|
There is a catfight going on about a cat-shaped scanner called a "CueCat," being given out by companies such as Radio Shack and Forbes and Wired magazines to their customers. The maker, Digital Convergence, began shipping more than 1 million of the scanners in hopes of introducing customers to a new technology that bridges the printed word with the Web. By installing the little hand scanner to your computer, customers can swipe bar codes either on products or within printed ads in magazines or catalogs to go to related Web sites with more information. Users must first go to the Digital Convergence Website and register personal information such as name, email address, gender, age range and ZIP code. "Whenever you scan something, your browser will make a connection with Digital Convergence's site, reports the bar code, your device number and a token that identifies you as an individual," a spokesman at an Internet security consultant group called Interhack said. Privacy advocates have expressed concerns about the possibility.
Recently a security breach at Digital Convergence caused 140,000 consumer names, email addresses and zip codes to be exposed. "For the people that registered via our Web site… a hacker exploited a known error in the data script and was able to look into the data file," said Dave Mathews, vice president of new product development at Dallas-based Digital Convergence. "From there, they could extrapolate the name, email address, age range, gender and Zip code of new members." DigitalConvergence took immediate steps to close the hole, and sent details about the problem and $10 gift certificates to the compromised customers. Similar problems at companies such as Eve.com, IKEA's catalog order site and Amazon.com have occurred within the last few months.
The fact that data has been compromised due to security breaches and the "appearance" of customer tracking by Digital convergence has some privacy groups concerned. Researchers say each scanner's unique ID number could be used to trace the actions of an individual user and create a detailed database on what the consumer is interested in, along with their email address and personal information they have registered. A Digital Convergence spokesman said however, that the company is not tracking this type of information. He said customer registration information is retained only for the purposes of general demographics. "There is a unique ID within the CueCat so that we can see that some Cats came from Forbes and some came from Wired," said Dave Mathews, vice president of new product development at Digital Convergence. "(But) individualized serial numbers are not designed to track individual behavior." Privacy advocates counter that the company has not adequately disclosed its practices.
Meanwhile, inventive programmers have found a way to use the CueCat without registering. One way is not to use the Cat's software. Cat Kit 32 at members.aol.com/powercntrl lets you download free software that decodes the output of the scanner into any 32-bit windows application. Or check out www.readerware.com, where you'll find a product that can catalog your book library by swiping the bar codes on your books. And because you don't have to use the software that comes with Cue Cat, privacy issues aren't a concern. Readerware has been around for a while, and they now support Linux. (This software is $40, but you can try it free for 30 days.)
Get your kitty-cat when you ask for a catalog at your local Radio Shack.
(This article is brought to you by the Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer Users Groups (APCUG), an international organization to which your user group belongs. Excerpted from Seen In The News, Amador Computer Users Group's Bytes & Bites Online ©2000 Barbara Kreiss. Reprinted with permission.)
|
|
