Phoning Home

After it was found some products were sending to their creators all kinds of information (the exact URL of everything ever downloaded along with a unique ID that could identify you, etc.), thought we'd better post something:

GetRight never has and never would secretly send us any information about what files people are using GetRight to download. Period.

What can get sent to different places.

Basic Downloading. The server from where you are downloading the file is sent the "location" of the file as part of the HTTP or FTP request. (Duh.)

Features in GetRight that can do extra connections beyond the above.

FTP Searching. FTP searching is a service offered by several third party web sites to let you find many more locations where a file can be downloaded. If you turn this feature on in GetRight, you can select from several different servers that provide this searching service...and as part of that process they are sent the name of the file to search for. But no full URL or any identifying information is sent, and the file name is only sent as part of the search request to the search server.
This is an *optional* feature in GetRight, and can be turned off using the Mirrors configuration tab.

FileMirrors.com Searching. This one can send the URL, but it is under your control, and is off by default. FileMirrors searching is an optional service that can be used to help GetRight users share and search for mirrors for downloads. If you choose to use this service, it will at least send the file name and size for the search request. And if you choose, this can optionally send the URL you are downloading from so it can be added to the search database to help later people downloading the same file.
This feature is optional and is off by default. If you turn this feature on, you are given the choice about sharing or not sharing the URLs. The controls to turn on/off and set if to share are on the "Mirror Search" configuration page.
More details can be found at www.FileMirrors.com

Checking for newer versions of GetRight. This does connect to our HTTP server and downloads a small file (specifically http://www.getright.com/updates.ini). Then the copy of GetRight on your computer compares the version number in that file to its own version.
This is an *optional* feature in GetRight, and can be turned off using the Advanced configuration tab. (And even if enabled it will only be triggered to check every month or so.)

Pinging. Several features in GetRight can ping different servers--calculating the fastest server, pinging to try to keep your ISP from disconnecting, some of the checks to see if you're connected to the Internet (if not using Windows Dial-Up Networking). No real information is sent as part of these ping commands. These pings only happen to the servers from where you are currently downloading files or have as mirrors for the downloads.
All these are *optional*, and can be turned off as well. On the Connections tab, uncheck the item about "ping to keep connections alive"; on the Mirrors tab, uncheck the one about "Find Fastest Server"; and on the Internet tab, uncheck the one about "Always start automatic downloading".

The "regular" advertising banners. Already the subject of other discussions. Howerver, NO information about what files are being downloaded is ever sent or shared with the advertising systems used by GetRight.

The advertising banners.
GetRight 4.5a (October 1, 2001) and higher have removed the advertising banners completely. You really should upgrade if you're using still using a version this old, so this section doesn't really apply much anymore, but still here for completeness.
For older versions than 4.5a, if the regular advertising banner DLLs are removed (or not installed, as in 4.5 or the later 4.3 releases) from the unregistered version when it is showing ads, GetRight will use a simple Internet Explorer web browser control to still show ads.
When doing this, GetRight 4.5 will occasionally (every few weeks) connect to our HTTP server and download new HTML code to use for the ad display.
(Specifically http://www.getright.com/iebanner_nr.html)