I was curious if anyone could awnser for me if it is legal to sell web stats of my clients domains? Does the client own the stats or do I? If I do, can I share them outside of my hosting company? Who makes the rules governing this?

Thanks for any and all feedback on this issue.
-Cyberfixation

I don't know if it's illegal, but I can definitely picture clients suing you over it, if they find out. As a web hosting customer myself, I strongly recommend not doing it.

Hummm... very interesting.

On what grounds do you think a lawsuit could be made? Are stats public or private information? You couldn't sue me because I did a back ground check on you or your business right? Wouldn't that be pretty much the same thing?

I appreciate your response and am curious what anyone else has to say about the subject.

You couldn't sue me because I did a back ground check on you or your business right?

That depends on where you are and exactly what you have in your privacy policy. In the UK, if you want to credit check a customer, you need to get them to agree to that, otherwise you are leaving yourself open to legal action.

Smart bastards in the UK. :) Here in the US you can run a credit check on anyone at anytime....

Thats a great point about the privacy policy aspect of it. So then the legality of it would depend on not only nationality of the hosting company (or is it of the client?) and the wording of the inital privacy policy that was agreed upon in the beginning of the contract. Right?

Smart bastards in the UK. :)

We like to think so :stickout:

I'm just really curious, but why are you even thinking about doing this? IMO, if you do this, it is the eqivelent of selling their e-mail addresses for mailing lists. Either way, you are selling personal information about them and very likely to get anything substantial in return.

Does the US have a data protection act? That might limit the info you can sell.

The stats of someones website are already available, just not very accurately. They can be found on alexa.com, URLtrends.com or even with the overture keywords selector tool and searching for a domain name.

As hosting becomes more and more of a pure commidity with, worldwide compition, it would just be one more revenue stream to support a business.

I am also just really curious about it and have found minimal documenation online hence all the questions.

Once again I appreciate the responses.

Does the US have a data protection act? That might limit the info you can sell.

I have no clue but that is definitely an angle I will research. Thanks for the tip.

I'm not exactly sure as you may just host the domain, however if you own the domain yourself as in administrative contact, etc then in theroy I would say there could be no legal action taken anyway.

Plus if you really wanted to do this, change your ToS, and let your clients read it or just ask your clients directly if you can do this, then change your ToS if they all agree.

I know ALOT of people would be angry and it might just ruin your reputation. Many of my clients specifically take measures to password protect their stats. If you are thinking of doing this without your clients' permission or knowledge...that is just wrong.

--Tina

I am slightly curious why youw would want to sell website stats? To potential advertising companys?

I am actually curious about it on a larger scale. What if large hosting companies are doing it right now? I did some quick research and these two companies are "top 15" and they say nothing in their TOS saying they won't sell your stats to make a little little more money.

https://www.bluehost.com/terms_of_service.html
https://www.ixwebhosting.com (https://www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/home.dspPage/page/info.dspTOS)

I am sure any company that did it probably wouldn't advertise that they are doing it but if asked to would probably let you opt out (maybe for a price).

A possible similarity would be your whois/DNS info. That puts my phone number and address out there to see for free to anyone. If i don't want people to see it is another approx 33% increase in the cost of the domain.

Go with a reputable host and you won't have to worry about such things. No decent host would put their business on the line for this kind of silliness.

--Tina

AH-Tina, I see where you are coming from but what about all the sites that make predictions about your clients pages. I can count approx. five sites that claim they now how much traffic a site gest. Isn't having an approximation of someones stats more damaging then actually knowing? Or am I entirely wrong on this one? :-)

I appreciate the feedback.

I'm not exactly sure as you may just host the domain, however if you own the domain yourself as in administrative contact, etc then in theroy I would say there could be no legal action taken anyway.


Granted they own the domain but you own the host computer and stats are only the computer's logs files parsed out then made available (by you to them) as an extra part to keeping their domain avialable to the world 24/7.

AH-Tina, I see where you are coming from but what about all the sites that make predictions about your clients pages. I can count approx. five sites that claim they now how much traffic a site gest. Isn't having an approximation of someones stats more damaging then actually knowing? Or am I entirely wrong on this one? :-)

I appreciate the feedback.


The difference is, I'm not in a business relationship with them...and I never will, due to the possible damages they cause. If I were actually doing business with you, and you sold my data/stats to a 3rd party without my consent, I would raise holy hell and do my best to make sure that everyone knew how sleazy you operated. Trust me, you don't want that kind of trouble. ;)

--Tina

Granted they own the domain but you own the host computer and stats are only the computer's logs files parsed out then made available (by you to them) as an extra part to keeping their domain avialable to the world 24/7.

That's such a sleazy and underhanded way to look at it.

--Tina

Tina, What are you thoughts then on having to pay extra when you register a domain so that the DNS doesn't show your phone number, email and address?
Or when you buy a house and all that information is made public? Credit reports and tax history? All are business relationships (and personal at that) that are made totally public.

I guess I don't see any comparisons to why the information should be kept private when so much of it is public.

Thanks again for the great insights. I appreciate it.

Because I know ahead of time that they are sharing my information. Unless you specifically tell your customers "we're gonna sell your web stats", I think its a shady and deceitful thing to do.

--Tina

Very good point.
But is it illegal?

Very good point.
But is it illegal?

As far as I know, there are no attornies participating at WHT. If you want to get into taking advantage of your customers in this way, I would suggest meeting with an attorney in your area that specializes in internet cyber crimes and get the official word from him/her.

--Tina

Sorry for the ignorance. What is WHT?

Also wouldn't it be based on geographical area as well (mentioned in some very early posts on this thread)?

WebHostingTalk *Whole forum waves*

Are stats public or private information?

That is up to the agreement with the involved client/website. When talking about third-party add-ons, most statistical information is by default public, with the option to protect it via password.

Tina, What are you thoughts then on having to pay extra when you register a domain so that the DNS doesn't show your phone number, email and address?

I guess I don't see any comparisons to why the information should be kept private when so much of it is public.

Thanks again for the great insights. I appreciate it.

When you pay extra to have the registrar protect your information, you are not paying extra to keep them from publishing the domain registration information. You are paying for a service where they basically register the name in their own company name. Look again at a protected domain - all the information is there, but it is for the company. This mets the legal requirements for registering a domain.

You are suggesting selling your customers information. Then you suggest that if they pay you, then you won't sell their information. I see the two as completely different.

Granted they own the domain but you own the host computer and stats are only the computer's logs files parsed out then made available (by you to them) as an extra part to keeping their domain avialable to the world 24/7.

You scare me. I shouldn't give you even more ideas, but based on your logic you could parse email addresses out of the logs and sell them. As the owner of the computer the logs are yours. Does this sound fair or right?