In recent years online security has become an increasing issue. A note about privacy may be necessary.

   Various measures have been developed to help people maintain privacy and security online. Unfortunately, those measures, such as the P3P privacy standard and the "Do Not Track" initiative, are mainly just gimmicks designed to placate the general public. While Microsoft and Google make a good show of being interested in privacy, their actions show otherwise. Neither browser has settings to block 3rd-party web bugs. Both browsers hide their cookie settings, make them confusing, and default to allowing spyware advertising cookies to track one's activities online. The Chrome browser does not even make many settings available. In short, don't expect any help from browser makers. There's too much money at stake. Firefox is slightly better, but still not private by design.

   Due to currently fashionable privacy gimmicks, you could see a message that www.jsware.net is not a safe website, privacy-wise. Why is that? JSWare does not publish an official privacy policy. Nor do we take part in P3P. Those things engender a false sense of security that has misled the public. Most people feel reassured to see that a website has a privacy policy. They should not feel reassured. Online marketing research companies survive by intruding upon your privacy. Many online businesses increase profits by spying on your activities in order to show you targetted ads and/or to customize the content and pricing they show on their webpages. Naturally those companies will come up with a suitable privacy policy so that your browser does not warn you about them. Their policy will be long and abstruse. It may actually define how the site intends to use your private information. (A privacy policy has nothing to do, necessarily, with respecting your privacy.) In nearly all cases privacy policies also include a disclaimer saying that the issuer reserves the right to unilaterally change the policy at any time! Such changes are common. In other words, their privacy policy means nothing to you at all. It is only a marketing and public relations device.

The JSWare website does not use:

   • cookies
   • javascript
   • ActiveX controls
   • Java applets
   • plug-ins such as Flash Player
   • P3P privacy files
   • 3rd-party web bugs
    ...or any form of "active content" programming code.

    NOTE: If while viewing this website you see ads, popup windows, "popunders", specially highlighted links, or other intrusions, they do not originate from this website. You may see such things if you are using a proxy browsing service or if you have allowed some kind of sleazeware to be installed on your computer.

What do you reveal to the JSWare website?

   All websites can know your IP address and the pages that you view. (If your browser does not ask for the pages and tell where to send them you cannot see the website.)

If you do not block referrer headers in the browser then at least the following information will also be sent:

   • The make and version of the browser you're using.
   • The make and version of the operating system you're using.
   • Where you just came from if you clicked a link to arrive at the present website.

   The information sent in the referrer header is generally harmless. It is used to customize webpages for different browsers and to provide web masters with information such as how many people visit their website and where those visitors might have linked from. But you can block the referrer header if you like, providing that you use Firefox, PaleMoon, K-Meleon, or Opera.