I came across this worrisome post this morning describing how blogs on WordPress.com sometimes have their links rewritten for advertising purposes. From what I understand, the links still go to their intended destination, but the action is captured and mined for valuable information.
This clearly isn’t the end of the world. I knew when setting this blog up on WordPress.com that going with the free option meant running the risk of occasional ads showing up on my site. Rewriting links, though, seems more underhanded, a more direct use of my content to enhance Automattic‘s data mining efforts.
To get rid of the problem, I can pay $30 USD/year to get rid of all ads on the site. I’m not sure it is worth it: probably not, at least at this point.
What I do know, however, is that I feel a little less happy about having moved by blog to WordPress.com. For whatever that’s worth.
