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Question about visitor tracking software

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by Beren, Jun 11, 2009.

  1. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    It is apparently quite common for websites to have visitor tracking software that reveals the URLs of surfers who visit their sites, the search times that lead to their site, the geographical location of the surfers, and such.

    But what I'm wondering is: Is such software capable of finding out what a surfer's personal e-mail address is?

    Now the thing is, I've been visiting a site regularly for about the past year, news updates and such. My e-mail address has not been publicly available for over a year now (i.e. not beren -AT- sorcerers.net by the way). And I've never subscribed to any mailing list or club for this site.

    Then out of the blue they send an e-mail to me specifically, and I'm wondering how they could have gotten the address.

    I didn't mind really, but it has left me curious as the capabilities/limits of visitor tracking software.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 11, 2009
    Beren, Jun 11, 2009
    #1
  2. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    First of all, NEVER post your e-mail openly like you have above, because spambots harvest them in a matter of hours. I've masked it for you a bit.

    Visitor tracking software tracks visitors by their IPs, but the data is normally aggregated because there are just too many visitors to bother tracking anyone individually.

    To answer your question, no, they can't get your e-mail address via any legitimate means without you giving it to them at some point during sign-up (either for forums, newsletter, etc.) Did you sign up for their forums perhaps?

    What visitor tracking allows webmasters to find out is your IP (and consequently ISP, geographical location, etc.), operating system, browser software, screen resolution/colours, which referring URL lead you to the site (if any), whether you have javascript enabled or not and that's about it as far as the most important things go.

    In short, no personally identifiable information apart from your IP - but that doesn't really go very far.

    If you can't figure out how they got your e-mail, I suggest contacting them. Any serious website should have no problems telling you.
     
    Taluntain, Jun 11, 2009
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  3. Iku-Turso Gems: 26/31
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    I don't know much about software, but anything and everything that's ever been posted and that is still available can lead to you and perhaps your personal email as well.

    Anyone willing to put through any signifcant amount of googling for instance can get reasonable amount of data to find out who you are if you've been careless with what you've posted. (Or if you haven't been paranoid enough to systematically avoid posting personal tidbits about you).
     
    Iku-Turso, Jun 11, 2009
    #3
  4. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Hmmmm ... now that I've read Tal's response, I suspect somebody may have given it to them. Under the circumstances, I honestly didn't mind. It may have something to do with my personal life. I'll leave it at that. ;)
     
    Beren, Jun 11, 2009
    #4

  5. Iku-Turso Gems: 26/31
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    Yeah, definitely more likely that way...otherwise the person would've had to do one heck of a search...or would've had more extensive knowledge. And that'd be pretty damn extensive. Inside knowledge's the easiest way...
     
    Iku-Turso, Jun 11, 2009
    #5
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