FC: RealNetworks apologies -- but is a patch and a bit of corporate groveling enough?

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

[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





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