Number 225 - February 2002

Security Problem In Windows Media Player
from Fred Langa's Jan 21, 02 Langa List www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-01-21.htm#3
Reader Leo Feret writes:     I thought I was current on security and privacy issues, but I missed this info at http://daily news. yahoo.com/ h/ cn/ 20020115/ tc/ privacy_flaw_ continues_ to_dig_ ie_hole_1.html     "In Windows Media Player versions 6.4 and 7.1, people can turn off the option "Allow Internet Sites to uniquely identify your player" in their settings to stop potential tracking by creating a different number for each IE session. ...[M]any people may not make the connection that they need to tweak Windows Media Player, a free product that is distributed with most copies of the Windows operating system, to fix a privacy leak in IE." 1	The problem is that each copy of Media Player can identify itself with a unique ID string. If you allow media Player to do that, then a web site can grab the unique code from the Media Player and use that to build a covert profile of your activity on the site, even if you otherwise take steps not to identify yourself to the site. Major problem? No. In fact, as these things go, it's quite minor. But it's good to know about, and easy to fix. Thanks, Leo! 1 TOGGLE Editor's Note:     Bring up your Windows Media Player and click on Tools/Options/Player and if the box next to the statement is checked, uncheck it, then click Apply, then OK and you're done.
Number 225 - February 2002