Adobe has quietly updated their Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0.5 to pop up a dialogue box when a PDF document is trying to track your usage with the spying software by Canada-based
Remote Approach. Earlier this year we made the shocking discovery that since version 7.0, Adobe
could be spying on you if the creator of an Adobe document wishes to do so:
Through some small JavaScript code that is embedded in the document Adobe Reader is reporting back information including the fact that you've opened the document (which has a unique identifier), your IP address, and which viewer version has been used. The information is submitted over port 80 using HTTP, so it is unlikely that a home or office firewall would, in a normal configuration, block the activity, unless the firewall administrator is attempting to block Web browsing.
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[via
The Age]