Windows Media Player.
This was all that I could find that made any sense. Ignore the Mac
references...
[["The new iMac, like the old, is virus-free, spyware-free......"
If ANYONE out there is using WMP for Mac to play WMV's you are indeed using
a piece of spyware. That piece of shit connects to AT LEAST 15 different web
sites and passes along statistical information as well as Wal Mart
immediately putting cookies on your system to track what your music/movie
prefs are for marketing purposes. THIS IS AN INDISPUTABLE FACT! I would more
catagorize it as marketing-ware, but it is an invasion of my privacy as far
as I'm concerned.
Here are just a FEW things I have logged:
COOKIE: serviceswitching.metaservices.microsoft.com
COOKIE: swapstart.walmart.com
COOKIE: img.wmp10.elsitiodc.com
COOKIE: images.live365.com
COOKIE: downloads.walmart.com
SITE CONNECTION: music.msn.com
SITE CONNECTION: dl.images.musicnet.com
SITE CONNECTION: wmp.audible.com
SITE CONNECTION: mlb.mlb.com
SITE CONNECTION: wmpinc.real.com
SITE CONNECTION: music.gettvcast.com
SITE CONNECTION: content.ztango.com.edgesuite.net
And more - quite a few more actually.
What is interesting to note is that the file that I played was a file that I
had PREVIOUSLY SAVED ON MY HARD DRIVE! I just happened to be connected to
the internet when I played it. It did not need to connect to ANY of these
sites to get content. If I block WMP from any access to the internet, it
still plays fine so IT DOES NOT NEED TO CONNECT TO THESE SITES TO PLAY THE
FILE.
MY CONCLUSION: WMP is a piece of spyware - if you are running it on your Mac
you are infected.
I am not trying to burst any bubbles here, but programs can and do "phone
home". This may be necessary for an automatic update or something of that
nature, but anything else is an invasion of my privacy as far as I'm
concerned.
MacDude was pointing out the same thing when LittleSnitch alerted him that
the dock and his contact list/book was "phoning home". Possibly for an
update? I dunno.
We Mac users have 99.9% less to worry about in this area, but are not
impervious. No viruses - ture. No spyware - I would have to debate this
issue because even something as simple as a tracking cookie is spyware in my
book. If you clean your cache after every session it helps, but if you get a
cookie from cgi-bin or ehg.hitbox.com while you are on the net, you are in
essence being "tracked". Cookies are not always benign little text files
that a site puts in your cache. Some of them are tracking cookies and to me
that is spyware..........]]
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/8342/
--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
In