CoComments Big Brother Plugin

CoComment is a great tool to keep track of comments left by you and others on blogs. Lately, they have added a Firefox plugin which makes the service even more comfortable to use. Unfortunately, however, the plugin raises a serious privacy issue about which CoComment does not inform its users about.

I’ve tried to get in contact with them to get a statement but got no response. O.k. so let’s discuss it in the blogsphere. While the plugin’s functionality is doubtlessly interesting, it contacts the CoComment server after each and every download of a web page. Part of the message sent to CoComment is the visited URL. In effect, CoComment is thus aware of each and every move a user takes on the Web. Cookies pale in comparison to this! What is so unacceptable to me is that CoComment does not inform users about this to let them choose if this is acceptable to them or not.

For my part I’ve uninstalled the plugin again and have reverted back to their bookmarklet. It offers less functionality but preserves my privacy except of course of keeping track of my comments, which is what it’s supposed to do.