Quote:
Originally Posted by porkupan
Well, I guess you don't go to supermarket either. They are watching you through those cameras, just in case you decide to put a can of soda in your pocket. Talk about treating you like a criminal!
The thing is, there are a lot of thieves out there. You may not be one of them, but hundreds of people are. And there are people who would on principle buy an electronic copy of a book or a song, and put it out there for everyone to copy. So, the companies have to watch out for their rights.
Just as supermarket security has to watch the shoppers. I don't think you are majorly inconvenienced by this fact.
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Well, first of all, not all supermarkets have cameras. My local farmer's market doesn't; and nor does the open air market that I visit in the spring. So -- respectfully -- you've got a bit of a hole in your analogy to start with.
Second of all, how long are they keeping the tapes? No, seriously. A few days? A week? A month? Maybe. Thirty years? Not likely. 24-hour surveillance from multiple cameras would be a bit of a pain to store.
CC#s are easier to store, so they COULD be kept forever, but they SHOULDN'T be. Generally, companies keep them for variable lengths of time. It's rare for a company to store your CC# from a purchase decades ago -- intentionally so, to protect your privacy in case their database is hacked.
IF -- if this is speculation -- but if the intention of the HP DRM is to tie every book sold forever and always to a person, they're going to (a) need personal data that doesn't change frequently and (b) they're going to have to store it for a very long time.
CC#s and SSNs (or the like, for foreign transactions) are pieces of personal data that don't change frequently. Names and addresses are very much less so. (I'm on my third name in, oh, 7 years? That sounds right.) IF -- again, speculation -- if the HP DRM database contains all that data forever and always in the hopes of hunting down pirates, they're going to need to employ some really crackerjack firewalls to keep out the unethical hackers. And with Sony and the good folks at "Pottermore" manning the helm, I'm... not confident.
All this is speculation. I truly hope that all this HP DRM simply boils down to user name watermarks and nothing more. BUT, I'm going to want to see some strong statements from the Pottermore site that they aren't store CC# information in their database for decades. AFAIK, they aren't legally required to purge that information regularly, but it's good industry practice.
Ultimately, your analogy fails because there's very few ways someone can hurt me if they hack into Walmart's computer and steal video files of me. I mean, they can 'shop my face onto a YouTube video, but what do I care? On the other hand, I've had my identity stolen before and charges racked up against me and it's a PAIN to sort out. Not planning to go through that again if I can avoid it.
A thought: One wonders if the Pottermore will accept gift cards. That might well be a way to satisfy my paranoia, if you can pick up Pottermore gift cards for cash at Walmart.
