A prominent Internet privacy advocate says Microsoft Corp. should have warned consumers that the media player that ships with its new Windows XP operating system connects to a server operated by the software giant and reports what DVDs customers insert into their PCs.. . .
A prominent Internet privacy advocate says Microsoft Corp. should have warned consumers that the media player that ships with its new Windows XP operating system connects to a server operated by the software giant and reports what DVDs customers insert into their PCs.

Richard M. Smith said in a posting to Internet security mailing lists Wednesday that the Windows Media Player version 8 installed by default along with millions of copies of XP automatically contacts a Microsoft Web server to look up information about DVDs played by users.

Smith, who one month ago complained that earlier - and more ubiquitous - versions of the Windows Media Player can give up a uniquely identifying digital fingerprint when communicating across the Internet, said that a similar ID number is transmitted when the version 8 player looks up DVD "chapter" information at a Microsoft Web site.

The link for this article located at Newsbytes is no longer available.