[Am-info] Microsoft Admits XP Media Player Spies on Users

[Steve Cohen]

http://newsfactor.com/perl/story/16455.html

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has confirmed that the
Windows XP version of its Windows Media Player is
programmed to track which CDs users listen to and
which DVDs they watch. The company also has altered
its privacy statement.

...

Privacy advocates said the media player's capabilities
fly in the face of Microsoft's "trustworthy computing"
initiative, a new dedication to security and privacy
that the company announced last month.

"This is a new level of profiling that I think is
dangerous," Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC) legislative counsel Chris Hoofnagle told
NewsFactor. "Microsoft says it's concerned about
privacy, but where is your ability to control
information about yourself?"


Technical reviews and media reports indicate that
Windows Media Player 8 is designed to track which DVD
titles users watch on their PCs by contacting a
Microsoft Web server and transmitting an electronic
fingerprint for the movie and a cookie for the PC.


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