Sunday, May 01, 2005

YOU'RE UP FOR SALE

Over on Boing Boing, there's some kicking up and digging in over a music download service which is offering details on its customers for sale to the highest bidder. Circumstantial evidence points to the pimps being eMusic, although eMusic claim that they've never sold their membership list to anybody - although that could be a politician's truth, strictly true but not actually engaging with what the problem is. It's possible to flog the data without actually selling the names; and since eMusic include a right to do this in the membership terms of service, there's not any real reason for them to be upset if people assume they do so. But don't worry, kids, your name and email addresses are stored on a "secure server". So, that's alright then.

Meanwhile, the digging has thrown up a list offered for sale claiming to offer details on 2.1 million iPod owners, but it's not clear where this data originates from. Apple might seem to be the most likely candidate, but we're guessing this is more data gathered from other sources, perhaps by collating factoids from those "Already have purchased/would consider purchasing" type surveys.


No comments:

Post a Comment

As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.