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Thread: Microsoft Media Player Privacy Concerns

  1. February 21st, 2002, 02:13 PM #1
    Maverick811
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    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?
    - Maverick
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  2. February 21st, 2002, 02:26 PM #2
    jcmcb
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    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...
    - Jimmy Mac

    Replicants are like any technology, if there not a hazard, its not my problem....
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  3. February 21st, 2002, 02:34 PM #3
    NetSyn
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    Thumbs up

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


    [shadow]i have a herd of 1337 sheep[/shadow]
    Worth should be judged on quality... Not apperance... Anyone can sell you **** inside a pretty box.. The only real gift then is the box..
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  4. February 21st, 2002, 05:49 PM #4
    jcdux
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    TheRegister has also picked up on this see here for more info.



    J.
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  5. February 21st, 2002, 06:05 PM #5
    KorpDeath
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    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.
    Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
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  6. February 21st, 2002, 07:16 PM #6
    dspeidel
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    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.
    If you spend more on coffee than on IT security, you will be hacked. What\'s more, you deserve to be hacked.
    -- former White House cybersecurity adviser Richard Clarke
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  7. February 21st, 2002, 07:26 PM #7
    gold eagle
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    thks for the tip. I'm going to choke this app now.

    Trappedagainbyperfectlogic.
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  8. February 21st, 2002, 07:40 PM #8
    Maverick811
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    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.
    - Maverick
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  9. February 22nd, 2002, 03:00 AM #9
    bios
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    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.
    all work and no play makes bios a dull boy
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  10. February 22nd, 2002, 03:18 AM #10
    smirc
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    Yeah I already posted something on this here.
    OpenBSD - The proactively secure operating system.
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