Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. You still need WebChaver to monitor internet use for several reasons:
- A filter is only as secure as the password it uses. It is not uncommon for members of the family to find out or figure out the password.
- Many filters are weak and can be bypassed by anyone with a little computer know-how.
- Statistics show that some filters fail to block as much as 30% of inappropriate and even pornographic sites.
- Filters (especially the stronger ones) can slow down your computer speed by as much as 85%.
- Filters have been found to block 6 -10% or more of material that they should not block. This causes frustration when legitimate sites are not available.
- The line drawn between appropriate and inappropriate sites on a filter is an arbitrary standard decided by some company or university. Many sites that they consider permissible may be terribly damaging in a Frum home.
WebChaver encourages using a filter in addition to the Accountability system as added protection, but not as a primary safeguard. See our Filtering page for more info.
Yes. Our Sages tell us (Bava Basra 57b) of a person who has a choice of two paths to follow, of which one passes an area where there are women not properly dressed and the other does not. If this fellow chooses to walk down the first path, he is considered wicked (Rasha) – even if he closes his eyes the whole time and didn’t see a thing!
Without a system of Internet Accountability in your home, the Internet is an open area of temptation (Nisayon). Even if today no one uses it, tomorrow may be different.
No. Covenant Eyes© is a for-profit company, created by religious people with similar concerns to those of the Jewish Orthodox community. They have created a very reliable and effective system to help people with the dangers of the internet. WebChaver is working hard to bring this viable solution to the Orthodox community customized for our needs.
Accountability software monitors websites that your computer visits. Whenever internet access is attempted, you will need to log in (or you can configure it easily to log in automatically). Your internet activity will be monitored and emailed in a report to the Accountability Partner(s) you choose. The information is scored specifically for pornography and presented in an easy-to-read Accountability Report. Internet access is never blocked unless your computer is not correctly logged in.
WebChaver provides effective monitoring of websites your computer visits. You choose who views your reports. Some examples of uses are as follows:
- Parents can monitor where their children go on the internet to train them in responsible use.
- People with internet addiction can use the program for accountability.
- Businesses can use the program to reduce productivity losses (According to IT research firm Gartner, non-work-related Internet surfing results in an estimated 40% productivity loss each year for American businesses.).
Yes. Once you install the CE program, all of the Internet activity on that computer will be monitored
CE works regardless of your Internet connection and does not depend on what ISP you use.
Once installed, all users of your computer will need to be logged in. This can either be done automatically or manually.
The monitoring is based on the WebChaver username logged in, not on the computer being used. Once you have a username, you can log in on any computer that has CE installed. The program can be used in a shared-computer environment such as an office. For instance, if you log out and leave a computer, another person can come and log in with their username and all of their Internet use will go onto their report, not yours.
Filtering attempts to block a person from viewing potentially harmful websites.
WebChaver never blocks access to desirable sites, and is extremely difficult to bypass. A record of sites visited is stored and sent by email to your Chaver on a weekly basis. WebChaver reduces temptation and eliminates the secrecy of using the Internet. WebChaver works!
Please also see our page on the advantages and disadvantages of both filtering and accountability
The program is designed to record and give high scores to anonymizers and circumventor websites. Generally, these websites are designed to allow a person to surf without having their surfing history recorded on the computer. For a number of these sites, CE will also monitor the sites visited through the anonymizers.
Yes. In many cases you can tell what a site is just by the URL. However, in cases like Youtube, the URL itself does not indicate the content. The reports will show the title of the page that should clearly state the content that was viewed.
For true Internet accountability, there are a number of advantages WebCHaver holds over merely using the history on your computer.
- The history on your computer is very easy to delete. One of the key aspects of WebChaver involves the logs being nearly impossible to delete as activity is stored on the Covenant Eyes© servers and not on your own computer.
- The history on your computer does not score the sites. Some very innocent-sounding sites are actually objectionable, and only through accurate scoring can they be detected as being unacceptable or mature.
- It is cumbersome to look through the history. The Accountability Report provides a fast, easy-to-read format which highlights at the top any sites which are objectionable. You don't need to look through the entire history.
- For the computer-savvy, there are ways of bypassing the history which are not available with WebChaver.
WebChaver currently offers a monthly payment plan. The cost is $4.99 per month, and can be paid using a credit card or a US bank account. There is no minimum time commitment, you may cancel at any time.
If you are interested in creating a group with a large number of members, please see our group page.
One or more persons may share a single username or each person may have their own.
A family or a group does not necessarily need multiple usernames. If you simply want your whole family or group to be accountable with one username/password, you may choose to do so. But in that case, only one report will be generated, and you may not be able to tell who was using the computer.
Yes. The CE program may be installed on up to 5 computers or mobile devices at no additional cost. When you log in with your username and password, all of the activity will go on your Accountability Report even though you are on a different computer. That way, you only need one username regardless of where you are.
Please visit our Reports page for full coverage of this subject.
Reports are sent weekly. However, you or your partner can access reports and detailed logs of activity at any time on our website by creating a login.
Click here for information about how to analyze high scoring sites.
We also provide tools for understanding what a site is without visiting it on this page: Check Website Page.
The answer depends on each individual situation, but for many households it would be sufficient to have the weekly report sent to the head of the household, who would monitor the use of the family computer(s). In many cases an outside partner would be unnecessary. In other scenarios it may be advisable to have a friend, or someone else as the monitoring partner. Use your judgment to determine which way works best for you and accomplishes the goal of ensuring a safe web experience for the entire family.
No. The Covenant Eyes program is designed to prevent access to the internet if you do not log in to the program. If you have not logged into the Covenant Eyes program, you will only be able to access www.covenanteyes.com. This will allow you to retrieve the CE phone number or email address to contact Technical Support. All other websites are blocked until Covenant Eyes login takes place.
The CE program is designed to be extremely difficult to disable or bypass. However, by definition, any software protection has certain intrinsic weaknesses that if not properly prevented, can be used to circumvent the system. If you feel that someone in your household is determined/curious enough to research and employ such methods, we suggest following these additional steps (click here).
Attempting to disable the CE program may result in serious damage to your computer. WebChaver and Covenant Eyes are not responsible for any damage done to the operating system by attempts to circumvent the Covenant Eyes program, per the User Agreement.
Attempting to disable the CE Program may result in your internet access being blocked.
To safely uninstall Covenant Eyes, a valid uninstall code (available from our website, by logging in to your account) must be obtained. The uninstall code is only valid on the day it is obtained. The request will appear on the member's Accountability Report and the Accountability Partners are notified that the program has been temporarily or permanently uninstalled.
You can uninstall by going to the Control panel and choosing to uninstall the Covenant Eyes program. You will need the uninstall code. This can be generated from our website by logging in to your account and choosing the uninstall tab. Please note that the code is only good for that day.
Please note: Uninstalling the software does NOT cancel your account.
Yes. Please contact us if you would like to enable this restriction on your account.
Please follow these instructions to cancel your subscription. Your subscription will not be canceled until you do so.
- Please login to your account on www.webchaver.org and click on the "Uninstall" tab.
- Next, generate an uninstall code and uninstall the program from your computer. You can uninstall by going to the Control panel and choosing to uninstall the Covenant Eyes program.
- THEN, click the link "Cancel Subscription" underneath the "Generate Uninstall Code" button, to proceed with cancelling your account.
In general, there will be no noticeable change in your computer's performance. Some programs, may be incompatible with Covenant Eyes, possibly resulting in slower speeds. If this occurs, the CE customer support team will be happy to assist you. Please see our Known Compatibility Issues.
During the installation process you will be asked if you want Covenant Eyes to log in automatically for you.
If you didn't do it on installation, it can be done at any time. Right-click on the blue CE logo in your task bar, then click "Configure," then check the box that says "Have Covenant Eyes log in automatically for me." This feature can be disabled by un-checking this box.
If you occasionally need to prevent unauthorized use, disable the auto-login and then log out as needed. While you are logged out, anyone else who uses your computer would need to login to access the internet.
An accountability partner or Chaver is the recipient of the Accountability reports. You can choose who this should be. They can include parents, family, trusted friends, mentors, Rabbonim, husbands, wives, counselors, or other trusted and concerned individuals who are committed to helping you.
Please login to the WebChaver Member Center, and click on the Chaverim tab. There you will be able to add and remove patners as well as send an additional request if your partner has not yet reponded. In order to begin receiving the reports, the WebChaver Partner(s) will need to confirm their acceptance of this role.
There is no charge to your Partner(s) for this service.
- The email address given by the user could have been typed incorrectly during sign-up. In this case the WebChaver member will need to request you as a partner again.
- The email service put the Accountability Partner invitation into a "SPAM" or "Bulk Mail" folder.
- The partner invitation email can take up to 24 hours to be generated.
- By accident, you may have deleted the Accountability Partner invitation from your inbox.
Suggestions to help you in the Accountability Partner sign-up process:
- Check your email.
- Check the "SPAM" or "Bulk Mail" folder for a message from WebChaver.
- Email WebChaver for assistance.
- Talk to the friend that asked you to be an Accountability Partner and ask them to request you as a partner again.
- In your spam filter make sure reports@webchaver.org and accounts@webchaver.org is added to your safe list.
Because reports provide scoring, partners and users can easily identify questionable websites, searches, links, and more. The report shows trends for websites viewed and bar charts that show the times of day and night when the Internet is used.
NOTE: There may be valid reasons for visiting a high-rated site. The name of the site, the type of site, and other factors must be taken into account. Some sites are rated high due to their ability to link to inappropriate sites and are not necessary insidious on their own. Ultimately, a partner should have a good relationship with the user, and dialogue should be the final determinator.
Click here for information about how to analyze high scoring sites.
No. There is no cost to the Accountability Partner(s) chosen, and there is no cost for adding the program to additional computers you use.
High-scoring sites appear occasionally on just about everybody's Accountability Reports. However, in general, it is pretty easy to discern motivation. Click here for information about how to analyze high scoring sites.
We firmly believe that for the vast majority of user’s, the problem is altogether prevented by the knowledge that someone can see where they have gone. As Chazal say (Brachos 28b), “If only our fear of Heaven was as great as our fear of our fellow man”.
The CE Program is compatible with any Internet connection.
The Covenant Eyes© program is also compatible with most firewalls and proxy servers.
WebChaver works regardless of which browser is used (for instance, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome).
You can even have multiple browser windows open at the same time and CE monitors them all.
Yes. You can download the Mac version here.
- WebChaver will monitor every Windows user profile. With one username, the browsing activity for each profile will show on one Accountability Report—making it difficult to discern who visited the websites.
- For the browsing activity of each individual user to be separated, a WebChaver username must be in place to separate the logs from the other users. The browsing activity is not tied to the Windows user profile, but to the WebChaver username.
- For each Windows user profile, you can have CE automatically log in on that profile, or you can have CE prompt you to log in every time a profile is opened. If the second option is selected, it allows for the browsing activity to be recorded under the proper username regardless of the Windows user profile a person is using. The second option is recommended.
- Covenant Eyes installs itself onto all Windows user profiles upon initial installation.
Covenant Eyes supports Windows XP through 10.
Covenant Eyes will NOT work on Windows RT but WILL work on any tablets running a full version of Windows 8/10, such as the Surface Pro.
Covenant Eyes currently supports Android, iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch.
For information on using WebChaver on your mobile device as well as alternative suggestions for other devices, please see our Mobile Device section.
Login to your account and click on "My Filter". After entering a password, (if you have set one), you can add websites to your "allowed" list. Generally, when entering the URL of the website, do not use the prefix "www". For example, "www.webchaver.org" would be entered as "webchaver.org".
After making any changes to your filter settings you will need to logout of the CE client software and re-login in order for the changes to take effect. This can be accomplished by right-clicking on the CE icon and clicking "Refresh Covenant Eyes", or by restarting your computer.
Login to your account and click on "My Filter". Add the following URL's to the allowed list (be sure to specify http or https):
- http://gmail.com
- https://gmail.com
- http://video.google.com
- https://client4.google.com
- https://mail.google.com
- https://maps.google.com
- https://ssl.gstatic.com
- http://mail.google.com
- https://mail.google.com
After making any changes to your filter settings you will need to logout of the CE client software and re-login in order for the changes to take effect. This can be accomplished by right-clicking on the CE icon and clicking "Refresh Covenant Eyes", or by restarting your computer.
WebChaver allows you to create a password specifically for your filter settings which can be different than the password you use to login to the Accountability system. If you set a different password for your filter settings, you can prevent anyone from making overrides if they do not know the password.
The " Filter Guardian" is a special status that we can set for your account which allows you to override sites blocked by the filter using you regular WebChaver password. It is not enabled by default since most users do not want this.
If you would like the filter Guardian status enabled, please let us know.
Please see previous question.
If you find that the filter is blocking too many sites for you, even on the lightest setting, we suggest activating the "Allow Overrides" option. This will allow you to override the filter when a site is blocked, with a single-click and without having to enter a password. Since our filter is working together with the Accountability system, it is generally safe to allow this feature, since all activity is monitored and reported on the Accountability report regardless. With this configuration, the WebChaver filter is simply an extra measure of security to prevent unintentional stumbling into an inappropriate website.
Yes. Under "Filter Settings", change the "Filter Type" to "Restricted". This setting will block all sites except for "Covenant Eyes", "WebChaver" and any sites that you specify in the "Allowed" list.
Yes. Under "Time Control" you can set a limit on the times of each day that the internet can be accessed. Please be sure that you set the timezone settings correctly, so the time limits will be accurate.
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