[lug] M$ and their media player

[John Hernandez]

The "log" file maintained by Windows Media Player is the equivalent of 
our ~/.cddb/ which is used by just about every UNIX cd player app that 
I have used.  It's not such a big deal in my view.  Just caching.  In 
UNIX and modern MS OSes, this can be protected with file ACLs.

As for the ID transmitted to the server, I doubt that they can reliably 
correlate this with your personal information.  As far as I'm aware, 
unless you are being billed by MS, most people are not compelled to 
even supply Microsoft with a real name, address, telephone, or any such 
personal data to use the vast majority of their services and OS features.

-John

Jeff wrote:

> What's next?
> 
> http://www.msnbc.com/news/712231.asp
> 
> WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - Microsoft?s new version of its popular Media
> Player software is logging the songs and movies that customers play. The
> company said Wednesday it was changing its privacy statement to notify
> customers about the technology after inquiries from The Associated
> Press.
> 
> And they wander why people are terrified of them...
> Jeff
> 


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