Microsoft Media Player Privacy Concerns

Hey guys, I was just surfing around when I got into work this morning and found this:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/2002...t_privacy.html

Seems Microsoft has been keeping track of the songs and movies that a user plays using Media Player - while this is nothing new, it gets under my skin because only now is Microsoft informing customers of this 'feature' of the latest Media Player shipping with XP. I guess we'll just add this to the list of reasons to dislike Microsoft - that list is getting pretty long, isn't it?

This is not a good thing...

Even if this is not meant as a money making tool by M$, even if they had the best intentions, this is truely a scary thing...

uh oh *deletes 17-year-old-gurl-with-big-rack-blowing-a-horse.mov*


;)

TheRegister has also picked up on this see here for more info.

;)

J.

I noticed an unusual amount of traffic coming from media player every time it started and every time I loaded a new file. My firewall went nuts, so I decided it would be best if Sygate just didn't allow media player access to the Inet. Good thing it seems too.

I agree with Korp. I only let media player accesd the net when it is looking for a new decompression alogrithm (when it asks it has yet to successfully find a method for files it could not play). I think from now on it will never be allowed.

thks for the tip. I'm going to choke this app now.

:(

Definitely smart ideas to block Media Players access to the Net guys - but I go back to the root of the whole thing - why did Microsoft see it as appropriate to not inform the users of Media Player that this practice was going on? Why would Microsoft see the need to stealthly track movie and music preferences of its users if they were not going to either sell the information or use it in some way to their advantage? I mean, Microsoft doesn't promote particular pieces of music or movies so why in the hell would they care what people were playing. I guess in the end its just Microsoft acting as they always do. Issues like this really bother me. I want my privacy and I don't want to be mislead in that area.

something else MS is incorporating into XP (home edition only) is making you register your product(of course so they can send you **** and basically make more money off of you) every time you update drivers or MS software that comes with the XP home package.
My suggestion.....get the commercial(office) version of XP.

Yeah I already posted something on this here.

You can turn this "feature" off in media player 6.4 and 7.01. Go to TOOLS and then OPTIONS and select the PLAYER tab. Uncheck "Allow internet sites to uniquely identify your player."

Who really uses Media Player, let along Windows any way?

I'm a Linux man!

Micro$oft and privacy do not mix, M$ says that it is more for user-friendlieness than privacy.. Would you choose a program thats easier to use over remaining private online?

Quote:

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Originally posted here by phreephallin
You can turn this "feature" off in media player 6.4 and 7.01. Go to TOOLS and then OPTIONS and select the PLAYER tab. Uncheck "Allow internet sites to uniquely identify your player."

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This privacy thing doesn't affect WMP 6.4 or 7.01, only WMP 8.0 according to the advisory on Bugtraq. In fact, the author explicitly mentions the fact that he wasn't able to find a way to disable this feature. It's also not directly related to the privacy issue in the first place.

This is age old news!!! Microsoft tell you in the liscence agreement that they employ part of the program to observe manners of usement.

heh do you think that some where in Micro$ofts great ivory tower they're placing bets on which area will be the smuttiest in europe this week due to information gathered from media player???

Put me down for $5 on Essex ;)

v_Ln