On Wed, 03 Sep 2003 18:55:46 GMT, in <alt.privacy.spyware>, tony@well.com
wrote:
>
> Several days ago, after I went to http://www.soundprint.org to listen
> to a radio program I had missed, and found that I would have to
> install RealPlayer in order to hear it, I sent them a message to
> explain that I did not want to load RP because it contains spyware.
>
[snip]

Good for you!

> Today, I received a response in which a production assistant states
> that "Our technical staff assures me Real player does not contain
> spyware".
>
[snip]

That "production assistant" is either lying, or completely clueless
(probably the latter, in this particular case -- more likely, it's his/her
"technical staff" that is lying).

Real Networks is one of *THE* most scummy, unethical and unrepentantly
abusive "mainstream" outfits this side of Microsoft. Their history of
privacy invasion, trojan-planting, spamming, and all manner of other
shenanigans is so long-standing and so well-documented that anyone claiming
to be "technical staff" CANNOT also credibly claim to be unaware of it.

To answer your specific question, every version of Real Player since v5.0
has had some form of what has later become known as "spyware" embedded in
it. Among the transgressions it commits are "phoning home" details of what
Real Media files you play, from what sources, etc.

As for "chapter & verse", this should tell you -- and <soundprint.org> --
everything you need to know in order to conclude that NO ethical person
would ever deal with Real Networks:

<http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22Real+Networks%22+group:news.admin.net-abuse.*&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=G&scoring=d>

And don't miss this thread in particular:

<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3974B07D.10884BAD%40usa.net>


--

Jay T. Blocksom
--------------------------------
Appropriate Technology, Inc.
usenet01[at]appropriate-tech.net


"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

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