Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

PDF Tracking On the Way

Posted by timothy on from the drown-baby-in-the-bathwater dept.

(el)Capitan.Nick writes "PDFzone reports that the company Remote Approach has launched a service to track the movement of PDF documents with its tool Map-Bot. The purpose of this service is to allow PDF publishers the ability to measure their audience, as web publishers can already. Though personal information is not gathered from machines, IP addresses are. PDFs can require users to be connected to the Internet in order to read them, and every person you email the PDF to is subject to the service. As PDFzone's opinion article states, while 'the chances of running into a Remote Approach PDF right now -- and in the near future -- are pretty remote ... the potential for the technology to tarnish PDF's image [of security] is staggering.'"

10 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Advertisements! by Eric(b0mb)Dennis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh.. soon as they can track views of PDFs, people will start putting ads in them... I guarentee it!

    I can see it now.. Google introduces AdWords for PDFs...

    --
    Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
  2. Simple... by Rolan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's simple... Refuse to read PDFs that require the technology. Publishers won't get any data from it, and given a loud enough voice, will find that the tool reduces their distribution. It does them no good if the users won't read their documents because of it.

    --
    - AMW
    1. Re:Simple... by thedillybar · · Score: 4, Insightful
      >It's simple... Refuse to read PDFs that require the technology.

      You'd have trouble convincing more than about 2% of users to refuse.

      >Publishers won't get any data from it

      Sure they will. You will be the one getting no data because you're holding out when no one else cares.

      It's a wonderful idea, but it simply won't happen without government intervention...and who wants that?

    2. Re:Simple... by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 4, Insightful
      It's simple... Refuse to read PDFs that require the technology.

      Better than that, refuse to use pdf viewers that implement this "feature". (Does anyone know which those are? Without knowing, I would assume Adobe acrobat reader probably does and xpdf probably does not. Does anyone have more specific/accurate information?)

  3. As much as it pains me to say this... by ral315 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is it any different from collecting the I.P. of everyone who visits your website?

  4. Sure, that works by John+Jorsett · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It's simple... Refuse to read PDFs that require the technology.

    Just like I can shop elsewhere if I don't like being captured on a store's video surveillance camera. Except that they ALL have cameras. If there's no true alternative, you're screwed. Am I going to forego opening that online manual that I desperately need to troubleshoot a problem? I don't think so. A better solution is for some enterprising hackers to find a way to break this technology.

  5. They should make another file extension by saskboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Rather than tarnish the PDF name, they should create the Tracked Document Format or TDF and that way users can distinguish between the two. To make people suspicious of PDF right after versions 5 and 6.0 were found to contain security holes, this will be bad for Adobe.

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  6. Slippery slope argument by sanityspeech · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The editor's take on the story makes it seem rather benign. However, the actual story makes it sound more alarming:
    Are Your PDFs Spying on You?
    Like Adobe Policy Server, Remote Approach can FORCE users to be connected to the Web in order to read the documents. It can track who's e-mailing your PDFs to whom, and what they're reading. Real-time. (Emphasis mine)

    FORCE me to go online??? I just hope that technical papers never use this tool.

    Denizens of the PDF world, however, take note. We enjoy--and sell--the differences between PDF, e-mail and HTML, and a lot of those differences are in the realm of security...

    Remote Approach, however, is the beginning of a movement that could chip away at PDF's sterling rep, one document at a time...

    Since the Map-Bot can chase a PDF through e-mail forwarding, it's more powerful data mining than that associated with Web pages, where the vital information gets thrown out when the user's cache is emptied.

    One would think they would come up with a better name than Map-BOT!!!

    Pretty damning, if I may say so.
  7. Refuse to read PDF's, period. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Insightful

    PDF's are great for printing, but not as easy to view on the Internet as regular html files. The Google "viwe as html" tool will help greatly.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  8. Evil, explained by hummassa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Q: How does this tracking mechanism differ from web log analysers?

    A: Simple, web log analysers aren't capable of tracking redistributions of the same document. If you copy a web page, say about theories in free-market macroeconomics, and e-mail the copy to a friend, say in China, no one will ever know your friend has read it. But if you copy one of those and it's read by your friend there, then certainly your friend will have a red flag (pun intended) on him.

    HTH

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048