A few years after the Sony rootkit scandal in which an antipiracy technology installed rootkits on PCs of Sony BMG music, it seems that Sony is again in the spotlight for all the wrong security reasons.
The ability for some Blu-ray players to support BD-Live was originally promoted as a service so Blu-ray owners could receive extra content from the movie studios, but there apparently is a dirty little secret Sony has been reluctant to share with consumers.
It seems that BD-Live can be used so movie studios can monitor how many times you play your Blu-ray movie, along with several other annoyances.
SlySoft issued a press release so it could warn consumers against this breach of security, while also promoting its latest AnyDVD HD software update that can protect the privacy of all Blu-ray users.
"One can only presume that the primary motivation behind this farce is 'getting closer' to the customer or, in other words, the studios would like to know exactly how often and when their disc buyers are looking at which film," according to the press release from SlySoft.
"When we took a closer look at the first of these disk types we were asolutely dumbfounded. Sometimes the films actually contacted the manufacturer and did that with the user not knowing about it or even being in a position to even recognize that this connection was taking place," said Peer van Heuen, SlySoft head of development. "I assume that a significant percentage of these film buyers don't know what to make of the little BD-Live logo on the package or even recognize it at all. In other words: hardly anyone expects that a Blu-ray disc 'makes a telephone call home' while it’s being played. The circumstances and manner whereby unwitting consumers are maliciously and insidiously eavesdropped upon might get the attention of data and security and/or personal privacy experts in some countries sooner or later."
AnyDVD HD users can update their software to include the ability to disable BD-Live so the "personal privacy of the spied-upon consumer is restored."
