RealJukebox makers say "sorry for snooping on users"
WASHINGTON (AP) - The company behind wildly popular software for listening to music on computers is apologizing to consumers amid complaints its program secretly collected details about the listening preferences of millions of its customers.
RealNetworks Inc (NasdaqNM:RNWK - news). of Seattle also said Monday it will distribute a small patch on its Web site for customers of its free RealJukebox software to block the tracking technology.
More than 12 million people use the software, which puts it among the world's most popular programs for listening to CDs and digital music on the Internet.
A security expert, Richard Smith of Brookline, Mass., found the software secretly transmitted to the company's headquarters details about which music CDs each customer listens to and how many songs he copies, along with a serial number that could be used to identify him.
RealNetworks insisted it never stored the information, which would have been lucrative for marketing purposes.
"We made a mistake in not being clear enough to our users about what kinds of data was being generated and transmitted," said Rob Glaser, the company's chief executive.
He said officials "deeply apologize."
The corrective patch can be downloaded immediately from the company's Internet site, at www.real.com, and will be built into future versions of the software starting next week.
Smith said afterward he was pleased to see the software patch.
"Sometimes the devils are in the details," Smith said.
"It sounds like a nice press release."
Privacy groups expressed outrage that RealNetworks never disclosed its practices in its Web site's privacy statement or in the software's licence.
Online discussion groups were filled Monday with blistering comments about the company. Some experts even called the company's music software a "Trojan horse," a malicious computer code that promises to perform one function but secretly commits nefarious digital deeds.
In an early response to the controversy, RealNetworks updated its privacy promise on its Web site over the weekend, saying its tracking technology was intended "to understand the interests and needs of our users so that we can offer valuable personalized services."
Jason Catlett, a nationally known privacy advocate, complained in a letter to RealNetworks its practices are "unacceptable violations of consumer privacy." Catlett and others suggested the software's surreptitious surveillance may even violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or other U.S. and state laws.
A RealNetworks spokesman, Jay Wampold, said details about music CDs playing on its software needed to be sent to activate one of the program's niftiest features: when a CD is played, the software automatically shows its title, artist and list of songs - based on data retrieved through a third company, Berkeley, Calif.-based CDDB Inc.
But Wampold said personal details, such as a customer's name or e-mail address, were stripped before information was forwarded through RealNetworks' computers to CDDB for matching against its huge database of albums and artists. And Wampold said information about each customer's tastes was never logged by RealNetworks.
The company's decision to change its Internet privacy policy drew concern Monday from Truste, a non-profit group that monitors and enforces corporate privacy policies of its members.
Truste, formed to stave off calls for new privacy laws covering the online industry, said it plans to investigate whether RealNetworks violated its privacy promises and whether its previous statement - which Truste vetted - was adequate. |
