-on from their store (pending responses to a set of questions / proposed changes they sent to us), we voluntarily removed the WOT add-on from all other platforms, including the Chrome store, in order to resolve this matter properly and comprehensively..."

https://www.mywot.com/en/forum/70818-to-the-wot-community

So the best that can be said for WOT is that after Mozilla blew the whistle and laid down the law, WOT removed it from other platforms.

After getting caught with their pants down on Mozilla, they decided to cancel their acts on other stages.

Rah! Rah! for WOT !

Web of TRUST -- The latest addition to Webster's List of Oxymorons

 

Finally...

 

hi
is there a way to disable traffic light right click share with facebook or twitter ?
http://i.imgur.com/ss4NFfl.png
ps why i can 't upload simple and small screenshot?

Hi
thanks Pegas , like Ghostery , Disconnect and sadly like i guess many extensions


i'm tring Webutation ,but i it doesn't seem anything good, about anything good, sadly there is no url void extension