Mohamed Hassan via CrunchGear:
The supervisor who spoke with me was not sure how this software ended up in the new laptop thus put me on hold. He confirmed that yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to, as he put it, “monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.”
This software that Hassan is referring to is Star Logger located in C:\Windows\SL. Hassan found it in both the R525 and R540 notebook PCs. Star Logger is a malicious keylogger that records every key you press including usernames, passwords, social security numbers, addresses, credit card numbers, etc. If you own a Samsung computer check the directory, run a anti-malware program, and most of all be careful.
Update Samsung Tomorrow via CrunchGear:
The company states that the VIPRE security software used by the original whistleblower mistakenly reports the Microsoft Slovene language folder (c:\windows\SL) as the commercially available Starlogger keylogger.
GFI Labs, the maker of Anti-Spyware, which is the software Hassan used, apologies on its blog:
A Slovenian language directory for Windows Live is causing us considerable headaches this morning, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
That settles it then: no keyloggers on Samsung notebooks.
Cat Griffin, Amazon spokesperson, via ars technica:
Cloud Player is an application that lets customers manage and play their own music. It’s like any number of existing media management applications. We do not need a license to make Cloud Player available.
And:
[W]e do not need a license to store music in Cloud Drive. The functionality of saving MP3s to Cloud Drive is the same as if a customer were to save their music to an external hard drive or even iTunes.
If I purchase music, store it in the cloud, and listen to it on my computer later on, what’s the problem? I love this cloud MP3 player.
Lukas Mathis at ignore the code:
At work, we use Skype to communicate. A lot of the people here use Windows computers. More than once, a Windows user walked by my Mac, saw my version of Skype, and said something to the effect of «wow, this looks so much better than the horrible mess we have on Windows!» It seems Skype has noticed that there is a discrepancy in quality between the two versions, and has decided to make the two versions more similar to each other. Unfortunately, instead of making the Windows version of Skype better, they’ve decided to fix the discrepancy by making the Mac version of Skype more like the Windows version.
Skype neutered version 5 for Mac. I recommend you skip 5 and wait for the next one. I’m sticking with 2.8.
A new system will read emails to learn about what users are interested in and what their priorities are, based on “signals” such as what they receive the most email about, which emails they read and reply to, and the identity of their most regular contacts.
Google’s plan will make significantly more use of users’ private data to target advertising on Gmail: until now, it has served up sponsored links based on the contents of individual emails, rather than a detailed, stored profile of the recipient.
I use Gmail and for the most part I think it’s the best free email service out there. But this news about Gmail user profiling is making me uncomfortable. What is the end game for Google? To know as much as possible about me, to deliver the most targeted ads to me, and to make a ton of money from advertisers. That’s okay. What happens when, not if, all this data about me gets leaked?
Is it time to change the setting to POP3, download all the emails, burn it unto a DVD and start looking for an alternative?
John Biggs at CrunchGear:
The (non-professional) jury is still out on 3D’s health effects. When I spoke to an ophthalmologist for my original review he noted that there is no way to damage your eyes permanently by looking at the 3DS’ screen. That’s all well and good, but in today’s litigious and hysterical parenting atmosphere, we are sure to find a few screamers claiming that the 3DS struck their little Rupert blind. If you’re worried, don’t get the 3DS for your kids. It’s as simple as that.
I believe doctors endorsed smoking when smoking was thought to be safe.
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