Helping Surfers Sidestep Site Registration 91
netbuzz writes, "PrefPass, a startup debuting at DEMO today, is looking to do for the onerous Web site registration process what Amazon has done for shopping: one click and you get the goods. If it catches on, sites requiring full registration may feel the heat." Looks like sites will have an incentive to implement PrefPass; it's not antagonistic to their interests in the way Bugmenot is.
Attempted before? (Score:5, Insightful)
It says it's different from PassPort, and I agree, but I fail to see why this would have any more success.
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Re:Attempted before? (Score:4, Informative)
If you read the article it explains the difference. While Passport is a full login (that can hold things like Credit Card numbers and such) this just holds information about what you like and your name, stuff like that. For all intents and purposes you are still anonymous, but they can customize content so that you are more likely to read it using the information you provide.
Compare that to Passport who is basically giving a site a biography on your if you use it.
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I'm talking about MyUID [myuid.com] [slashdot article [slashdot.org]]. I set up a site where you created a profile, which could be read over sites that participated in using our API. You specified what public information you wanted to provide, your privacy was up to y
Re:Attempted before? (Score:5, Funny)
I think that your definition of "anonymous" is different from most people's.
Re:Attempted before? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Basically, one aggregate cookie for each person that displays (limited to PrefPass participant sites) browser history. The reason this works better than Passport for a lot of sites is that the website is provided with marketing info, not just a validation of the user. So the participating sites don't need to request the info, they don't need to worry about storing the info (if they do so to make sure non-cookie-accepting-visitors still get tracked), et
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They aren't doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.
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Doing it this way provides full "single signon" features that passport offered without ANY dependence on a third party being available and playing nicey with competition. The only downside is you'd need your key with you at all times, but with the price of usb thumbdrives I don't see that as much of an issue if done right, and you can always keep normal logins as backups.
On top of that you can also use this to
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Re:passport? (Score:5, Funny)
I love the way you say "passport".
C'mon, won't you say it again?
mmmmmm.... passport... it's just such a beautiful word...
passport...
passport!
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Until the "A computer matched him with her?" line. -_-
-:sigma.SB
No (Score:2)
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In a self-congratulatory press conference described by one historical analyst as being "worth 10 Dresdens", the now world-famous egalitarians of the Gay Nigger Association of America announced to the world press that their highly successful open source "LastMeasure" project has now reached over one hundred thousand homes across the world
Don't the sites want the demographic info? (Score:5, Insightful)
If they just want to personalize your page, a cookie should be sufficient.
So, if this tool allows me to login to multiple sites, but with faked info, I don't see the sites going for it.
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This tool does not help you log into the NYTimes by providing their registration process with fake info. It helps you log in to sites that have opted in to the program and agreed to take less info about you during registration.
Sites obviously don't want fake info; it doesn't simply affect their interactions with you, very small amounts of fake info can completely fuck the validity of the statistica
Porn. Lots of porn. (Score:2)
And the flaw with that approach is that many people will not want many of the sites that they go to to be known (and indexed) by what is basically an advertising agency.
Now, if you could maintain multiple profiles that would NEVER cross, th
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Well ya don't exactly see me rushing to be first in line to sign up, I can tell ya that.
Now, if you could maintain multiple profiles that would NEVER cross, this might be a good idea.
Hotmail.
They're going to have to provide me with some more service than just centralizing my fake name and fake email address.
See? Ya got the idea already.
KFG
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Just like cell-phone records are now commercially available, it's probably only a matter of time before someone starts selling databases that cross-reference IP addresses to online account aliases.
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Nothin's perfect. Wait'll ya see the unauthorized biographies that start getting written about 20 years from now.
KFG
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Silly me. Here I was thinking that when sites asked me for A/S/L, it was because they wanted me to have cybersex with them!
I guess this just doesn't have quite the same effect:
To Hell with What They Want (Score:5, Insightful)
When a site asks for my personal information just so I can see their advertisements on my way to reading the morning's news, I have no problem at all about lying to them. I give a fake name, a fake zip code and a fake email.
If they require an email authorization, I use a spamcatcher account that is created with fake information.
Since when are we required to acquiesce to the wishes of the corporate world just for the privelege of purchasing and using their products? Since when do I have to provide correct personal information just to get the day's weather forecast?
It's the same thing when I go to a Best Buy or Radio Shack and they ask for my zip code or last name. Maybe down the line if they figure out that people are lying to them they'll stop asking.
I'm starting to believe that the next few decades will be marked by the traditional business/customer relationship being replaced by a much more combative, adversarial interaction between the individual and the corporation. It will be to nobody's benefit, but it seems that there are few ways to discourage real assholes. I'm sure those of us who still believe in the primacy of the individual and privacy in general will become inventive in coming up with more ways to thwart these "business" people who believe they have ownership rights over our lives. It's time to balance the scales a bit, I think.
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Really? How is it my fault that their business model doesn't work? Is it my obligation to make sure that whatever business model a web site works out is actually going to work and make them a profit? Is it my obligation they make a profit?
Is it really my fault for not wanting to bend over, anal lube conveniently nearby?
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"Since when are we required to acquiesce to the wishes of the corporate world just for the privelege of purchasing and using their products?"
That's called the free market, buddy. Don't like Company X's practice, either go find Company Y or start Company Z. Otherwise, they can do as they please, and you can either play by their rules or go home.
Also, I love how you sarcastically use the word privilege, when in fact you'
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When a site asks for my personal information... I have no problem at all about lying to them. I give a fake name, a fake zip code and a fake email.
I think I may have found out why your advertisements don't always match up with your desires and preferences...
Submitted by NetBuzz?!?! (Score:1, Insightful)
Edit! You're editors! Use your noodle!
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Moo (Score:1)
Registration for what? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know I'm jaded and cynical, but how much of the information that is entered into web site registration pages is genuine, anyway?
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Re:Registration for what? (Score:4, Funny)
oh well, fake registration... (Score:2, Funny)
I am also a 22 year old 5"4 athletic blonde female and I just love the sex older men can give me and I'm
interested in dating and romance. I like Billy Graham, Zachariah Sitchen but I hate Prince Phillip and
I earn more than a hundred thousand dollars a year working as a pharma whore.
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Again, the websites that pull the info generally couldn't give a shit about your info. The advertisers do, though. Enough people provide real in
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I never agreed to that.
Remember newspapers? I can read a newspaper without ever seeing an Ad anywhere but in my peripheral vision.
You can't make me look.
I won't look.
I won't even let me browser fetch your ads.
It's just wasted bandwidth for both of us anyway.
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I just use mushpup (http://mushpup.org/ [mushpup.org]) for that. If the site has a profile page, all the better. I'll list my password (notationally) there. For instance, my slashdot password:
m{this.site}
Then, yes, if they need more info, just make it all up -- unless it's a site I really trust or like. Don't need to be centralizing all my data with a new startup, thank you.
Tom
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What's even worse is if they let in the search engine spiders (Googlebot etc.) but require registration (and sometimes even payment) from human visitors. Whenever I encounter such a site, I report it to http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html [google.com] as a cloaked page. If enough people do this, maybe Google will do something about it.
PrefPass for PrefPass (Score:5, Funny)
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Bugmenot link? (Score:3, Insightful)
For some reason, the article omitted a link to bugmenot [bugmenot.com]. There's a Firefox extension [roachfiend.com] that automates the process.
If you don't know what this is, it's a user-maintained list of usernames and passwords for sites that "bug" you for registration. Some sites block Bugmenot-listed usernames and passwords but most don't.
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-Eric
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I've been happily using that for quite some time now.
D.
Great! Until it's hacked, that is... (Score:2)
This should be a real boon to identity thieves.
Putting all your eggs into one pasket just makes it easier for someone to steal all your eggs. Won't people ever learn?
You may wish to RTFA... (Score:4, Interesting)
I honestly don't see an easy way for spammers to cull this thing (unless they bust into the PrefPass servers, I suppose).
No password? (Score:5, Insightful)
So if you're only identified by an already public identifier (that being your email address), what's to prevent people from messing around with other people's preferences? Cookies can be lost by the legitimiate user and spoofed by an attacker. IP-based filering doesn't work for different users behind a common firewall. I wonder how they can get by without some sort of password. I wish they had a technical FAQ to go along with their press release.
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I assume they'd just generate a password and send it out to you.
No surprises here (Score:5, Interesting)
FTA: "In exchange, users agree to let PrefPass sites access their pref lists, thus allowing them to customize the experience, as well target advertising to the user."
I'll stick with BugMeNot, thank you.
I've used this... (Score:2)
I miss Gator..... (Score:2)
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Identity URL (Score:2)
Sites that want logins can just as for your vCard URL. You have have several, they are unique,
you decide what goes inside. Startups can make tools for mananging them.
Nice.
Wrong Name for it! (Score:3, Insightful)
Because that's what it's going to become if the public and the corporations actually start using this thing.
One Big Target. Hackers start your engines...!
Lee Darrow, C.H.
Antagonistic?! (Score:1)
What is antagonistic is requiring people to give full legal names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, shoe and genital sizes, blood type, genetic write-up, and winning lottery numbers for the next five years. Okay, so not as much as all that but you do feel that way, don't you? In this age of spam and violations of promises stated on these websites that you will not recei
Would this work for PB? (Score:1)
I'm sure there are safeguards that check ips before you can join a torrent so I'm not sure if this is even viable. It was just a thought.
Help Spammers Sidestep Site Registration (Score:2)
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What's the point? (Score:1)
the real difference is of course... (Score:2)
OpenID (Score:1, Insightful)
My Thought... (Score:4, Interesting)
Call it 'X-Demographics'
Contents would be of the form
"X-Demographics: Age/28, Location/Seattle, Sex/Male, Occupation/Programmer"
All free-form and user selected, with browsers offering a dialog where users can set common information, and choose when/where to send it.
Servers must not require the info, and must accept invalid data without dying ( "Age -1/Location The Moon/Sex Yes Please" ) but if provided, they can customize their content/advertising.
Sure, users might deliberatly provide false data, but they would do that anyway with a 'log on' form; and if you don't want to provide it, you don't (default in a browsers should be nothing sent without user approval) and browsers should be able to control which sites get sent what data. Even a simple mechanism, such as the first time you visit a site, do not send data, but if you return to the site later, then send it.
Details of parsing are trivial (I know, not really), once a standard basic layout and header field name is chosen, I'm going for something like the 'Accept:' field format.
I don't mind reasonable advertisments, but as an example, as a guy, I really have no interest in tampon ads, and I doubt the tampon companies want to spend their advertising dollars on me.
Is it just me.... or is it Gator again? (Score:1)
Blah....
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...And report usage statistics?
Which is antagonistic again? (Score:2)
Sxip? (Score:1)
Mailinator (Score:2, Informative)
Anonymous but for how long (Score:2)
1. Give PrefPass your email address - they assign you a unique ID
2. Visit vendor, PrefPass system passes you PrefPass unique ID
3. Vendors site gives you customised info based on your "prefs" list
4. You buy from Vendor, at this point you have to give them all the usual information required for billing.
5. Vendor associates unique PrefPass ID with vendor assigned ID and forever knows exactly who you are each time you vist.