PepiMK
2006-08-06, 22:40
Sony's clumsy care for it's customers privacy has been shown widely around in the rootkit affair a few months ago. Calm observers have argumented that it was kind of hyped. Well, we've got another example of Sony's attitude towards privacy.
Patrick is not really listening to main stream music a lot, so he was quite surprised to get advertised for the Band OOMPH! in his inbox in late 2004. Even though he's receiving a lot of spam, this one came from Sony BMG, a company that huge and well known that it should be able to afford spam. After writing the usual letter requesting information about all stored data, removal of that data and confirmation of further barring of his email address, Sony BMG did actually all that after a preliminary confirmation, another spam mail and some apologies.
So we've got two spams and two promises of removal and blocking, the second one with the full information requested etc.. No reason for Sony BMG not to send another spam email just a month later, this time for Yvonne Catterfeld. The third complaint to the same person that dealt with it went unnoticed by Sony BMG, but after a fourth spam mail and following complaint, a lawyer and manager of legal & business affairs of Sony BMG has sent another official confirmation that Patricks email address would now be blocked on all lists.
Obviously though, even an official statement from one of Sony BMGs lawyers won't really prevent them from sending unsolicited advertisements, since Sony BMG spam has continued until today. Requests on whether Sony BMG never really followed their promise to remove all data and block the address, or simply gets it again and again from illegal data mining, have not been answered within the past months. Attempts to speak per telephone about this have been blocked by referring to email correspondence, which was left unanswered or provided false promises.
Sony BMG: 15 months - 4 promises of removal of personal information and future blocking of any advertisement - two lawyers - still spam. Has the rootkit discussion still kept some people thinking that Sony would treat your personal information and privacy according to the law? Well, not us any longer.
More... (http://www.spybot.info/en/news/2006-03-10.html)
Patrick is not really listening to main stream music a lot, so he was quite surprised to get advertised for the Band OOMPH! in his inbox in late 2004. Even though he's receiving a lot of spam, this one came from Sony BMG, a company that huge and well known that it should be able to afford spam. After writing the usual letter requesting information about all stored data, removal of that data and confirmation of further barring of his email address, Sony BMG did actually all that after a preliminary confirmation, another spam mail and some apologies.
So we've got two spams and two promises of removal and blocking, the second one with the full information requested etc.. No reason for Sony BMG not to send another spam email just a month later, this time for Yvonne Catterfeld. The third complaint to the same person that dealt with it went unnoticed by Sony BMG, but after a fourth spam mail and following complaint, a lawyer and manager of legal & business affairs of Sony BMG has sent another official confirmation that Patricks email address would now be blocked on all lists.
Obviously though, even an official statement from one of Sony BMGs lawyers won't really prevent them from sending unsolicited advertisements, since Sony BMG spam has continued until today. Requests on whether Sony BMG never really followed their promise to remove all data and block the address, or simply gets it again and again from illegal data mining, have not been answered within the past months. Attempts to speak per telephone about this have been blocked by referring to email correspondence, which was left unanswered or provided false promises.
Sony BMG: 15 months - 4 promises of removal of personal information and future blocking of any advertisement - two lawyers - still spam. Has the rootkit discussion still kept some people thinking that Sony would treat your personal information and privacy according to the law? Well, not us any longer.
More... (http://www.spybot.info/en/news/2006-03-10.html)