Using AJAX to Spy On You

Friday, Aug. 12 2005 | Author: Dave

Everyone has been talking about AJAX lately, and I have to admit that I am pretty amazed with what it can do, and how it does it, but there could be some more shady uses of AJAX, and specifically XMLHttpRequest that most people don’t know about yet, but should be aware of.

Just imagine, for the purposes of an example, that you drop your new iPod on the ground and it stops working. Hoping to get a free replacement, you write an e-mail to Apple support that says: “I just bought a brand new iPod. I dropped it down a set of stairs. It stopped working.” You then decide to delete the second sentence to help your cause. TOO LATE! If the site uses AJAX, your response may already have been zapped to the complaint desk in the sky!

I think that this technology must be monitored, and many negative effects could shift the power to the website owner, or corporation and thus take it away from the average browser. So where there is AJAX, be careful, you don’t know what details they are watching.

AJAX Examples
AJAX Live Chat
AJAX Instant Messaging
Fun Story Time
Hotmail goes AJAX with 2GB inbox

Hope you like that post!

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5 Responses for "Using AJAX to Spy On You"

Adam Lyttle

August 13th, 2005 at 00:51
1

There’s no reason why you can’t do this with JavaScript already..
EyePulp

August 13th, 2005 at 02:36
2

“I think that this technology must be monitored”

I think AOL was meant for people think this way.
David

August 13th, 2005 at 07:03
3

AOL, that’s a low blow. I think all technology should be monitored because of its risks, but I don’t believe that AJAX should be stopped or anything. Just that people should be aware.

Also, I know there is no reason you can’t use JS to do this stuff already, but you have to admit that JavaScript alone is not considered the “in” thing in comparison to AJAX.
Tomas

August 13th, 2005 at 16:03
4

You guys do realise what AJAX is right? It’s Javascript, XML and a Server language. There would be no AJAX without Javascript.

It’s easy to put a negative aspect on this, but the positives outweigh big time.
paul

August 13th, 2005 at 16:39
5

ajax is awesome. anyone who has a gamil account already has been exposed to how ajax works

and for word press bloggers theres a ajax spell checker plugin which works like a charm. check this out.

fxsp