Comments on: Invisible Stat Counters Are Watching You: 4 Things You Need to Know

By: Bill

Bill — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:33:50 +0000

This is why I use a free web proxy. No site can determine who I an are where I am coming from.

By: David

David — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:15:28 +0000

Auna is a spanish ISP

By: Tdave

Tdave — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 09:51:21 +0000

When it comes to the amount of time I spend on a site, or a page, a good deal of that is loading time. For example, it takes as much as four minutes for each page of Mental_floss to load on my Webtv, two minutes on a really fast day. It took me 18 minutes just to come to this page(track it down) and to make this comment. I hope to get a ‘real’ computer soon.

By: Sue

Sue — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:57:09 +0000

Auna is a Spanish telecommunications company offering telephone, cable and internet.

By: just_say_no_to_lutefisk

just_say_no_to_lutefisk — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:37:45 +0000

Some blogs regularly feature “interesting” referring site stats from their visitors. Most of these involve bizarre, often hilarious, searches for porn on Google that inadvertantly lead the porn-seeker to the blog. Lately I’ve been reading through blogs kept by ER docs, nurses, and paramedics. These types of blogs get some really crazy referring-site stats. Apparently some Google users out there are really turned on by rectal thermometers . . . .

A true crime/victims’ rights blog called Lost in Lima Ohio would regularly feature referring-site stats that indicated visitors were looking for child pornography. I think the blogmaster would try to contact the ISP of these pervs or local law enforcement whenever this happened. I wonder how effective it would be if more bloggers kept track of referring site stats in order to detect pedophiles and if doing so would in any way help law enforcement officials catch these predators.

By: J Probst

J Probst — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:17:01 +0000

Good information but whenever i want to surf the internet in privacy i go to the public library. Haha.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:54:28 +0000

Basically a visit to a website can tell the host of that site three things; your IP address, what browser you’re using, and what site linked you there (and that’s only if you clicked a link on another site to get there.) From those three bits of inof, they can surmise several other things, like what city you’re in, what kind of computer you’re using, what kind of connection you’re using, maybe what drew you to that site, etc… Most sites will use that info in refining their strategies for drawing visitors and improving the experience at the site. Some will use cookie information so that your browser remembers things from your last visit, and so they can find out a little more about your habits.

All that said, very, very, very few will use the info they glean from your visit for nefarious purposes, so most all paranoia in this subject is misplaced.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:23:49 +0000

Not to make anyone too paranoid, but with just a tiny bit of code on your webserver you can tell a whole lot more than that, including performing port scans, etc. A good site to see what you’re sharing with the world (knowingly or not), is Gibson Research Corporation (grc.com). There are also software anonymisers out there that mask your ip and ports, and will even help you shield some of the more telling information about yourself from all the bad guys on the web.

By: arby

arby — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:56:22 +0000

I was wondering about the feed readers. If all or most of a post is displayed in Google Reader, I don’t click thru, unless I want to comment, and I seldom do. I sometimes feel a little guilty that it won’t show up in the stats. On the other hand, those sites that don’t show more than a tease in the reader annoy me, and I seldom go to the site unless it really interests me. Suffice to say I really enjoy Mental Floss, I read all posts, sorry I don’t show up in the stats more often. rb

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:09:54 +0000

When someone comments on my blog, I get it emailed to me from TypePad. The comment includes the person’s IP address, so I can then go to my stats page and match up the IP visit with that person’s name! So now I know all the stats on lots of specific people. Fun. Oh, also, you don’t get to see who visits your blog if they read it on an RSS feed reader like Bloglines or Google Reader.