Adobe busted spying on their customers e-book history
Posted by: Timothy Tibbetts on 10/08/2014 05:14 AM
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The Digital Reader has discovered, and confirmed that Adobe Digital Editions 4, the newest version of Adobe’s Epub app, seemed to be sending an awful lot of data to Adobe’s servers.
They also report that Adobe isn’t just tracking what users are doing in DE4; the app was also scanning his computer, gathering the metadata from all of the e-books sitting on his drive, and uploading that data to Adobe’s servers.
He was able to track this using WireShare, available on MajorGeeks.
Adobe tried to cover themselves by referring to their privacy policy, you know those 80 pages no one reads:
“Adobe Digital Editions allows users to view and manage eBooks and other digital publications across their preferred reading devices—whether they purchase or borrow them. All information collected from the user is collected solely for purposes such as license validation and to facilitate the implementation of different licensing models by publishers. Additionally, this information is solely collected for the eBook currently being read by the user and not for any other eBook in the user’s library or read/available in any other reader. User privacy is very important to Adobe, and all data collection in Adobe Digital Editions is in line with the end user license agreement and the Adobe Privacy Policy.”
Ars Technica was also able to confirm this and got a response from Adobe, who admitted the problem and has since backpedaled:
"In terms of the transmission of the data collected, Adobe is in the process of working on an update to address this issue. We will notify you when a date for this update has been determined."
They also report that Adobe isn’t just tracking what users are doing in DE4; the app was also scanning his computer, gathering the metadata from all of the e-books sitting on his drive, and uploading that data to Adobe’s servers.
He was able to track this using WireShare, available on MajorGeeks.
Adobe tried to cover themselves by referring to their privacy policy, you know those 80 pages no one reads:
“Adobe Digital Editions allows users to view and manage eBooks and other digital publications across their preferred reading devices—whether they purchase or borrow them. All information collected from the user is collected solely for purposes such as license validation and to facilitate the implementation of different licensing models by publishers. Additionally, this information is solely collected for the eBook currently being read by the user and not for any other eBook in the user’s library or read/available in any other reader. User privacy is very important to Adobe, and all data collection in Adobe Digital Editions is in line with the end user license agreement and the Adobe Privacy Policy.”
Ars Technica was also able to confirm this and got a response from Adobe, who admitted the problem and has since backpedaled:
"In terms of the transmission of the data collected, Adobe is in the process of working on an update to address this issue. We will notify you when a date for this update has been determined."
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