Politech mailing list archives
FC: RealNetworks apologies -- but is a patch and a bit of corporate groveling enough?
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 10:49:28 -0800
[This is an interesting issue. Yes, RealNetworks deserves public obloquy. But maybe this will serve to raise people's privacy awareness. Right now folks tend to assume "no-privacy-invasions" if the contract/user agreement is silent on it. Maybe now they'll assume invasiveness in the absence of a pledge to the contrary. --DBM] From: "Daniel C. L'Hommedieu" <dcl () linuxcrypt com> Message-Id: <199911021556.KAA20983 () scuttlebutt linuxcrypt com> Subject: RealNetworks apologizes To: declan () well com Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 10:56:05 -0500 (EST) Content-Type: text X-UIDL: 42759b488ecd33e1c3e8b06a39d684ae Declan, RealNetworks apparently has realised the error of their ways. They're issuing a patch to block the personal data we found out about yesterday. Find the article at: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991102/wr/tech_realnetworks_1.html FYI, Daniel -- Daniel C. L'Hommedieu dcl () linuxcrypt com From: "Thomas Leavitt" <thomasleavitt () hotmail com> To: declan () well com Subject: Re: FC: Real Jukebox privacy problems Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 22:49:53 PST Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed X-UIDL: 9006ceee67bfe37467fa4db8524b92f9 Posted in response to ZDNET article at: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2385760,00.html NOT ACCEPTABLE! Real Network's failure to disclose this characteristic of their software (which is not anything that I, as an Internet user, expect the software I use to do) is a fundamental violation of Internet norms. They deserved to be flamed unmercifully about this! An intelligently designed system can enable personalization features and statistical analysis without enabling direct links to individual user profiles. Their failure to adequately disclose the behavior of their software, what data it gathered, and intelligently design their system is completely unacceptable. They have utterly violated and destroyed any level of trust they had with their users. I am outraged. Regards, Thomas Leavitt Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 23:42:59 -0700 To: declan () well com From: Tony Toews <ttoews () telusplanet net> Subject: Re: FC: Real Jukebox privacy problems : : : : At 11:45 AM 11/01/1999 -0700, you wrote:
Have you yet heard about RealJukebox's sending info on what you listen to back to Real Networks? No more RealAnything for me!
http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/new.html has a much better set of links to the story. Warning. This particular page is quite large at 277kb. <sigh> At the top, at least at this moment in time: "RealNetworks announced Monday afternoon that ``RealNetworks has released a software update to RealJukebox that prevents the transmission of certain user information to RealNetworks during the Get Music service update and also disables the RealJukebox ID.''" Down a bit was the following link to the discoverer of this security breach. http://www.tiac.net/users/smiths/privacy/realjb.htm "Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that the RealJukeBox software is sending off information to RealNetworks about what music CDs I listen to, along with a unique player ID number that identifies who I am. I also found that the RealJukeBox sends back to RealNetworks, on a daily basis, information on how I am using the product. It reports things like how many songs I have recorded on my hard drive, the type of portable MP3 player I own, and my music preferences. " Good for the Internet! Now if only the same would work with the bureaucrats, politicians and think tanks. In Canada, the U.S. and the rest of the world. Tony ----- Tony Toews, Independent Computer Consultant Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm VolStar Manage hundreds or thousands of volunteers for special events. http://www.volstar.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe: send a message to majordomo () vorlon mit edu with this text: subscribe politech More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- FC: RealNetworks apologies -- but is a patch and a bit of corporate groveling enough? Declan McCullagh (Nov 03)