I'm having flashbacks to the days when people sued the DNS blacklists, or threatened them, called them Nazis, etc.
I'm not commenting on whether these services (like SiteAdvisor and the DNSBLs) are good or bad, and in what contexts. I'm just saying these arguments have been made before. And, I believe the real good guys (as much as anybody is a good guy) are the ones who want people to have the right to design their own Internet experience and possibly have help from third parties in doing so. Companies have no right to make people browse their sites, even if they've made it to the top of the googleranks by hook or crook; those users are not theirs by rights. The user owns their own eyes and time. If there is something a user might find objectionable on the site, whether it be spyware or pictures of cats, the user has a right to turn around and go elsewhere when those things appear on your site. If they want to install a tool that warns them when they're about to see a lolcat or be exposed to spyware, they should have that right and the tool vendor is definitely not in the wrong for trying to provide that service (even if they make mistakes now and then).
I'm not commenting on whether these services (like SiteAdvisor and the DNSBLs) are good or bad, and in what contexts. I'm just saying these arguments have been made before. And, I believe the real good guys (as much as anybody is a good guy) are the ones who want people to have the right to design their own Internet experience and possibly have help from third parties in doing so. Companies have no right to make people browse their sites, even if they've made it to the top of the googleranks by hook or crook; those users are not theirs by rights. The user owns their own eyes and time. If there is something a user might find objectionable on the site, whether it be spyware or pictures of cats, the user has a right to turn around and go elsewhere when those things appear on your site. If they want to install a tool that warns them when they're about to see a lolcat or be exposed to spyware, they should have that right and the tool vendor is definitely not in the wrong for trying to provide that service (even if they make mistakes now and then).