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Windows
Media Player vous espionne |
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Posté
à 12:31:04 par LToPiQ - Source
: Newsfactor
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Microsoft Admits XP Media Player Spies on Users
NewsFactor Network
Microsoft denied that any of
the information collected by Windows Media Player will be sold, used for direct
marketing or stored on the basis of DVD popularity.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has
confirmed that the Windows XP version of its Windows Media Player is programmed
to track which CDs users listen to and which DVDs they watch. The company also
has altered its privacy statement to admit that its
player software tracks DVD content, which was not previously mentioned.
However, the company downplayed
privacy concerns. For example, Microsoft disputed claims by snooping software
watchdog Richard Smith that Windows Media Player 8, which comes bundled with
Windows XP, cannot be turned off and poses a threat to privacy because of its
tracking capabilities.
Privacy advocates said the media
player's capabilities fly in the face of Microsoft's "trustworthy
computing" initiative, a new dedication to security and privacy that the
company announced last month.
"This is a new level of
profiling that I think is dangerous," Electronic
Privacy Information Center (EPIC) legislative counsel Chris Hoofnagle
told NewsFactor. "Microsoft says it's concerned
about privacy, but where is your ability to control information about
yourself?"
Technical reviews and media
reports indicate that Windows Media Player 8 is designed to track which DVD
titles users watch on their PCs by contacting a Microsoft Web server and
transmitting an electronic fingerprint for the movie and a cookie for the PC.
Windows Media Player also
reportedly builds a database of DVD movies and CD music played on a specific
user's PC.
In addition, the media player has
been criticized for default settings that enable tracking, difficulty in
accessing or clearing the database, and an inability to stop the program from
contacting Microsoft servers.
In response to privacy concerns,
Microsoft said the media player features aim to allow better navigation of the
player and of DVD movies. The company added that its cookies do not contain
personally identifiable information and can be cleared or blocked from within
the Internet Explorer browser.
And although Microsoft updated its
privacy statement for the Windows XP Media Player to refer to the tracking of
DVD content, it said the new statement also will specify that "no tracking
of user viewing is taking place."
Microsoft denied that any of the
information collected by Windows Media Player will be sold, used for direct
marketing or stored on the basis of DVD popularity.
EPIC's Hoofnagle said history
shows that tracking the content individuals consume can have political
consequences. He claimed the Windows Media Player technology marks a troubling
trend from a privacy perspective.
"This will be the first of
many realizations that software is being written so it can log content
consumption," he said. "We're just coming on the brink of this."
Referring to required linkage to
Microsoft Passport, which also has come under fire from privacy advocates, Hoofnagle said he is worried that users will be required to
allow data collection and will not have control over the content with which
they are associated.
"Currently, they're
associating you with content," Hoofnagle added. "Down
the road, it will be a means to charge as well as profile individuals based on
their content habits."
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Shaka( Rudy)
HelPC list
owner
shaka.rudy@skynet.be