Quote:
Originally posted by XYCash
..some text deleted...
This would be an extremely valuable tool in the hands of the feds who are on a fishing expedition looking to prosecute webmasters for obscenity.
Just think of the potential...they can catalogue everything and each site that draws a red flag...i.e. piss, bondage, gay - send their legal analysts through them to mark them for a possible investigation.
What are you going to do or what have you already done to insure webmasters that sniffy isn't ever used for this type of purpose?
-joe
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joe,
Another poster had made the same observation as you about the fed gov't potentially interested in the data sniffy finds.
In one way, i can take it as being flattering that people think that with our technology and with a database, that we have some "killer app" that is unique.
who is to say that the FBI doesn't have their own kind of sniffy? that they have their own team of human viewers who search for CP and whatever else? There is a task group specificially set up in the FBI to tackle the issues of CP (they are in posession of the world's largest collection of CP images).
With a huge budget now given to them by the Homeland Security Act, alot of attention, after terrorism, is placed on the internet space.
I am very doubtful that the FBI themselves do not have their own type of crawlers and processing methods in place to do what you are thinking.
If the FBI comes knocking at our door and takes our data, we can't stop that. So does that mean we have to be fearful of that miniscule possibility, to not have our own database?
So how do you feel about google then? They have amassed the largest database of web pages, all indexed and have their own API to allow for programatic interfacing. The FBI could run their own keyword analysis tool against google to pick up what the google spider has found. Did you want to protest or boycott google for what they are doing?
What about archive.org? Is your website listed in their wayback machine? (most adult sites wouldn't be in there, but my point is they index ones entire website, and make available for public access without your permission. so if you made a mistake or said something on your website that you changed, then their spiders might have grabbed that old copy and saved it. talk about total invasion of your property).
We can't ensure that the FBI won't want to take our data. No on can. What i can say, is the type of data that we store is file specific, not activity tracking of a website.
Sample database fields:
filename
filesize
location (website where image was found)
md5
sha1
imageH
imageW
status
if from these kind of file attribute data that the FBI can somehow figure out your activity, then that's some clever team of programmers they have. if they wanted to get this same kind of data, they can download any script from any website and be able to do the same thing.
is this the objection about sniffy using up your bandwidth? it's such a small amount of consumption that is just smoke.
what's the real issue?
we have already replied many times to say that Sniffy doesn't shut down websites. Sniffy doesn't track webmasters traffic, users, activity, etc.
if a sponsor wants to use some kind of guideline or test in determining who they want to be apart of their affiliate, that's there business. it's not your given right, just because you own some websites, that you can join the sponsor's program. they have rules and requirements, much liike any club......
so if a sponsor rejects you because they don't care for your website being purple colored, that's their right.
if they reject your application because you have CP on your site, that's their right.
If they drop you because you block efforts to validate your site, that's their right.
if you don't send them enough traffic to meet some kind of quota, that's their right.
it's not an invasion of privacy, it's about compliance with the sponsors requirements. should a sponsor elect to use sniffy, it just becomes another requirement. maybe someday they will require that you have to have a photo taken, or a fingerprint, or a background check, who knows. But if you want to be apart of the sponsors program, you have to comply with THEIR rules.
You have every right to not sign up for a sponsor if you don't like their rules. Today, right now, if you don't like their terms, you won't sign up. If tomorrow, their terms say that they will be using sniffy to do verifications, then that's condition of usage. you can take your traffic elsewhere, or you can further comply.
sponsors are saying now they don't want the kind of traffic that has been pulled in from the use of underage wordings, or words that are used on the "bad" long list of words (George Carlin only had 7 on his).
so some sponsors are adding the additional requirements about the types of keywords that are used on a site that sends them traffic.
are webmasters upset about that? i am sure those that use those keywords are. Who are they going to be upset with? The sponsor for adding this additional requirement.
If the sponsor elects to use sniffy, who are the webmasters going to be upset with? Answer should be, the sponsor. But the postings are upset with big,bad brother sniffy.
seems misdirected.
-dj