A recent investigation by German broadcaster NDR found out that popular safe browsing service, Web of Trust (WOT) wasn’t living up to its privacy promise.

WOT uses a crowd-sourcing system allowing its users to view and rate websites based their trustworthiness and other safety measures. It has a policy to collect data such as, IPs, location, URLs, OS and other relevant information, however it promises to make this information unidentifiable.

WOT Violated its Own Policies

NDR claims that the data WOT sold for targeted advertising contained crucial information such as email addresses and phone numbers. Using this information they were able to identify more than 50 people and linked them to their browsing history and other internet preferences.

WOT has apologized for violating its guidelines and said that they are studying the feedback to make appropriate changes. It will also allow users to opt-out of data collection program.

You Need To Uninstall it manually

Mozilla and other popular browsers have already removed this add-on / extension from their listings. However those who have already installed the extension in their browsers will need to manually uninstall it to stop their browsing being tracked.