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Will Your CD Player Tell on You?

Posted by chrisd on from the autorun-away dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ever feel like not being a marketing statistic? Well just by playing certain store-bought compact discs in your home or office computer, your new music disc may be transmitting your listening habits in real time to the respective record company...." Charming. Read on for more... Anonymous Continues: "A company by the name of Bandlink is providing technology to record companies that allows a cd played in a personal computer to contact their server and relate statistics such as what track you're listening to and when you're listening to them. This information is then compiled into customizable reports that allow the record company to develop "User Profiles". There are benefits listed for the consumer such as cd-specific chatrooms, concert information, etc but the question remains: What's your price for privacy? The only indication that the cd you're purchasing is Bandlink "enabled/disabled" is a small logo on the packaging. There is no mention of a opt in/opt out agreement when the cd is inserted on the website and none was displayed in a personal demonstration.

Favorite quote from their website: "Virtually any information you want to know about your fan or the quality of your release can be obtained.""

17 of 693 comments (clear)

  1. What sort of idiot? by Trusty+Penfold · · Score: 5, Funny


    What sort of idiot has their firewall configured to let their CD player send packets out?

    1. Re:What sort of idiot? by hitzroth · · Score: 5, Funny

      Idiots aren't average. That's why they're idiots.

      --
      In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
      --VonNeumann
    2. Re:What sort of idiot? by soulsteal · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, the average median person is an Idiot. What scares me is that 49% of the population is dumber than that.

    3. Re:What sort of idiot? by Tingler · · Score: 5, Funny

      I guess you haven't been to a mall lately.

    4. Re:What sort of idiot? by TheLink · · Score: 4, Funny

      Still, it seems a very large chunk can't read but can post :).

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  2. DOD? by Squareball · · Score: 4, Funny

    So does this info go to the DOD to see if you're a terrorist? God help me if they know that I like Avril Lavigne!

  3. Moot point by pctainto · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't wait to get this technology with a "copy-protected" cd that won't play in computers. Unless they would do it to try to get information from the people who break the copy protection by using a sharpie...

    --
    I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
  4. RIAA Self Destructs Again by KanSer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow. How did this line of thinking go?

    RIAA Exec #1: "Let's start spying on people. It's not like they have a real reason to steal music anyways."

    RIAA Exec #2:"Yeah! And we can have pop-ups that tell them Big Brother is watching!"

    RIAA Exec #1:"No... That would be stupid... right?"

    RIAA Exec #2:"Perhaps... But surely this will make people want to buy music as opposed to downloading it. Right? Right?"

    RIAA Exec #1:"..."

    RIAA Exec #2:"RIGHT?!"

    RIAA Exec #1:"Oops..."

    Me: "Thanks guys. Now I have a morally sound reason to download Britney's newest album! MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

    --
    • MOD PARENT UP by Anonymous Coward Wednesday April 20, @4:20
  5. IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA by jsse · · Score: 5, Funny

    CD Player listens to you!

    (At least people in Soviet Russia can grin on this)

  6. Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    IN SOVIET RUSSIA "IN SOVIET RUSSIA" comments are lame

    Join the fight aganist lame /. comments

  7. Apparently,you and I live in very different worlds by jbf · · Score: 4, Funny

    The vast majority of people I deal with (in the real world) are idiots. And no, I'm not in tech support/customer service.

  8. Re:My desktop is my property by cioxx · · Score: 5, Funny
    Don't agree to their EULA and you are fine.

    That's what I do. I usually click "YES" in the EULA popup and install the program, but deep down inside I don't agree with it.
  9. Re:Yikes. But they must have some amazing tech... by Sly+Mongoose · · Score: 4, Funny
    ...or (more likely) plugging in their eithernet cable.
    EITHERnet?

    Supports Ethernet and Token Ring simultaneously?
  10. Re:What sort of idiot? The most important thing by rock_climbing_guy · · Score: 4, Funny

    The most important thing to bear in mind concerning idiots is this. Consider how dumb the median idiot is. Half of them are dumber than that.

    --
    Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
  11. What about spoofing the data? by stoicfaux · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can imagine a few bored hacker types writing something to flood Bandlink with bogus data. "Wow, a million people a day are playing 'Baby Got Back' every hour on the hour!"

    I can imagine really, really bored hackers writing a virus to have infected computers spoof data. A new world-wide phenonmena: Polka Love songs!

  12. Note to self: by dkoyanagi · · Score: 3, Funny

    the CD player knows too much...

  13. Re:What sort of idiot? The most important thing by John+Sullivan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nope, the mode is 90. The median is 135.

    --
    This is my World Wide Web of Whatever