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Will Your CD Player Tell on You?
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.""
The Average Idiot.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
...from all those players (including WinAmp) that analyze your CD and download the songlist for you? And this applies to 99% of retail CDs, not only those that are enabled by this technology.
Buy a Mac? Use Linux?
:)
Uh... disable autoplay? Come on, not tricky, this one.
Does it transmit data when you rip a CD?
The fundamental principle underlying current privacy practices in the United States is: "It is perfectly acceptable for a company to violate your privacy so long as it is for the purpose of selling you things."
Obviously companies believe this, and on present evidence I'd say that most consumers believe this, too.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
There are few technical details on their web site, but it appears to just be a mixed mode (data and audio) CD, which when played using Bandlink's CD player software, will give the "benefits" described. Since I don't have any intention of using their software, it's not a problem. Until, of course, people start producing music that can only be played with their player. So far, record companies haven't been brave enough to test such a tactic in the market, although with copy protected CDs, they're getting awfully close to the line. The depressing thing is, I suspect the general public would just meekly go along with it :-(
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
On the other hand, you DO control your computer, and can and SHOULD be careful about what you run on it. In this case, simply turning off the ridiculously stupid autorun when you put in CDs is enough to foil whatever the cd does when you insert it.
Same goes with javascript and ad popups - just turn them off! It's your computer!
Sure, there are conveniences that you lose in doing that, but many conveniences come with security risks and other annoyances. It's just like the security problems with Outlook autorunning attachments and scripts all the time - it's a ridiculous way of writing software, and never should have been included, and anyone with a clue either turns it all off or gets a different mail program. For some reason, people don't see javascript and autorun and similar things in the same way. I do.
This is true so long as you're not an outlier. Consider some examples of things that could make you an outlier:
I'm sure with minimal effort, others can come up with even more chilling examples. When the government of our corporate republic can legally trawl everything looking for outliers, safety in numbers doesn't make me so comfortable.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
against unauthorized access. Perhaps if the "average Joe" started to insist they apply to *his* computer as well the corporate server things would get, ummmmmmm, interesting.
Of course if your computer software comes attached with an offensive EULA in which you "agree" to have no rights to your own system/network you might well be hosed. I'd like to see someone challange this in court *on the basis that you can't be coerced into signing away a basic property right, even by contract.*
To my knowledge this hasn't been tried yet in America ( in some other countries the EULA is already considered invalid prima facie). All it takes is someone devoted to the cause with $50,000 American and five years of their life to devote to it.
Of course there's another option. *Don't use EULAed software.*
In that case the assumption of having to give some sort of explicit permission to enter your system ought to hold just as much for the personally computer as it does for the corporate/government computer.
Hacking is a crime. Do your homework, secure your system, and then insist on *prosocuting* any "hacking" of you system, no matter who the "hacker" is.
Laws are double edged swords that can cut the person who "bought" the law just as well as those it was intended to be a weapon against if the intended victim learns how to use the "weapon."
KFG
But you're missing the point... As technology becomes ever more integrated with our lives, the option of "just turn it off" becomes increasingly less possible. No, not from a technical perspective, but from a *social* perspective.
Sure, you could turn your cell phone off when you're not making a call so that telco's and gov can't triangulate your position, but do you?
Sure, you could pay for everything in cash instead of credit to avoid an electronic trail, but do you?
Sure, you could wait 10 minutes at the bridge instead of using a new electronic toll payment system, but do you?
Smart agents and networked technologies like this erode our privacy. But do we get enough in return?
How much would you sell *your* privacy for?
I'd suggest that a very large chunk of those who find slashdot interesting enough to read are above average at the least. First they read, this alone indicates they are probably above the low set as average. Second they are interested in technological innovations, science, physics, mathmatical puzzles, computer programming, and free speech. True there are those who just hang around to see what the newest mp3 player is. But for the most part there is a reason that the opinions you see on slashdot tend to differ from what you see mainstream, mainstream is in very large part those average and below average intelligences at work.
What really cracks me up is how this "holier-than-thou" sentiment is lavashed in a forum where we think it is important to be the bigger nerd but what I'd really like to know is how many of you tell your grandma/mother/aunt/girlfriend/whatever that they're an idiot for not keeping up with PC security, or for not patching their OS (what?!?! your grandma doesn't use Linux! What a fucking moron! I'm glad she's not related to me...). Gimme a break folks. How many of you immediately turned around and issued a security bulletin to your family about this horrid new CD technology. I can see it now..."I repeat, DO NOT INSERT THE CD INTO YOUR COMPUTER'S CD DRIVE!!! If you feel unsafe or unsure whether or not you are using one of these new CDs, please contact my secretary, er answering machine and schedule an appoint, er leave a message and I'll set a time for me to do a security visit with you to ensure you are not in any DANGER. I repeat you morons, DO NOT INSERT THE CD INTO YOUR COMPUTER'S CD DRIVE!!!! (yes grandma, this means you too)." Get real guys.