would you run a logger that counts how often you see each word?

[urlwolf]

Hi,

I need some feedback from experienced netizens. This is for an idea about and web experiments. I know how scared are people about losing privacy and being observed and such (more so after the AOL database was released).

I think an absolutely killer db to have is how often *each* individual sees different words. I'm planning to run an experiment on what I call "personal history corpus"... I cannot post the details here.

If I created one, would you run a logger that counts how often you see each word? I'd pay you (as it is customary in psych experiments) and probabl ask you to do some experimental task (related to memory). But first I need to have the counts of say your last week online (the more the better).

So would you do it? I cannot recompose what you read (for privacy, your data would be anonymous anyway), but the counts may still give you a certain feeling of what the person reads.

[nudone]

i'm game.

[Deozaan]

I think an absolutely killer db to have is how often *each* individual sees different words. I'm planning to run an experiment on what I call "personal history corpus"... I cannot post the details here.

If I created one, would you run a logger that counts how often you see each word? I'd pay you (as it is customary in psych experiments) and probabl ask you to do some experimental task (related to memory). But first I need to have the counts of say your last week online (the more the better).

So would you do it? I cannot recompose what you read (for privacy, your data would be anonymous anyway), but the counts may still give you a certain feeling of what the person reads.

-urlwolf (October 09, 2006, 02:15 PM)

Every single word we ever see? Or just certain words?

[urlwolf]

it takes the same effort, so all words.

[Deozaan]

it takes the same effort, so all words.

-urlwolf (October 10, 2006, 04:57 PM)

How would it log the words? I don't want my passwords or credit card  or bank account numbers being logged.

[urlwolf]

ah! very good point.
It would parse the html of the pages you browse, plus the time spent.

What you type, of course, is not logged.
I don't think your password'd be displayed in an html page at all, it's always the little boxes with asterisks instead of chars that you see (and even so, not even the asterisks or anything inside a textbox would be logged).

So I don't see any way that kind of logger would capture your passwords. The same as google doesn't capture them...

[Deozaan]

So if I read my Gmail where sometimes I e-mail myself information I'll want to keep for later, such as usernames and passwords to websites or FTP accounts, it would parse that information and it would log it and send it to you?

I think I'll pass on this one. I certainly trust you, but I don't like the risk of my private information being out there in some word database that other people might get a hold of. With the way I use the internet and websites, the risk is fairly high to me.

[nudone]

So if I read my Gmail where sometimes I e-mail myself information I'll want to keep for later, such as usernames and passwords to websites or FTP accounts, it would parse that information and it would log it and send it to you?

I think I'll pass on this one. I certainly trust you, but I don't like the risk of my private information being out there in some word database that other people might get a hold of. With the way I use the internet and websites, the risk is fairly high to me.

-Deozaan (October 17, 2006, 01:52 PM)

good point. i think i'll have to give it a miss too. i'm sorry, urlwolf.