Adobe spies on readers: EVERY page you turn leaked to base over SSL

Choosing a cloud hosting partner with confidence

Adobe has tweaked its Digital Editions 4 desktop ebook reader to now encrypt the data it secretly sends back to headquarters detailing a user's reading habits.

Previously, this information was not encrypted, allowing anyone eavesdropping on a network to intercept it.

The software collects detailed records about the books the user has been reading, such as which pages were read and when, and sends this intelligence back to the adelogs.adobe.com server. There is no way to opt out of this short of deleting the application.

Now that information is transmitted using HTTPS, apparently. We note that the aforementioned server's SSL/TLS configuration scores an A- from Qualys; the server's certificate has a 2048-bit RSA key albeit with a SHA-1 signature and prefers RC4 over stronger ciphers.

"The Digital Editions 4 software update (Digital Editions 4.0.1), which addresses the collection and transmission of certain usage data in clear text, is now available," Adobe told The Register in a statement.

"With this latest version of Digital Editions 4, the data is sent to Adobe via secure transmission (using HTTPS). Adobe Digital Editions 4 users are receiving an update notification via the auto-update mechanism built into the product."

Digital Editions 4 privacy row ... How El Reg reported the data leak

Earlier this month it was revealed that the Digital Editions software was collecting large amounts of information about the books it was being used to read, including the title, publisher, and the time and order every page was read in. This was then sent back to an Adobe logging server in plain text.

Adobe said at the time that such information was needed to enforce publishers' anti-piracy measures – so-called digital rights management. It acknowledged that sending this in plain text was a security screw up, and promised to fix the issue.

The firm has now done so with the update, and it has set up a web page to explain exactly what it takes and why. Judging from the comments from El Reg readers, however, this hot potato will not go away.

To be blunt, people are upset that this kind of data is being collected in the first place – and will be looking for alternative ebook reader software that isn't spying on them. ®

Internet Security Threat Report 2014

from ffffff http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/23/adobe_updates_digital_editions_encryption/

via IFTTT