A powerful document manager for Mac, Windows, and Linux for managing web content, books, and notes - supports tagging, annotation, highlighting and keeps track of your reading progress.

https://getpolarized.io

Anybody familiar with this product?
All comments welcome.

Basically misleadingly calls a system-wide file-manager spyware a browser 'cookie'. Then sends your constant activity and computer data using your computer, constant memory usage and processing power and paid for electricity making an archive of your daily activity by the hour forever to themselves (second party) and also another unknown group called "a third party". They seem not to be fluent in the English language. Is it Chinese intel or Russian intel or is it a simple business venture by one of New York's five Cosa Nostra families? Oh goodie, or is it just some innocent ransomware state blackmailers in North Korea? They do not identify themselves or at least I could not see who they are nor find the usual "about us" generic copy and pasted BS blurb.



QUOTE:

We use cookies to track your usage.
We use cookies to track your usage and to determine which features are used to improve the quality of Polar.

Additionally, we track application errors which helps us find bugs and to prioritize which issues to fix.

This data is sent to 3rd parties which provide the infrastructure necessary to provide the analytics services needed to analyze and store the data.

We avoid sending personally identifiable information at all times.

Cloud storage and privacy.
When using Polar cloud sync we store your data in the cloud and authentication / authorization is controlled by the auth provider you select.

We do not sell your private data. Your private data is your and we're not interested in selling, monetizing, or distributing it to 3rd parties except when necessary to provide data storage services.

Hm, interesting, washere. I assume you've discovered this spyware by testing the app?

The GitHub site looks fairly innocuous (https://github.com/burtonator/polar-bookshelf and the product looks quite interesting (although there are many very capable open-source readers already in existence).

Cheers!
Bill

The Polarized blog is actually quite entertaining! Here it is: https://getpolarized.io/blog/

MadaboutDana wrote:

Hm, interesting, washere. I assume you've discovered this spyware by
testing the app?

The GitHub site looks fairly innocuous
(https://github.com/burtonator/polar-bookshelf and the product looks
quite interesting (although there are many very capable open-source
readers already in existence).

Cheers!
Bill

Bill, the text I quoted self-declares it, it's their own words.

Anyone can open an anonymous account on GitHub as I did or they did.

They also say they send this constant data gathered from their system-wide file-manager 'cookie' spyware on your computer not only to one 'third party' group but multi third party groups: 'third parties'.

I did quite a bit of searching last night. The only clues I found about the "we" they self referred to (who had difficulty with basic English) was a name (Ken Burton) with no details and seemed fake. And a photo which seemed to be from a royalty free stock photo bank.

Can we assume your encouragement of this app to members means you've installed it yourself? Or not? And encouraging others to test it first?

I did not click the Accept button and uninstalled and cleaned the system and registry. It does not install to the usual program folder/program folder(86) but (as in a minority of apps) to the user section.

If you've installed this yourself and using it, how is it? Are you liking it?

Cheers Bill.

No, I took note of your warning and intriguing though the app is, haven't taken the risk of installing it.

You're right that it's all too easy to be lulled into trusting developers who may not have your best interests at heart. At the same time, I think it's important to encourage developers (especially independent ones) who are doing something because they're passionate about it. And I'm getting mixed vibes from the developer behind Polar.

Similarly, a new Facebook competitor has recently launched in London (inLink); I've already sent them an e-mail querying the way their Terms of Business treat end-user IP (having read through them and discovered that they don't undertake to attribute authorship to content creators even though they arrogate the right to use/sublicense users' content).

After all, Google started off promising to "do no evil" - a message that has now disappeared from the company's mission statement. And if that doesn't tell you all you need to know about late-stage capitalism, I don't know what does!

Cheers!
Bill

MadaboutDana wrote:

No, I took note of your warning and intriguing though the app is,
haven't taken the risk of installing it.

You're right that it's all too easy to be lulled into trusting
developers who may not have your best interests at heart. At the same
time, I think it's important to encourage developers (especially
independent ones) who are doing something because they're passionate
about it. And I'm getting mixed vibes from the developer behind Polar.

Similarly, a new Facebook competitor has recently launched in London
(inLink); I've already sent them an e-mail querying the way their Terms
of Business treat end-user IP (having read through them and discovered
that they don't undertake to attribute authorship to content creators
even though they arrogate the right to use/sublicense users' content).

After all, Google started off promising to "do no evil" - a message that
has now disappeared from the company's mission statement. And if that
doesn't tell you all you need to know about late-stage capitalism, I
don't know what does!

Cheers!
Bill

Ah good, if you use it, let us know how it goes.

Yeah these guys, Kev Burtons, hide completely (ok) but want full access to files and processes on the whole system (not ok) calling it a browser cookie falsely and monitor for themselves and 'others' what user does constantly and transmit data to multi unknown destinations (definitely not ok).

It's a sophistry to equate this to developers who are known people. And/or registered companies in proper legal territories with recourse and one can check the names of directors of. Different kettle of fish, man.

As to your emailing new tech corporations, this is how it goes. Poor Techie and/or Hippy dippy easy going guy (like me or you) gets greedy (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Zuckerberger, Jack Dorsey etc) and steals others' ideas and repackages. Goes IPO. Loses majority stake holder and full control. Feels the need to defend the corporation's ever increasingly fascist encroachments due to profit pressures and more greed. Then tires and moves from CEO to honorary chairman type position and only does occasional PR when the boardroom snaps and says jump. Goes and enjoys riches and pet projects. Dies, leaves fortune to wife and kids to go mad. Gets a little gravestone no one gives a sh!t about.

Good luck emailing them, let us know what they say, should be fun.

Peace Love Om Shanti and all that jazz bro

Did you all go insane? The creator is clearly identifiable -- among other things he is one of the co-inventors of RSS and runs a serious data analysis company. Those 'spyware threats' are standard legal disclaimers (Microsoft Windows, Apple, Adobe etc. Terms of Service are much worse anyways).

I tested the app a couple months ago but it wasn't useful for me. The most interesting feature, the ability to create flashcards and sync them with Anki, wasn't fully implemented. It also created too much redundance with other reference management tools.

In the blog you find the comment:

"At Datastreamer (my company when not working on Polar) we have nearly a petabyte of web data to play with. We provide data indexing services for companies serious indexing web data (think search engines)."

The domain "datastreamer.io" is registered to "Tailrank"
https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=260629906
Then search for Tailrank, Kevin Burton etc.

And from there you just get all info you need give a bit to understand the service of this serial entrepreneurs. And from what i read in the blog that they use Google Firebase turns away all my interest for them.

And that Datastreamer is not giving out any names on their main website is also a huge warning sign for me.

Jan S. wrote:

Did you all go insane? The creator is clearly identifiable -- among
other things he is one of the co-inventors of RSS and runs a serious
data analysis company. Those 'spyware threats' are standard legal
disclaimers (Microsoft Windows, Apple, Adobe etc. Terms of Service are
much worse anyways).

Jan S. wrote:

Did you all go insane? The creator is clearly identifiable -- among
other things he is one of the co-inventors of RSS and runs a serious
data analysis company. Those 'spyware threats' are standard legal
disclaimers (Microsoft Windows, Apple, Adobe etc. Terms of Service are
much worse anyways).

I tested the app a couple months ago but it wasn't useful for me. The
most interesting feature, the ability to create flashcards and sync them
with Anki, wasn't fully implemented. It also created too much redundance
with other reference management tools.

i) Do you have a link for him? Linking him to this project?

ii) Why is there no info about him or the company on the website?

iii) Message is standard but this is no browser confined 'cookie'.
That's a lie.
It's a system-wide file-manger process that sends data back constantly to them.
He or they then send it on to other companies.
Why lie.
Are all these parties and companies working for free with the data they gather?
As they collect user data constantly:
Who pays for their wages and for what are they getting paid?

iv) Can you tell us what are the third parties or companies or entities he sends the user data gathered in real time to?

v) What happens to the constant data they gather from the computers non-stop? Is it archived for FOI access or is it not available to the users they use? Which is what it seems.

When did an abundance of caution become a subject of debate? Nowadays, more than ever, with frameworks and such giving dabblers and neophytes the tools for rapid software development, it's doubly wise to question not just the software but who made the software. I'd love to trust everyone, and give every new business or every new developer the benefit of the doubt, but if you're an unknown quantity trying to sell me something, it's on you to prove why I should trust you enough to buy it. A legitimate business welcomes skeptical customers and tries to win them over; an idiot or a swindler does just the opposite.

MadAboutDana wrote:

"I think it’s important to encourage developers (especially independent ones) who are doing something because they’re passionate about it."

Sure, after you know they're legitimate, trustworthy, and have the requisite skills and resources. Encouragement shouldn't be the initial knee-jerk response.