Privacy Flaws In Chatroulette Expose Users

itwbennett writes "In a paper posted online this week, researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and McGill University outline three different types of attacks that could be launched against Chatroulette users. While the new research doesn't expose any gaping privacy holes, it does show how the service could be misused by determined criminals. For example, the researchers were able to use IP-mapping services to get a general idea of users' location (a public Web site, called Chatroulettemap.com already does this). Then by searching Facebook using information obtained in chats and comparing pictures, researchers were able to identify chatters. 'Even in a city as big as Chicago, you can drill down and find the person you're actually talking to,' said Richard Han, an associate professor with the University of Colorado who co-authored the paper."

Comments

For those not stupid enough to know:

[Saysys]

"Chatroulette is a website that pairs random strangers from around the world together for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website randomly begin an online chat (video, audio and text) with another visitor. At any point, either user may leave the current chat by initiating another random connection. As of July 11 the site is offering an experimental "localized" version which pairs people by state". -wikipedia

So 1.) people find each-other intentional and 2.) "using information obtained in chats" I can get you SSN... if you tell me.

Literal nothing worthy of note in this research folks... move on.

Re:This is news?

[socz]

Why make it so complicated and give it a fancy name? Here's the summed up version: "ASL?" What else do I need to know?

Question about chatroulette

[Pojut]

Has anyone ever used it and engaged in an interesting conversation with a person who became a regular point of contact? Or is it all just penises and overweight bald guys?

Yes

[axl917]

I still talk to a girl in Sicily I ran into on roulette a few months ago. It is rare, but you can find normal people there.

Those aren't flaws

[Graham J - XVI]

Nothing mentioned in TFA is a flaw with Chatroulette, they're simply byproducts of this type of communication. If I printed a picture of myself and stapled it to a telephone pole someone could possibly identify me and try to scam me, too. Does this mean telephone poles have flaws?

I hate to be all Captain Obvious on you, but...

[TheABomb]

When you plug in a camera, sit down in front of said camera, and broadcast said camera to random strangers, the very notion of a "privacy flaw" becomes moot.