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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 ...
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?
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