Forum Moderators: DixonJones
I recently redesigned my bosses' Web site for them. My one boss, who considers herself very "techie," says that she "read somewhere" that you can "capture" a person's email address by extrapolating it from their IP address -- that you can take their IP and somehow not only get their location and ISP, but the username associated with that account at that ISP. She hopes to be able to do this so she can send a "thank you for visiting" email to everyone who visits the site (!) and so that she can add multiple addresses to her mailing list for the business.
I have delicately tried to discourage her from this line of thinking altogether, pointing out that people are getting sued for spam and sending out bulk unsolicited mail, and that your average person simply doesn't want to be emailed unless they ask to be, but I don't think she's hearing me.
I'm reasonably certain you can't do what she's thinking of anyway -- if for no other reason than the fact that AOL and other ISPs give out dynamic IP addresses -- but she's tenacious, and I guess I'd like some reassurance from those of you who've been around the block longer than I have. If she goes digging around hard enough on Google, will she find some downloadable script or software to do what she wants? She loves to order obscure programs and doodads that she thinks might help the business, and I hate the idea that I'll end up having to put some insidious harvesting code on my brand-new site that I was so proud of.
Thanks for the laughs. In my unsolicited opinion, your boss sounds like a Control Freak to me! ;) If she was my boss I would get a good set of headphones for a portable stereo and put them on and listen to some good music every time you see her make a beeline for you. In this manner you can teach her to avoid asking you such questions. Hahaha However, I am also the direct forceful type and I would have told her immediately that this can not be done unless you provide a better site registration process.
You can also create a protected registration subweb that would "force" someone to register in order to gain access to the areas your boss is interested in "micromanaging." However, it seems a little too overboard for my tastes and what I have taken away with me from sites that micromanage every thing I and other visitors do on their has always left a foul opinion of their site and I like most others I suspect do not return to it!
For example, what about those sites that use those annoying popups to keep you on their site and then try to refer you to other associated sites?! I am not just talking the porn sites here mind you so keep it clean everyone! ;)
In all honesty, there are many ways to abuse the power we wield as webmasters. In my case a webmaster protege! ; ) So, good luck with that boss of yours Alligator! Ewwwww! ;)
Jackal
"There is nothing more annoying than a person who when asked for the time tells you how to build a clock!"
