Recently both WOT and Nvidia were in the news for the way their software was collecting and sending back data from their users.
WOT was in the news due to a report from a German TV channel. The report claimed that WOT collects and sells data about your browsing habits, and then that collected data can be tracked back to specific users.
After reviewing the data, Mozilla (the creators of Firefox) removed the WOT plug-in from their add-ons directory. We at GlassWire were saddened by this news because we found WOT to be a useful resource for looking up websites to see if they were safe or not.
Nvidia was also in the news for collecting telemetry data, similar to what Microsoft started doing with Windows 10. Please note though with Windows 10 in many cases it’s possible to stop telemetry data collection. MajorGeeks has a detailed report and video on how to disable Telemetry with the Nvidia software, or you can go to the GlassWire Firewall tab and block the software from accessing the network at all.
Fortunately, if you’re a GlassWire user you can stop most badly behaving applications from sending any data about you out at all. Paying GlassWire users can switch to GlassWire’s “Ask to connect” mode and block all new unknown connections from sending out any data about you. Free GlassWire users will be notified when a “new” application accesses the network, then they can go to the Firewall tab and block the application.
Don’t have GlassWire’s “Ask to connect” feature yet? Click here to upgrade to GlassWire Basic, Pro, or Elite!
You may also be wondering if GlassWire collects or sells user data. Please note with GlassWire that none of your network usage data ever leaves your PC and we could never see it or collect it even if we wanted to.
Our privacy policy confirms this, and we even allow GlassWire to block itself with its own Firewall tab if you’re concerned. However, we don’t recommend that you make GlassWire block itself or you won’t know about software updates, and your malicious host list will never be updated.
We built GlassWire as a tool for ourselves to stop malicious apps and malware from spying. GlassWire makes money through sales of our Basic, Pro, and Elite software so we have no need to collect data about our users and sell it. Also, our entire team despises spying apps and we made GlassWire specifically to fight against that type of behavior!
Next time you download a free app check out its privacy policy first. If you are not paying for the app then you yourself may be the product. You should consider that if you are not paying for the software then it may be your browsing habits or other data about you that’s being sold to others.
Fortunately, you can always use GlassWire as a tool to see what apps are sending out data from your PC, and block them.
Update: Howtogeek.com has an article on the Nvidia situation that says the Nvidia software is not spying and the situation was a misunderstanding.
Ines Pljakic says:
I can say that it’s scary that tools such as WOT can collect data about the browsing habits. There must be many more that we have no idea are doing the same.