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This page contains information on privacy of applications and websites, as well as specific information on Vistua website/web-app privacy.

Applications

Usage Statistics

A good many applications now collect "anonymous usage statistics" and transmit them to the developer. It is strongly recommended that you disable this. Read each applications Terms of Use/Privacy notice carefully and/or browse through its control panel looking for such an option. Programs that are known to do this include.

• Google Chrome Wrench Menu → Options → Under the Hood
• OpenOffice Tools → Options → (Under "OpenOffice.Org section) "Improvement Program" → "No I do not wish to..."
• Windows Media Player Tools → Options → Privacy. Uncheck "Send unique Player Id..." & "I want to help make... sending player usage data..."

All of these programs do not necessarily enable this behavior by default, most actually ask you first and it is debatable whether these constitutes "spyware" per-se, however the following common program undoubtedly does.

• Realplayer This invasive software's website is blocked by the Network. If you have it installed anyways, please uninstall it completely then run C Cleaner's registry cleaner. If you are uncomfortable doing this, please consult administration for assistance.

Automatic Software Updates

Some MS Windows software and MS Windows itself can periodically check a remote server and see if an update is available, sometimes (as in the case of MS Windows itself) the software can automatically download and install the update for you. Although this results in a tiny amount of information disclosure, I.E. that you have version X of the software, we very very strongly recommend that you not disable this functionality. It is extremely important that all software be up to date for security reasons

It is vitally important that Windows be up to date and we actually recommend that you configure Windows to download and install all updates automatically without prompting you. It is almost equally important that your antivirus, antispyware (etc) programs be up to date and we recommend that you also configure them to download and install updates automatically without prompting you (most are already configured this way). Antivirus/Antispyware programs need to update their "definitions" lists at least every week.

If you are using UNIX, the administrator will either perform updates for you, or you will be prompted to install updates by the System. (On UNIX, the system itself provides the update mechanism, individual software does not need to run its own updater).

Website Data Collection

Websites can collect certain information from you, simply by you visiting them.

• Which page you visited Virtually all websites log the frequency with which pages are accessed
• Basic information such as Date/Time of access, language requested, etc.
• Your IP Number -This is a routing number used to direct Internet Resources
  • Your general location Like phone numbers, IP numbers are semigeographical. Country, state/province and region information can be determined. Only your ISP knows exactly where an IP number is located, though, as they change assignments frequently
• Your Browser and Operating System model and make (e.g. Windows 7, Linux 2, Firefox 3.5, etc)
  • Other information that is incumbent upon that, for example what version of Javascript your particular browser supports, etc
• Origin. The first visit to a site transmits a "referrer header" which means that the site will know the domain name of the previous site that you visited. Obviously if you start on this site, as by opening a new window, there is no referrer header.
• Search Keywords If you visit this site by clicking on a link from a search engine, the site will know which keywords you typed into the search engine
• Internal information Internal information includes things such as HTTP status code generated by the site itself, for example and how long it took the server to generate the page.
• Your Plugins Sites can tell which plugins you have installed, for example Adobe Flash, etc
• Proxy Information Some types of proxies disclose their existence to sites, others do not.
• Cookies (its own, only) See Cookie Hysteria for a caveat to this.

Vistua collected Information

Vistua.com itself collects Search Keywords, IP number, time of access, country of origin, referrer, type of resource requested, approximate duration of visit (computed by very gross estimate only), browser UA (name, version, etc), OS and version, HTTP status code and other internally generated information including how long it takes the server to generate your page, and whether or not you request the file http://www.vistua.com/favicon.ico.

For information about the cookies vistua.com and its partner sites set, please consult Cookies Disclaimer