Free downloading has privacy catches
For the London Free Press – February 18, 2008
A company called QTrax recently announced it had arrangements with major labels to allow free music downloading.
The labels would make their money from ad revenue — ads the user must watch while the music downloads. The privacy catch is the label’s share of revenue is calculated at least in part by how many times the song is listened to — which means each users’ computer will send that information back to QTrax.
This privacy issue got lost in the controversy over what labels QTrax had actually signed. It seems the deals had not actually been finalized with some labels.
On the surface this may seem like an ideal solution to the perceived problem of peer-to-peer downloading. It provides a revenue source to the music industry and gives downloaders a way to support artists without directly paying for the music.
This business model requires the use of a form of Digital Rights Management to track the number of times the songs are played on each users’ system, and to report that back. If that reporting is done transparently with the knowledge of the users, and in a way that does not report back any personal information, it would not pose a privacy issue.
The federal Privacy Commissioner has stated technologies that automatically collect personal information without a person’s knowledge or consent violate the fair information principles of privacy legislation. That this invasion occurs while people are in their homes with a high expectation of privacy makes the violation all the more significant.
It is difficult to say how invasive the DRM technology used by QTrax will be in terms of privacy. On the QTrax website they promise no adware and no spyware. They make reference to collection of information but don’t provide details on what will be collected. They have not yet provided information on any privacy policy.
One certainly wouldn’t expect that by simply playing a CD on their computer they would be installing software that could monitor their computer, but this is exactly what happened with some Sony music CDs in 2005. Since then, many are wary of what kind of software is being installed whenever they acquire music.
DRM can also be used to limit how we use the material we acquire — such as to specific devices, or specific numbers of copies.
Before we acquire music — or any digital entertainment products — we should check to see what the vendor has to say about any limitations on its use, whether it contains software we might not expect, and details of information collected along the way. From a vendor standpoint, it is important to be transparent about those issues.
