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Adobe Spies On Users' eBook Libraries

Posted by Soulskill on from the digital-edition-is-the-worst-software dept.

New submitter stasike writes: Nate at the-digital-reader.com reports that Adobe is spying on any computer that runs Digital Editions 4, the newest version of Adobe's Epub app. They are collecting data about what users are reading, and they're also searching users' computers for e-book files and sending that information too. That includes books not indexed in DE4. All of the data is sent in clear text. This is just another example of DRM going south.

21 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Moo by Chacham · · Score: 5, Funny

    In Soviet Russia, you watch Adobe!

    Wait, wait, something's wrong here....

    --
    Have you read my journal today?
    1. Re:Moo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's yet another example of how pirates provide better service to their customers than the legitimate retailers.

    2. Re:Moo by Russ1642 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I played a DVD the other day, something I haven't done in a few years. It took damn near forever to get the actual movie playing. It was ad after ad for movies from ten years ago. Pirated movies are great. You hit play and the movie starts. That's it.

    3. Re:Moo by meerling · · Score: 4, Informative

      This pic is pretty much accurate...
      http://cdn-www.i-am-bored.com/media/7125_piratemoviechart.jpg

    4. Re:Moo by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3

      The same graphic is true if you buy the DVD and rip it to MKV or MP4 or something. Hit enter and just play without a ton of ads/warnings. Of course, ripping a DVD - even one you've purchased yourself and thus own a valid copy of - violates the DMCA so I would never, ever do this. *whistles innocently*

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    5. Re:Moo by steelfood · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It was ad after ad for movies from ten years ago.

      The worst are the ads telling you not to pirate movies. Since you're seeing the ad, I think it'd be safe to assume you didn't pirate it. Because if you did pirate the movie, you certainly wouldn't be seeing that useless crap.

      The stupidity just boggles the mind sometimes.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
  2. The Issue is Not Plain-Text by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The outrage needs to be swift and directly entirely at the fact that they are collecting this information in the first place not whether it is transmitted in plain text or encrypted.

    1. Re:The Issue is Not Plain-Text by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because "plain text" is a MAJOR issue.

      If it's encrypted, then Bad Actor #1 (in this case, Adobe) steals all your personal info. All fine and dandy; you can sue them and get them to drop all that personal info, and life goes back to normal.

      If it's plain-text, then opening, say, an OverDrive eBook while at Starbucks suddenly makes your entire eBook collection, including titles that have nothing to do with Adobe, available to anyone else listening in on the public WiFi.

      so: outrage over the action in the first place, merited. Furor over not even taking pains to protect the data from other eyes, way more than merited.

      Think about it like this: which is worse: the guy next door taking pictures through your windows night and day, or the guy next door taking pictures through your windows night and day and posting them all online? They're both bad, but the second is much worse.

  3. Yet another reason ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yet another reason why I don't like Adobe or their products.

    They suck at security, and they don't give a rat's ass about your privacy.

    Fuck you Adobe. Fuck you.

  4. I just hope that they ... by geantvert · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... found my favorite e-book: "'Alice In Wonderlands) ; DROP TABLE Books ; --.epub"

  5. Typical Adobe product by dysmal · · Score: 3, Funny

    If history repeats its self, this "feature" will be buggy and need constant patching. They'll then spin it off as a cloud service where it'll cost you more to spy on yourself and yet spy less.

  6. Not to worry, I store my eBooks in the cloud... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... so I know they are private and secure from prying eyes.

  7. Re:Adobe has an ereader app? by Anrego · · Score: 3, Funny

    I doubt they'd notice, but still might be a nice touch to have a few thousand files named along the lines of screw_you_adobe_00123.epub

  8. DRM vs. Pirating by briancox2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Supporting DRM is morally worse than supporting pirating. At least with supporting pirating, no one gets hurt.

    --
    We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
  9. Time for some crapflooding. by AnotherBlackHat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If Digital Editions, or any other program, is sending meta-data about the contents of hard drives, then they deserve to what they get.

    I picture a small program that creates millions of pseudo-random file names ending with .epub, .pdf, or whatever else D.E. is scanning for.
    I'd certainly be willing to dedicate a few gig to the task, I'm sure there are several thousand others who feel the same.

    1. Re:Time for some crapflooding. by tbuddy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If they aren't encrypting they probably aren't set up on whatever is reading these for SQL injection or all sorts of other fun. Could be hilarious actually.

    2. Re:Time for some crapflooding. by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah; I think everyone needs a copy of "'Alice In Wonderlands) ; DROP TABLE Books ; --.epub" as mentioned by geantvert earlier in this thread. There's a few other titles that are equally entertaining that are must-reads.

  10. I just hope that they ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Bobby, we've talked about this...

  11. That's not DRM by mknewman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's spyware.

  12. Re:Outrage burnout by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To the best of my knowledge, you don't have any alternative when it comes to getting the file; but stripping the DRM and reading it on something else does spare you the reporting that Adobe does of every move you make from one page to another, and keeping your copy of Digital Editions on a separate system(VM or isolated physical machine), will presumably keep it from scanning its merry way through your entire library...

    Even if there were a 'clean' client, they'd still know who sent a request to their servers, and for what; but the ADE behavior goes well beyond that, and most of it will only work if the client is a traitor to the reader.

  13. Re:Why would anyone want Wi-Fi in an ebook reader? by hackertourist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Digital Editions is the PC app you use to download ebook files from the internet, and then upload them to your non-Wifi ebook reader.