I know that this program has been a privacy issue with some of y’all, but it’s been a convenience to me not having to remember which password to use on which site.
Lately, though, that little log-in helper window doesn’t appear anymore and the program administrators don’t answer their e-mail. So I was wondering if any of you knew what’s going on with Gator?
Thanks
Quasi
It’s here. Go nuts.
If you like spyware, you’ll love this little stinker.
It monitors and reports on every web site you visit.
Why anyone would use this is beyond my understanding.
I love Gator, and use it everyday.
It is really nice to have it fill out forms for you, especially if you are like me and enter many sweepstakes every week. It is a huge timesaver.
Also it saves me from having to remember 20-30 different usernames and passwords.
If Gator stops responding, as it did to me once, just re-install it, it will remember all the old information (just make sure you install it to the same folder).
I have to admit that I did not realize that gator reports back information on the sites you had visited in more than a general sense. I knew there was some general reporting so that it could better tailor the pop-up ads that gator uses, but did not know there was more beyond that. Looks like I will have to search this board to see exactly what information is sent back. If it is nothing more than, for example, “User X goes to a lot of insurance sites and eBay…load up gator with a lot of insurance and u-bid advertisements.” I would be fine with that. I consider the pop-ups a small hassle for the convenience of using Gator. If it does more than that, I would want to know exactly what information is sent about me.
That said, is there a free program, hopefully without pop-ads, that remembers username/passwords, and fills in forms for you, that is not spyware?
diamud, I haven’t used Gator so I can’t compare but MSIE has a profile assistant setting that you can use to prefill out some forms. Netscape 6 also has a form auto fill app built in. I don’t think you can use it to store username/password lists but then again, I don’t use it either. I prefer to write them down on a business card and keep it in my wallet.
Just did a quick search on Google with search words “auto fill forms” and came up some hits including http://www.webattack.com/get/typeitin.shtml . I’m sure there are other alternatives. When looking for shareware/freeware, I tend to check out tucows.com first and if that comes up empty, I use Google.
Hey, look what I found while reading my Yahoo! page tonight.
I read the terms and conditions on the gator website. Monitoring and tracking usage to target me for ads is no big deal to me. I have been using gator for two years and get maybe one piece of spam per day. Whether that spam is due to gator or some other source, I don’t know.
Montfort, interesting article. So advertisers are mad because gator blocks their ads with ads of its own, boo hoo. I don’t care whose ad it is, I ignore them anyway.
I’d be carful with Gator, and not because of the privacy issue. Gator has been removed from all PCs here at work because our firewall reported that it was used to launch some denial-of-service attacks. Please see my gator warning.
Okay, if people aren’t concerned about targeted pop-ups based on their surfing habits, how about unauthorized downloads onto their computers? Check out this site. I think the “Trickler” install stub referenced here has potential for great abuse.
Hodge