Linda's Soapbox
~~ Editorial by Linda Johnson

Hitbox Is History....for me, anyway

Boy oh boy.  It seems more and more the hot topics in all the newsletters are about the spies on the Internet.  Just look at the table of contents for THIS issue....Steve, John....and now me.  And this one has hit me PERSONALLY. grrrrr

Any of you who are in the tech support groups I'm in have heard me whine many times about the web-de"bug"gers zapping my pages and firewalls preventing people from getting to my pages.  Why was this happening to me?  Well, because I was using a service called Hitbox which allowed me to count the number of visits each page at my site got each day.  It was really helpful to me... it allowed me to see which articles in ABC were read the most and which of my online free tutorials were being used the most.  Not only did it tell me what my visitors were looking for, but it also told me which of my pages might be buried so deeply that my visitors couldn't find them, so I was able to reorganize my site so these pages were easier for people to find.  So, when people would tell me that Hitbox was spyware, I would go read Hitbox's privacy policy YET again and try to convince them they were wrong.  As far as I could see, Hitbox had every right to advertise on my site since they were providing me with this valuable service for free and I had every right to let them place a "necessary" cookie on my visitors' computers since I was doing this for my visitors' benefit. I did include a link at the bottom of every one of my pages, to Hitbox's privacy policy and a statement that I was using Hitbox on my site. (because I didn't want to do anything behind my visitor's backs.)  Sounds logical, eh?  Who knows.  Maybe I just didn't want to face the ugly truth that I was allowing Hitbox to spy on my visitors, becuz I was just too blinded by it's ease of use.  But, every time I read Hitbox's privacy policy, I really was convinced that everything they did, they did ONLY so the stats they provided me with were accurate.  (Mind you ... Hitbox NEVER provided me with any personal information about my visitors.  The only thing they gave me was counts...numbers only.  However, I now believe that they were gaining a lot more info about my visitors than they were telling me.)

I was forced to face this cold hard fact this week when I got my new version of Ad-aware (a program I have great respect for...see Steve's review this month).  I ran AdAware for the first time in a couple months and was horrified to find that I had 44 spyware cookies on my machine...and 43 of them were from Hitbox!  And I trust Ad-aware, since I know it is one of the few spy detecting programs that uses good sense in it's choices.  I know many other programs that make these decisions based on stupid criteria, like the size of a graphic, or necessary session cookies which are placed on some sites which use shopping carts from third party sites, like PayPal (session cookies are placed on your computer while you are at a site and removed when you leave).  Ad-aware is one of the few spy detecting programs that does it's homework...so when Ad-aware tells me this is a spy, I believe them.

So...I decided that Hitbox indeed had to go.  And what a job THAT was since I had Hitbox code on 954 pages in my site.  Yes, thank goodness, FrontPage has a good find/replace utility that allowed me to find parts of the code and "Replace All" in a few steps.  Unfortunately, what I couldn't replace in one swoop was the individual tag on each page that let me identify that particular page when I viewed my stats at Hitbox. So, I had to endure the long boring task of going into every one of these 954 pages and manually removing it's unique tag.  (See what I do for you guys?)

The only reason I was using Hitbox was that Hostway, my web host, provided me with stats that weren't as easy to attain and weren't updated as often.  But, somebody was watching over me, becuz the day I decided to get rid of Hitbox, Hostway notified me that they had added an Advanced Tracking System called Urchin and I could use that.  And, this one doesn't place any cookies anywhere and it also doesn't require that I add code to all of my pages.  I just signed up for it, and it was automatic. (Though not free...see what ELSE I did for you guys?  LOL)

So...you may all rest assured now that you can cruise around ABC and my website without fear of any bugs or spies watching you (or biting you).  On the pages where I have PayPal buttons, there is a session cookie placed on your computer, but I assure you it is removed as soon as you leave that page.  If you don't believe me, try running Ad-aware after you visit my site and you will see that I am CLEAN.  Also, I've added links to PayPal's privacy policy on various places on my site and you can see a link at the bottom of every page on my site (including this one) that takes you here so you can always see my own personal, up-to-date privacy policy, as well as that of any sites like PayPal that require a session cookie in order to serve you.

Thanks again to everyone who visits my site.  I promise you that it's ALWAYS my intention to serve you the best way I know how. But, sometimes I just mess up. (and I guess I can sometimes be a *tad* stubborn and lazy)

Happy Computing!
Linda

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Linda Johnson is a college instructor of all of the Microsoft Office Programs, as well as Adobe PhotoShop and Windows. She also teaches online distance learning classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word at Eclectic Academy. She has worked helpdesk and teaches and lectures at many local businesses and tech schools in her area. Support this newsletter by checking out Linda's eBooks, MS Word MAGIC!, Book I: Fonts, Fun & Formats and Book II: Table Wizardry, How To Get Started As a Software Trainer, and her newest series of MSOffice eBook Tutorials and CD