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Freaky Flash 6 Fishy Features
donpardo writes "I upgraded to Flash 6 last week (to patch a security hole). When I right clicked on a Flash ad at abcnews.com, and pulled down to Settings I got a tabbed dialogue box asking if I wanted to give them access to my cam and microphone. Clicking through on the tabs revealed that the microphone and the camera had already been detected and that the microphone was active. I doubt the camera or the microphone were sending information out but this still seems invasive. Here are Macromedia's statements about the mic and the camera. In addition there is a setting to ask how much information the site can store on your computer. The default value is 100K. According to the information statement "Data can be anything from your user name to your current score in an interactive game to a list of stocks in your portfolio ... The data is not public, but the privacy of this data depends on the policies of the web site where the movie is hosted."" I thought the first sentence of this submission was telling ...
Now im actually glad to have dial up
"The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." - Bush 05
Just be sure to cover your webcam with your shirt before you start making out with the supermodel. You should be okay.
How can I make money selling my amateur porn if they can see it all without my permission?
Hey, at least they aren't as bad as Real, and its' software.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
Oh, well. Good thing they never bothered making a Flash 6 for Linux.
Yeah, I'll say! I do most of my surfing in the nude!
I wouldn't wanna get hit with lawsuits from indavertantly traumatizing people!
(ahem!)
The more advanced the technology, the more open it is to primitive attack
Tomorrow's InBox:
From: xxxx
Subj: Come see My Hot WebCam!
From: xxxx
Subj: We're waiting for you!
From: xxxx
Subj: Flash Installed, See Bubba pick at his ass-crack
I don't think all Flash is needless eyecandy, and some sites are only Flash. Of course some people will call that stupid, but look how popular it is! It's practically included in Internet Explorer now, and I am not a person who is only interested in the core information on a webpage. I enjoy (most of the time) watching the Flash movies that people have put their hard work into to make their site look better. In fact, I would like Slashdot more if it had more pictures to help navigate, and some other font besides Times New Roman. But this is coming from a web designer, not a usability expert.
blog & fiction: jd87
Can you imagine how boring that would be... hours upon hours of some ugly mug staring blankly into the screen. Sign me up!
Why not make it interesting? Modify that virus so that it detects when the user is surfing lots of pr0n sites, waits 5 minutes, then captures a short video clip from the user's webcam and emails that snippet to everyone in the user's address book...
(evil grin)
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
http://www.zombo.com/
How's that for a nice flash intro?
is bring up www.goatse.cx and point your camera at your monitor.