The question of privacy on the internet has once again
raised its head with the posting by Digital Reader on Adobe’s ACS DRM system
and what is claimed to be excessive data gathering of personal information from
consumer’s elibraries.
We can’t comment on whether the facts as presented are true
or false, but we are able to say that if true, they are a significant shift
from where Adobe started from and seriously question the role of DRM and
whether consumer privacy rights have been breeched.
Abobe DRM history goes back many years. ACS3 was widely used
by retailers but effectively broken and open. The start of the latest ebook
revolution was initiated with the introduction of the eInk readers and when
Sony entered the fray they wanted a DRM system which would effectively give
them a march on the rest. Adobe also wanted to regain control of a space they
had clearly lost. Overdrive had also built a ACS4 beta that they were using to
control their market. We remember Adobe’s introduction of ACS4 and their lack
of market awareness and often rigid mind-set and coupled with Sony’s desire to
rule the world, we had many often fraught conversations with the two of them
but the rest of the market wasn’t ready and so they won the initial battle.
Years later it’s a different story and many have either migrated to their own
DRM. Amazon and Apple never did join and Kobo and Nook grew alternative offers
and Overdrive stuck with their own variant.
Adobe then went into what can best described as the Dark
Ages where they still championed interoperability, but where leaderless and
gave up trying to manage micropayments and gave this up to a small handful of
agents who managed the retail facing activity and collected the money. They
then came up with ACS5 or a tighter model which was part born out of the fact
that ACS4 could easily be broken by anyone who asked the right questions on the
Internet and part by the fact that they were clearly being squeezed out by the
big channels. Unfortunately ACS5 has some basic issues which forced Adobe to
retract their initially statements and backtrack on their timelines to force
full migration to the new platform.
Well Adobe provide a DRM locking service aimed at validating
ownership and stamping this such that they can ensure rights are managed with
respect to devices, etc. Why on earth do they want to gather data on usage
other than to sell back to publishers, retailers and libraries. Did they offer
and opt in, or opt out to consumers is a mute question and we would suggest
that they had to in order to snoop.
They apparently doing this not through the standard
interface with hosting sites but through a mole application in Digital Editions
that they plant into the consumer library or device. We would like to see the
snooper application flagged as unauthorised by the security systems and users
being given at least the choice of allowing it in. Whether the Adobe service
will work without the mole is an interesting question.
We have to accept that Amazon, Apple, Nook, Kobo and
Overdrive all can gather information on their consumers and their walled
gardens allow this, but they are walled gardens. Adobe promotes itself as open
and interoperable and importantly does not have consumer customer relationships
to build in the same way. Again it begs the question what do they intend to do
with this information and is it being resold and if so to whom?
However, all this a new news and we await more information
about Abode’s intent and what is behind the intrusion into consumer’s private
libraries and reading habits.
Personally, if the facts bear up to what has been reported,
then Adobe has single handily done more harm to DRM than all the articles every
written about it. Consumers if made aware of it will probably shun and question
the violation of their privacy.
Finally, we hope that the wider media picks this story up
and fully investigates it and if collaborated exposes it to the consumer.
Digital Reader : Adobe is Spying on Users, Collecting
Data on Their eBook Libraries
6th Oct 2014
