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from the friends-don't-let-friends-use-godaddy dept.
GoDaddy has been caught sneakily injecting JavaScript into the websites it hosts.
I recently started having issues with the admin interface of a website I run and decided to check the browser console to see if any errors were being displayed there. There were and among them was an error stating that a JavaScript map file being loaded (and failing) that I did not recognise. This meant that the actual JavaScript file itself was already loaded via my website. This set off all sorts of alarms for me and I started to dig in further.
I checked the file system for any suspicious files, there were none. I checked the source code and templates for evidence of anything that has been added, there was nothing there. Yet all my pages were being served with the following script injected into them just before the closing html tag...
[...] Of course that comment in the script was a give away of what was going on but I didn't immediately want to believe that the website host itself would be injecting a JavaScript script into my website without my consent! Turned out that's exactly what GoDaddy was doing and they justified it as collecting metrics to improve performance.
The technology that's in use here is called Real User Metrics and GoDaddy has a page about it here - Why am I signed up for Real User Metrics?. If you happen to be a customer in US (which I am not but the website is hosted in a US data centre) then you are automatically opted into this service and all your website's pages will have this JavaScript injected into them.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by richtopia on Monday January 14 2019, @05:33PM (3 children)
I used them for my domain because they are the largest. However, two months ago when my 5 year purchase finished I migrated to gandi.net. Godaddy charges for services that should be free, such as data privacy features (hiding your email and physical address) and email features (1 free inbox, but IMAP is extra).
Based on my limited research, gandi.net is probably the most responsible domain name registrar. I've been happy with them since migration. The only problem is if you want a one-stop solution: they offer hosting services but it is not as turn key as other providers and the servers are based in Europe (good or bad depending on your use case).
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday January 14 2019, @06:33PM (1 child)
> I used them for my domain because they are the largest
"Largest" is often a good reason not to use a business. For one thing, that attitude is a competition killer. Large banks (Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citi) have poor service. There is really nothing they can do for you that a smaller bank or credit union can't do, and do better. Except one thing-- have a branch nearby no matter where you go. Lot of people are still really hung up on bricks and mortar.
Amazon still seems okay, but I've heard they abuse their dominance to pressure 3rd party businesses who hawk wares on their site into making "concessions" that sure sound like kickbacks to me. I've noticed NewEgg seems to be trying to become an alternative to Amazon. Then there's WalMart, which is still plenty dominant though it seems Amazon has been cutting into their revenue. There's plenty of hate and suspicion of EBay and Paypal. Microsoft and Apple are still luring people into their walled gardens. They're not as big, bad, and ugly as they once were, but IBM and Ma Bell are still alive and mean.
Yeah, I've heard bad stuff about GoDaddy before. And I've seen their extremely sexist commercials. They are scum, and I stay away from them and when I can, steer others away.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 15 2019, @04:03PM
Amazon abuses their dominance to force employees to clock out before taking the six mile hike to the men's, women's, or unsure's restrooms.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 15 2019, @12:10AM
I used Gandi.net for a client and it caused me more than a fair bit of grief, including downtime due to their infrastructure problems (more than a couple hours)--I'll spare the rest of the laundry list because it's mild in comparison. I'd strongly urge people to avoid them, based off my limited experience.