Web of Trust FAQ

Membership & Registration

How do I become a member?

You become a member simply by downloading our free browser addon. It works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. You don't have to register to use the system, but we encourage it because only registered members can access all the features.

Why should I register as a user?

Registered members can leave comments on the WOT security scorecard, participate in the forum, leave support requests, participate in competitions, and access the My Profile page. The My Profile page lets you see your own ratings, comments and activity score, delete ratings and message other users.

What information do you collect?

Your privacy is very important to us. The WOT software collects information only for computing website ratings, performing statistical analysis, and preventing abuse of our service. Any information that is no longer needed for these purposes is deleted. When loading reputations for the websites you visit, the software sends our service only the encrypted hostname and any ratings you may choose to give. The information about domains visited is stored only temporarily for computing ratings. Your IP address is never stored in our database.

If you choose to register with the My WOT portal, we request some personal information. We ask for your name, your email address, and a password (which you can choose yourself). This information is stored in a secure database and will not be disclosed to third parties. Read the details in our Privacy Policy.

I have the addon, but cannot register. What's wrong?

You'll need to have cookies enabled in your browser.

  1. Access the settings by clicking Settings on the rating window
  2. Open the Advanced tab
  3. Select the option Log in automatically to mywot.com and enable features that require the addon
  4. Press the Apply button if you make changes
  5. If the problem persists, please contact our support.

I installed WOT and it appears in Firefox tools, but it does not work, e.g. icon is missing or settings do not work, etc. How do I start WOT?

There is a possibility the add-on isn't working properly because of a conflict in the profile.

  1. Create a new Firefox profile and install only WOT
  2. Instructions to create a new profile are at http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

 If the add-on works with the fresh profile, something in your current profile might be causing the problem.

Why do you use cookies?

The addon uses cookies to authenticate itself to the My WOT portal. The cookies don't store any personally identifying information, such as your name or email address. You can disable the cookies from the addon preferences if you prefer. Please understand, though, that if cookies are turned off, you may not be able to use certain parts of the WOT services or certain functions and features that are part of the WOT software.

Protection and Customization

Does WOT have different protection settings?

Yes, WOT has three different preset protection settings that you can choose from when you first download the add-on.

Basic - This is the recommended setting for just about everyone. You will see rating icons for all the search engines and other sites WOT supports. When you hover your mouse over a WOT rating "donut" a small pop-up will appear that shows you a little more detail about each rating component - Trustworthiness, Privacy, Vendor reliability and Child safety. If a site is rated poorly, you will get a warning, but you have the option to bypass it or see the WOT scorecard which explains more about the site's rating.

Light - This setting is for experienced users that want minimal protection. The only rating "donuts" that show when doing a search are for dangerous sites. If you navigate to a poorly rated site, a warning bar will show at the top of your browser instead of the larger warning screen. The small pop-up is disabled.

Parental Control - This setting provides the ultimate protection against dangerous and unknown sites. If a site is rated poorly in the child safety component or if a site has no rating at all, then WOT will block it from loading. Be aware that good sites can potentially be blocked because they have not received a rating yet.

How can I change the protection settings?

You can edit your protection settings manually by going to the welcome page and selecting a different option:
http://www.mywot.com/settings/welcome

Can I choose my own settings?

Yes, you can customize WOT however you want. Access Settings by opening the add-on and clicking in the top right corner. Look through each of the tabs and choose which settings you want. Remember to click the Apply settings button before leaving the area to make your choices stick. 

Rating Websites

How do I rate a website?

  1. First you need to download our free software.
  2. Open your Firefox or Internet Explorer browser. You can now see the WOT icon in your browser's navigation toolbar, next to the address bar.
  3. Go to the site that you want to rate and click the WOT icon. This will open a rating window.
  4. Move the mouse over the colored indicator bars and click, and a rating symbol appears on the screen.
  5. Click the Guide link in the rating window for more details, or watch a screencam presentation on how to rate websites.

How do I remove or change a rating that I have accidentally submitted?

  1. First you need to register as a WOT user. This gives you access to the Profile Page (click your user name at the top right to get there fast.)
  2. To view your ratings, select the My Ratings tab.
  3. You can delete a rating by clicking on the red X.
  4. To edit a rating, open the site's scorecard and click Edit my rating in the reputation rating area.
  5. When you have made the changes, click save.

Are the ratings based only on users' input?

While our primary source of knowledge is ratings from our users, we also take advantage of hundreds of carefully chosen trusted sources, such as listings of phishing sites from PhishTank. This provides WOT with a fast, automated, and reliable means of protecting our users from new, rapidly spreading online threats.

I have my own website. How do I get a rating for it?

The best way to influence a site's rating is to rate it yourself and ask your customers and friends to rate it. You can leave a comment on the scorecard identifying yourself as the owner as well. You may also consider introducing yourself on the WOT forum and asking our knowledgeable regulars to visit and rate your site.

My website doesn't have any information or a thumbnail on the scorecard. How can I supply that information to WOT?

You don't have to provide us any information. The thumbnail, description and tags are automatically fetched from your website.

Someone left a comment on my website's scorecard that I would like to address. How do I do this?

You can write to the person on their Board. Just click on their username and it will take to their Profile. Once you are there, you may leave them a message on their Board.

How reliable are the ratings?

The reliability of the reputations improves as the system gathers more supporting evidence in the form of users’ ratings and information from trusted sources. The rating window shows an icon composed of tiny human figures indicating the amount of supporting evidence: one figure represents the smallest amount of confidence, five the greatest. A minimum confidence level means that we have only a little evidence and we encourage you to give your rating to improve the reliability.

Can a site's reputation be manipulated?

In order to keep ratings more reliable, WOT tracks each user's rating behavior before deciding how much it trusts the user. WOT applies sophisticated algorithms to detect and eliminate any manipulation of reputation. If a user bases their ratings on how pretty the site is or what's the phase of the moon, her ratings won't be trusted. You must prove yourself before we take you seriously. The system will ignore all ratings created by a user attempting to manipulate the reputation data.

How do I change a rating I think is wrong?

If you disagree with a site's reputation, you should always give your own rating and ask your friends and customers to rate it. The best ways to influence a site's rating is to keep your customers happy, display a privacy policy and contact information, be clear about the methods used to collect data and be careful not to use any methods that people might think are spyware, etc. If you want to report an incorrect inclusion on a blacklist, then please notify us and we will investigate.

How does the system rate subdomains?

Subdomains are often used with free hosting and social networking sites, for example. The WOT community can rate subdomains in exactly the same way as the members rate other domains. If WOT doesn’t have enough ratings for a specific subdomain, the subdomain inherits the parent domain's reputation. Once the system considers there to be enough supporting evidence to calculate a separate reputation for the subdomain, WOT will start to use it.

Similarly, the reputation of each subdomain contributes to the parent domain's reputation. If a domain has lots of untrustworthy subdomains, its reputation will suffer, and, therefore, the reputation of any new subdomains will suffer as well. We designed this logic within the WOT system to model the way trust works in real life.

What is an activity score and how is it calculated?

Just as the name suggests, an activity score is an indicator of how active you have been. It is calculated by combining information from how many sites you have rated, postings you have made on the forum or blog, invitations you have sent and shared ratings. It is not how much our system trusts your ratings, merely an indicator of your overall participation with WOT.

WOT and My Computer

Which browsers does WOT support?

WOT supports Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or later on all platforms, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and 7 under Windows.

If you are using Safari or Opera, you can add the WOT bookmarklet.

Does the system slow down my browsing?

No, it doesn’t. The amount of data transferred has been minimized, and the backend systems are optimized to provide the rating information in a flash. The rating information is retrieved in parallel with the Web page, and you won’t notice any difference.

What if my ratings aren't loading and the toolbar button remains grey?

 

If you are using Firefox:

Make sure your browser isn't in offline mode.

Something in your Firefox profile might be causing the problem.

  1. Create a new Firefox profile and install only WOT
  2. Instructions to create a new profile are at http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

ZoneAlarm Pro might be causing the problem.

  1. Turn off Mobile code control
  2. Click Privacy settings

 

If you are using Internet Explorer:

ZoneAlarm Pro might be causing the problem.

  1. Turn off Mobile code control
  2. Click Privacy settings

Run the WOT debugger and send us an error report:

  1. Download the debugger at http://www.mywot.com/files/downloads/WOTDebugger.exe
  2. Close all Internet Explorer windows if you have them open
  3. Start WOTDebugger.exe, type in a contact email address, and press the Start button
  4. Start Internet Explorer, try to reproduce the problem, and close the browser
  5. Press the Send report button on the debugger and wait for the program to finish sending
  6. Close the debugger by pressing the Exit button.

I can't see the WOT toolbar anywhere. How do I get it?

Your toolbar may be hidden.

If you are using Firefox:

  1. In the Firefox menu click View, then click the Toolbars menu
  2. Open each toolbar to see if the button is on one of them

Add the WOT icon to the toolbar of your choice.

  1. Right click the toolbar and select Customize... from the pop-up menu
  2. Find the WOT button on the Customize Toolbar window and drag and drop it to a toolbar of your choice
  3. Click Done

Something in your Firefox profile might be causing the problem.

  1. Create a new Firefox profile and install only WOT
  2. Instructions to create a new profile are at http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

If you are using Internet Explorer:

Method 1:

  1. In Internet Explorer open Tools, then click  Internet Options
  2. Click the Advanced tab and
  3. Under Browsing check the option Enable third-party browser extensions
  4. Click OK

Method 2:

  1. In Internet Explorer open Tools, then click Manage Add-ons
  2. Choose Enable or Disable Add-ons. Make sure both ”WOT” and ”WOT Helper” are listed and enabled.
  3. If they are disabled, then Enable them by clicking on the add-on name at the bottom under Settings
  4. if they aren't listed, reinstall the add-on.
  5. Click OK

Method 3:

  1. In Internet Explorer open View, then click the Toolbars menu
  2. If WOT is listed, select it.

How do I turn off the addon?

Just click on the rating icon with your right mouse button and click on the Enabled option in the pop-up menu. The addon is now turned off and no information is transferred to our servers. When the addon is disabled, the rating icon is gray and has a blue "pause" symbol. You can enable the addon from the rating window or from the pop-up menu where you disabled it.

How do I log in and out of WOT?

The addon automatically logs you in when you visit our website. If you prefer to log in manually (and be able to log out), you can disable the automatic login feature from Privacy settings in your profile.

I have two computers / user accounts / browsers. How can I have my ratings show up for both?

You can get the same ratings on both computers. To do this, you need to become a member of the WOT community. After you have registered from one of your computers, you can then log in to your WOT account from your other computer. When you do this, you'll get a message telling you how you can synchronize your profile. This synchronization will enable you to see your ratings from both computers. If you want to perform the synchronization later, you can find this option on the "My page". The feature is visible only if synchronization can be done.

How do I enable the colorblind version?

  1. Open WOT Settings from the rating window
  2. Go to the Advanced page
  3. Select the option Enable color blind accessible version
  4. Press Apply settings

How do I remove the WOT addon?

WOT for Firefox can be uninstalled like any other extension.

  1. Go to the Tools menu and select Add-ons.
  2. In the Extensions tab, look up WOT and click Uninstall.
  3. Restart your browser and the job is done.

You can uninstall WOT for Internet Explorer from the Windows Control Panel option Add or Remove Programs just like any other Windows program. Remember to close all Internet Explorer windows before uninstalling.

© WOT Services patent pending