+Blue Man Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 I was contacted by a cache owner who noticed I was browsing his page too early in the morning; he was concerned about my insomnia. I asked him how he knew and he told me there was now an audit function for the owner to check who was viewing and when. However, I can't seem to find it on my own cache pages. Anybody know about this? Thanks. Link to comment
+fizzymagic Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 It is only present in Members Only caches. Link to comment
+GeoSharks Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic:It is only present in Members Only caches. It would be nice if the view audit page was available on all caches that a member places. Not just the member only caches. This would add to the value of the members subscription. Link to comment
iryshe Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 We'll most likely be including an audit function in all caches owned by premium members in the future. This will be incorporated as we move to .net Jeremy Irish Groundspeak - The Language of Location Link to comment
+Markwell Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Blue Man:I was contacted by a cache owner who noticed I was browsing his page too early in the morning; he was concerned about my insomnia. Even though I don't mind people knowing when I look at their cache pages, this instance and the communication from the cache owner sounds an awful lot like invasion of privacy. Markwell Chicago Geocaching Link to comment
+Blue Man Posted January 23, 2003 Author Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Markwell:Even though I don't mind people knowing when I look at their cache pages, this instance and the communication from the cache owner sounds an awful lot like invasion of privacy. Yeah, I was a little surprised to get his message. I think he intended it in a friendly way but I understand how easily it could be misinterpreted. I guess I'll have to create a subscribers-only cache to see how this works. Link to comment
+Centaur Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Jeremy (Admin):We'll most likely be including an audit function in all caches owned by premium members in the future. This will be incorporated as we move to .net Jeremy Irish Groundspeak - The Language of Location What exactly is .net anyway? I must not be reading the right Micro$oft page... Link to comment
+beckerbuns Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Blue Man:I was contacted by a cache owner who noticed I was browsing his page too early in the morning; he was concerned about my insomnia. I asked him how he knew and he told me there was now an audit function for the owner to check who was viewing and when. However, I can't seem to find it on my own cache pages. Anybody know about this? Thanks. Love your avatar. I'm a big Blue Man Group fan. I find it kinda touching that another geocacher was concerned about your insomnia. If only all geocachers were so concerned about each other! ------------------------------------- Becky Davis San Jose, CA How many geocachers can you fit into an ammo box? Link to comment
+LarsThorwald Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 Is it just me? I think this audit aspect is kind of scary. I don't really care who's looking at my cache pages and when... but I'm pretty sure I don't like the fact that someone else knows what I'm doing with my computer. This is the first I've heard of this. Charlie "One should never begin a journey by heading in the wrong direction." Link to comment
+Greenback Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 It is scary but it also sounds interesting. I may have to place a members only cache just to see what it's all about. I'm curious what the purpose really is? Link to comment
K618 Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 I do IT for a living and am very sensitive about privacy because I know the magnitude of damage that can be done. I'm pretty sure they won't be able to do any detailed monitoring (other than IP address) if the visitor is not logged-on to geocache.com. I am turning-off my automatic logon. Link to comment
+Markwell Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 The reason was more clear back when we first started talking about Members-Only caches, even if it was highly debated. The biggest problem was that people were being systematically targeted. I think it was BunkerDave that suggested the possibility of being able to audit who is looking at his caches, since they were being targeted and looted. quote:Originally Posted by Jeremy in Pay to Play? I'd like to hear from Jeremy ...The other issue, that I haven't addressed on the subscription page, is that some folks have become targets by anonymous troublemakers that like to destroy individual's caches. Subscription only caches will allow you to audit your cache to see who looked at your cache page and when. In addition, a certain amount of anonymity goes away when you subscribe, so troublemakers will either not bother subscribing or be scared to subscribe since they are no longer anonymous... Since this five-page rant against pay-for-play, the furor over Members-Only caches has all but died away. There are not the masses of "mo caches" that people were afraid of. But almost gone too was the knowledge that the audit trail for Members-Only caches existed. K618 - it doesn't matter that you turned off your auto-login. Only Members-Only caches have the audit feature, and you must be logged in to see Members-Only caches. So by definition, you will be tracked if you peruse a MO cache. Standard cache pages (even those owned by Charter Members) do not have the audit feature. Markwell Chicago Geocaching Link to comment
+Mr. Snazz Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 Its foolish to think that you have any privacy at all when viewing content on the web. There are dozens of points along the way where your browsing privacy can be compromised. It would be trivial for someone to monitor who (by IP address) is viewing their cache pages, even without extra auditing support from Groundspeak. If you're really concerned about keeping your geocache browsing private, use an anonymous proxy service such as anonymizer.com. All data requests are sent through the proxy, so anybody watching (even by IP address of requester) won't see you, they'll see the proxy. I'm curious if those on the forums who toot the Privacy Trumpet are as concerned in their offline lives as they are in their online ones. Do you show your ID when you buy beer? Do you leave mail with your name sitting on your car seat? Do you alter your appearance to avoid being recognized? Do you block caller ID? Do you tell people your birthdate? Do you suspect that the russians are behind the use of flouride in drinking water? Link to comment
nickr Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Mr. Snazz: I'm curious if those on the forums who toot the Privacy Trumpet are as concerned in their offline lives as they are in their online ones. Do you show your ID when you buy beer? Do you leave mail with your name sitting on your car seat? Do you alter your appearance to avoid being recognized? Do you block caller ID? Do you tell people your birthdate? Do you suspect that the russians are behind the use of flouride in drinking water? All that and more! Constantly wear white cotton gloves to keep from leaving fingerprints. Only make telephone calls on a securePhone. Only send anonymous, encrypted email. Incinerate all disposable drinking containers in order to eliminate DNA evidence. Never buy a car, only rent cars under assumed names with fake IDs. Record every conversation, and yet ensure that no one else records any conversation. Never pay taxes, all transactions are in small, unmarked bills or foreign currency. Always wear a zorro mask to prevent computer-based CCD camera systems from matching your face against the database of known soccer hooligans. Link to comment
+Markwell Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 Well if privacy is the concern, of course, we're all vulnerable. Even with information that we don't think is going to point to us. I'm beginning to see a pattern. Seems like a fitting place Hunting Logscaler (Warning - long load time) But the point is not so much that the information is available. It's what we do with that information. My Geodashing buddies once took me up on a challenge (find where I live based on my posts). Within a couple of hours, someone had an aerial shot of my neighborhood and circle my neighbors house. Get out the aluminum hats, boys! But no one came knocking on my door asking to go Geodashing. IMHO, knowing information about me is not necessarily an invasion of my privacy until you DO something with that information. If I walk around in my underwear in front of my picture window with open curtains, it's my fault. If my neighbor comes up and says, "Hey - nice boxers, dancing boy," that's his fault. IMO, this cacher overstepped the bounds of social etiquette by making an inquiry to the cacher that was looking at his page at 3:00 in the morning. Markwell Chicago Geocaching Link to comment
+Mr. Snazz Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Markwell:IMO, this cacher overstepped the bounds of social etiquette by making an inquiry to the cacher that was looking at his page at 3:00 in the morning. Certainly. It'd be like the cable company calling you up and asking, "So, did you enjoy watching Women of Thunder? Was it worth the $6.95 pay-per-view fee?" Link to comment
K618 Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 I'm pretty new to GeoCaching and was not aware of the MO features. Whatever the case, I still think I will manually log-on each time I need to do tasks that require it. Reason (stated by Jeremy above) "We'll most likely be including an audit function in all caches owned by premium members in the future. This will be incorporated as we move to .net" This would seem to imply that "premium members" would be able to see and ident visitors to non-MO caches (if they were logged-in). Thanks for the clarification. Link to comment
+Mr. Snazz Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 Perhaps some of the issues here can be resolved by not displaying the full date/time stamp, but only the date stamp, on the list of recent cache viewers. Some folks are concerned about having it plastered around that they browse caches during business hours, etc. I don't think the time-of-day information is going to be very useful for anybody who utilized the audit feature. What do you folks think? Is date-only a good compromise? Link to comment
+Whidbey Walk Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Mr. Snazz:What do you folks think? Is date-only a good compromise? Sounds reasonable to me. http://home.earthlink.net/~whidbeywalk/ Link to comment
+Web-ling Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 Oh. I thought this thread was about declaring your cache booty to the Internal Revenue Service. My bad. Link to comment
Dinoprophet Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Web-ling:Oh. I thought this thread was about declaring your cache booty to the Internal Revenue Service. My bad. Trading up should be deductible then, huh? Another reason to log properly! Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann, und ich hab' auch im Blut Link to comment
+trippy1976 Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 This seems nit-picky to me RE: time. What difference does it really make? So they knew you checked it during lunch - big deal. That doesn't tell you anything about anything. It doesn't even indicate that the person will be going to your cache. I don't understand the privacy issue there. Seems like work to fix something that's not broke. What I don't understand is why audit trails are implemented, but you still can't know who's watching your cache. Or did that change? -------- trippy1976 - Team KKF2A Saving geocaches - one golf ball at a time. Link to comment
+GrizzlyJohn Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Markwell:IMO, this cacher overstepped the bounds of social etiquette by making an inquiry to the cacher that was looking at his page at 3:00 in the morning. Hmmmm.... how do you know it was 3:00 in the morning? BlueMan never said what time. Hmmmm..... :-) Link to comment
onestep off Posted January 27, 2003 Share Posted January 27, 2003 For those concerned with their privacy I sure hope they never sign a log book!!!!!! Please take everything I post with an MDOT trucks load of salt! [This message was edited by onestep off on January 27, 2003 at 10:01 AM.] Link to comment
+VentureForth Posted March 4, 2003 Share Posted March 4, 2003 Jeremy can see each and every one of our IP addresses every time we post. So what if have an MOC and I can see when the last time a cacher looked at the page and how many times? NO other personal information is given. Only a link to that user's profile which can be done from the cache page itself! I REALLY like it, and I hope as a Premium user I can have that information on every cache I place, not just the MOCs when, as Jeremy stated, should be incorporated when geocaching moves to .net. I'm going home to line my walls with lead and duct tape. --------------- Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet! Link to comment
+HartClimbs Posted March 4, 2003 Share Posted March 4, 2003 I just don't see the point of the audit function for finding plunderers. If it's a member - couldn't it just be someone using pocketqueries and Watcher to read the cache pages? Not a big deal to me - but I didn't see why anyone would be interested in seeing who read their cache pages (I'm only interested in who actually goes to find 'em!) Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted March 4, 2003 Share Posted March 4, 2003 I like the audit function. Gives me a heads up who might be heading for my cache. For those of you who don't like people to know what you are doing on your computer. Don't use your computer. Besides all we really know is that someone using your account name (most likely you) viewed a cache page. That has nothing to do with what computer you were on and what else you might be doing on said computer at the time. I once got a phone call when I had caller ID. "The caller has blocked caller ID, please press # to accept this call" Um.. Ok. Click. *Dialtone* Wherever you go there you are. Link to comment
+canadazuuk Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 I'm all for cache page audits, although I wouldn't care if the 'time' was dropped. Link to comment
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