Adobe DE 4 spies on users

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by dmck

This really bugs me! People with books on health, family, finance or whatever, which they wanted to keep private have now shared that with Adobe and any other party that happen to listen in on the communication.

Time to edit your hosts file so that information isn't sent to adobe...

Windows:
Double click on C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (edit with Notepad or Wordpad) and add:
127.0.0.1 adelogs.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 192.150.16.235

Linux:
you know where it is. :-)

Mac:
No idea how...

I prefer my own setup.... I only have ADE installed on a virtual machine... I use it to download the DRM-infected book, remove the infection and then move it to my host... And the VM doesn't know anything about the host!

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Akshayy

ADE doesn't scan anybody's PC or hard drives!

Akshayy I recall that you are someone with certain inside knowledge about Adobe and ADE, do you disagree with the information in the link in the OP's post?

What's your assessment of what's going on.

[Akshayy]

I think iOS reader shows you nicely how much time you spend reading a few pages or books, tell you time to finish it and all the good stuff in nice pictures, graphs!

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Akshayy

I think iOS reader shows you nicely how much time you spend reading a few pages or books, tell you time to finish it and all the good stuff in nice pictures, graphs!

I'm not sure how that relates to ADE and the assumptions that are being made that Adobe may/may not be able to read our drive.

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's not a red herring. Remember that Amazon too do time-limiting DRM, for their "Kindle Owners' Lending Library", and also for textbook rental. I maintain my view that time-limiting is an entirely legitimate use for the technology, and that Adobe can't be "demonised" for providing a tool to meet that need.

I don't think that's true. My understanding is that you can keep a KOLL book as long as you want to, but you can only have one book out at a time (and can only borrow a maximum of one book a month).

[mandy314]

Please correct me if my rehash is wrong:
Compared to ADE 1/2/3 ADE 4 sends a good deal more data to Adobe's servers (and here is confusion still) for books opened with ADE (with DRM or all), all books in the ADE library, all books somehow linked to the ADE library, all books on the device. The data is send to a new adress, not the one used for DRM with older versions. The DRM functionality seems to be working even with the "new data connection" blocked.
Adobe apologizes for the plain-text transmission, but says all the data is needed for DRM purposes and within the limits of ADE EULA.

Why started Adobe the expanded data collection?
(1) Big customers briefed Adobe to build up a comprehensive database on ebook/device use, reading habits etc.
(2) Adobe plans to offer his customers new DRM variations for new business models.
(3) Customers asked Adobe to implement new DRM variations for new business models.

My money is on option 3 - in its statement Adobe talks about geo-locking and page-number-restrictions (for non-fiction?). But ...
Please help me to speculate

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

This is a red herring -- Amazon only logs your Amazon purchases. . . . We can tell, because in fact your library ISN'T synced. Your PURCHASES are.

It sounds as though you might have missed the first part of my post (note the tastefully formatted distinction made by the author whose text appears below and who happens to be typing right now):

Judging from articles that appeared after Nate's in The Digital Reader, it sounds as though ADE's scanning of entire libraries hasn't been verified yet. What has been verified is the transmission of data from books opened with ADE (including non-DRM'd titles) [hot lavender emphasis added].

There's a difference between your point (Amazon only logs books purchased through Amazon) and mine (Amazon doesn't log entire libraries), but my issue with Nate's claim is that ADE's logging of entire libraries seems doubtful and hasn't been proved. That issue, mon semblance, mon frere, remains valid (as does our pal Baudelaire, though he might be a tad powdery by now).

Also: No offense (and I don't mean that sarcastically), but you might want to lighten up on the rhetorical terminology if you're going to stray from the intended meaning of red herring. Even if my conclusion turned out to be wrong (which has been known to happen, eh?), my mention of a secondary issue would not have been an attempt to distract anyone from the primary issue (whatever you consider that to be).

Additionally, using specific terms like ad hominem, straw man and even red herring can put people on the defensive because flagging supposed mistakes in their reasoning as classic errors or gambits can make them feel judged and/or fisked. Also, it invites them to fisk the accuser's posts in the same spirit, all of which can make for a rather strained conversation (which I assume was not your intent).

Originally Posted by robko

Yes, but the difference is that Amazon/Apple would send you closed the book/synced etc at 9:03 am on page 342 so it would know what was the most recent and what page to open to. The Adobe info records that at 8:30 you turned to page 302, at 8:30:30 you turned to page 303, at 8:30:35 you went back to page 302, at 8:30:40 you turned to 303 etc. I'm willing to allow the 1st example if I want to sync between the devices, the 2nd one stinks of Big Brother. And that's totally aside from the fact that it's transmitted in the clear.

Thanks for the explanation, Robko. I meant to give karma to that post; I'll do it now.

[Akshayy]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

I'm not sure how that relates to ADE and the assumptions that are being made that Adobe may/may not be able to read our drive.

oh ok, if that's the question, then ADE doesn't read your hard drive.
ADE reads only the books you ask ADE to open for you. That is using ade to read books.

If there is a book sitting there on your hard disk, ade will never touch it.

ADE may scan ADE library, every software will scan its own library.

[jhempel24]

If that's the case:

{"msg_DocumentScanned":{"Document Scanned":{"atTime":1412622270683,"Title":"Crown of Empire","Creator":"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro","Subject":"","Description":"<p>The Pact of Mankind is a dinosaur lumbering toward oblivion: hedged about by alien enemies, it is rotten with decadence and corruption. The Pact is run by competing oligarchies of criminal corporations, but it is ruled by a single man--the High Secretary of the Pact. But if he should die, it would be feeding time in the piranha tank.</p>","Publisher":"Baen","Contributor":"calibre (2.3.0) [http://calibre-ebook.com]","Date":"1994-01-02T05:00:00+00:00","Language":"en","Format":"","Ty pe":"","Identifier":"23bc46c9-ecf8-442d-b6db-91d623ab2496","Source":"","Relation":"","Coverage" :"","Rights":""}}},



Why would it be pulling things from Calibre as in this example?? Or am I reading this wrong?? Especially if it's coming from Baen, which I didn't think used ADE or any sort of DRM.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

If that's the case:

{"msg_DocumentScanned":{"Document Scanned":{"atTime":1412622270683,"Title":"Crown of Empire","Creator":"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro","Subject":"","Description":"<p>The Pact of Mankind is a dinosaur lumbering toward oblivion: hedged about by alien enemies, it is rotten with decadence and corruption. The Pact is run by competing oligarchies of criminal corporations, but it is ruled by a single man--the High Secretary of the Pact. But if he should die, it would be feeding time in the piranha tank.</p>","Publisher":"Baen","Contributor":"calibre (2.3.0) [http://calibre-ebook.com]","Date":"1994-01-02T05:00:00+00:00","Language":"en","Format":"","Ty pe":"","Identifier":"23bc46c9-ecf8-442d-b6db-91d623ab2496","Source":"","Relation":"","Coverage" :"","Rights":""}}},



Why would it be pulling things from Calibre as in this example?? Or am I reading this wrong?? Especially if it's coming from Baen, which I didn't think used ADE or any sort of DRM.

This looks more as if it's a book that came from Calibre, but was in the local ADE library. ie a Calibre book which had been opened in ADE, and thus added to the ADE library.

[jhempel24]

That's what I was thinking, but I didn't think Baen used ADE or any DRM for that matter, so that's why it jumped out at me.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

That's what I was thinking, but I didn't think Baen used ADE or any DRM for that matter, so that's why it jumped out at me.

They don't, but ADE installs itself as the default ePub reader, so on many PCs (mine included) if you double click an ePub book in Windows Explorer, it will open in ADE, and that process of opening the book copies it to the ADE library.

[jhempel24]

Ah, mine is Sigil.

[crossi]

Remove ADE from your computer. Get a cheap notebook for downloading books. DeDRM the books, transfer them to your computer, then delete the book from the notebook. Keep WiFi/3G off on your ereader.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This looks more as if it's a book that came from Calibre, but was in the local ADE library. ie a Calibre book which had been opened in ADE, and thus added to the ADE library.

Nate explicitly states that several of the books logged were DRM-free and were never opened. Period. At least some of those title should have been invisible to ADE.

If you read the full list of items Adobe admits they log and why, in the Register article linked to in a post here, above, you'll find that they look for "certified app id" to fight DRM cracking.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10..._is_important/

Certified app ID: The Certified App ID is collected as part of the DRM workflow to ensure that only certified apps can render a book, reducing DRM hacks and compromised DRM implementations.

Nate has tested several Alf-ie tool plug-ins (most recently during the Kobo downloads discussions) and has confirmed his system has Calibre plugins installed. It has been speculated, and not just by me, that ADE 4 looks for Calibre plugins and/or DRM-free ebooks in its library to see if the user has removed DRM from commercial ebooks. It has also suggested that it might have scanned the calibre library because of some interaction with Calibre in server mode. Last I looked in the comments there, it was still an open question.