Word: realjukebox
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Sometimes the spy is an "E.T." program, so called because once it is embedded in your computer it is programmed to "phone home" to its corporate master. RealNetworks' RealJukebox program was found in 1999 to be sending back information to headquarters about what music a user listened to. The Federal Trade Commission decided in May that zBubbles, a now defunct online shopping service once owned by Amazon, probably deceived consumers when it told them that the information it collected about a user's Web surfing would remain anonymous...
...whine into the telephone at Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of Real Networks. I am very agitated, O.K.? I admit it. Last week The New York Times broke a story reporting that RealJukebox, one of the most popular pieces of music-playing software on the Net, is a secret...
Last week Real released a patch on its website to prevent users' personal IDs from being transmitted; you can download it from www.real.com or wait for the next version of RealJukebox. Meanwhile, the company is undergoing an internal privacy-policy review, and an outside auditor will be brought in for a final seal of good privacy housekeeping. But right now, there's a log file somewhere in Seattle that has my name in it, as well as the Allan Sherman CDs that I've been playing, and that ticks me off. If a good company like Glaser...
...beauty of subscribing to services that allow you to download music from the Internet is that no one can see you buying that copy of Barry Manilow outtakes. But it turns out that someone has been watching: Each time one of the 13.5 million subscribers to RealNetworks' RealJukebox downloads a song, the company creates a file that includes the user's musical preference, level of computer savvy and sophistication of computer equipment, as well as a catalog of CDs they've played on their ROM drive. That news set off alarm bells with web privacy advocates, who fear the data...
...benefit users by customizing service to their tastes, such as e-mailing someone information on a recording artist they have previously downloaded. "The problem wasn't that they invaded people's privacy, but that they invaded people's privacy without their permission," says Quittner. "In the case of RealJukebox, it's a banal thing because it's music, but you can extrapolate a little bit and see how it's a problem as we move forward with other types of information. Say it's a health care web site, and now they're compiling all sorts of information about your...