{"id":4608,"date":"2012-07-28T14:48:14","date_gmt":"2012-07-28T18:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=4608"},"modified":"2012-07-28T14:48:14","modified_gmt":"2012-07-28T18:48:14","slug":"beware-toolbars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/beware-toolbars\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware Toolbars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goga wants to know what we think of this coupon toolbar
\n<\/strong>I got an email to get coupons for food. I’d like to do this but they want you to download a toolbar. This is not something I ever do. Can you let me know if this is safe to download so I can get the coupons? Thank you.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.restaurantrover.com\/Mascot\/ApplyStepThree.aspx?lid=65031822<\/p>\n

Our Answer<\/strong>
\nOur general philosophy on toolbars? Run away as fast as you can. And on this toolbar? Run away and hide from it. It’s privacy-stealing, coupon toolbar that may well turn your browser into a billboard and fill your email inbox with spam.<\/p>\n

One glance at their privacy policy tells us this toolbar is bad medicine. Any money you saved on the coupons would be paid back double with your aggravation.<\/p>\n

Here is part of their privacy policy:<\/p>\n

“Types of Information Collected by Spark.<\/p>\n

The following types of Information about a user are among those that may be collected by Spark in connection with the Site:<\/p>\n

Name
\nPostal address
\nE-mail address
\nTelephone number
\nCellular telephone number
\nFacsimile number
\nPayment information (e.g. credit card numbers and billing addresses), if purchases or payments are made
\nBanking information
\nSocial Security number
\nDate of birth
\nAge except with any offer of credit
\nGender except with any offer of credit
\nOther demographic information (e.g. occupation, income range)
\nIP Address
\nReferring site
\nOther technical information collected by the Site\u2019s servers…<\/em><\/p>\n

Use of Information.<\/p>\n

Spark may use Information collected in connection with the Site in the following ways:<\/p>\n

To provide requested information, products and services to users
\nTo improve the user experience with the Site
\nIn connection with the operation of the Site and Spark\u2019s internal business
\nIn connection with other Sites or offline businesses owned or operated by Spark
\nFor Users to obtain information and offers for products and services offered by Spark as well as selected third parties.
\nIn order to do the foregoing,\u00a0Spark may provide your Information to trusted third parties, including but not limited to selected third party marketers and vendors as well as third party contractors providing services to Spark for the operation of the Site and its business, communication services and fulfillment of orders…<\/strong>“<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words they collect every bit of information they can about you and you give them permission to do so. Then you also give them permission to give your information to anyone they want to. What the heck are “trusted third parties”? Trusted third parties are any parties willing to pay to get your information from this company.<\/p>\n

Our advice – STEER CLEAR!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goga wants to know what we think of this coupon toolbar I got an email to get coupons for food. I’d like to do this but they want you to download a toolbar. This is not something I ever do. Can you let me know if this is safe to download so I can get the coupons? Thank\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4609,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4608\/revisions\/4609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}