Do You Trust Your Web Host?
from the sneaky dept
With Google trying to launch their own WiFi network (at least in San Francisco) some people have been worrying that the company will now know everywhere that you surf. This may be true, but how come people aren’t just as worried about the fact that their current ISPs have that same info? Generally, people have to trust their service providers to do the right thing — but should those providers violate that trust in any way, it can completely destroy the business. Beyond ISPs, web hosting firms are in the same boat. Web hosting firms are useful for those who don’t want to manage their own server somewhere, but those firms have access to everything you put on your server. It’s very rare that you hear of a web hosting firm violating that trust, but apparently one such firm has been involved in a sneaky link spam technique, dynamically adding a bunch of spam links to the bottom of their customers’ pages any time a search engine spider crawled the sites. Not only is this obnoxious, it risks getting these sites completely kicked out of search engines for spamming. Of course, it’s doubly stupid for the hosting firm that did this, because as soon as the news gets out, there’s almost no way for the firm to win back the trust of its customers.
Comments on “Do You Trust Your Web Host?”
Borgification
Being in both the content(-searching) and ISP businesses will open-up a whole new can of worms about their status as “common carrier” or not, too.
No Subject Given
Home office, much? Looks like a small time web host… the contact address is a house in a residential neighborhood.
1343 Mulberry Lane,Cary, IL 60013 (looked it with google sattelite map…)
Re: No Subject Given
Denis,
I found your comment by googling the address you referenced (Mulberry Lane.) I’ve been trying to get in touch w/ this guy for abt 2 weeks in regard to a software upgrade we bought from his company.
I’m trying to see whether he’s alive and not attending his business or whether he’s dead or sick . Were you replying to “Mike” re Google WiFi, or something else?
Thanks,
Blaine
p.s. I came to the same conclusion about the address being a residential neighborhood, also by using google sattelite
No Subject Given
Why is everyone making a fuss out of trusting google. You should be able to trust your ISP because you pay for that service. If google is just going to give it away you have no right to bitch.