A few days ago, I bought a new personal minidisc player. I got it home, set it up, and installed the music management software that came with it.
After installing it, an icon was placed on my desktop that takes me straight to their product registration section. When I got there and read through the TOS, the following sections caught my eye:
Cookies and web beacons
Certain Sony websites may employ an industry-wide technology called “cookies”. These are small pieces of data that are placed on your hard disk drive when you access a website or a certain part of a website. Cookies help Sony understand which parts of its websites are the most popular, where Sony visitors are going, and how much time they spend there.
Sony uses cookies to study traffic patterns on its sites in order to improve website performance, to customise the user experience, and to better match the users’ interests and preferences. For example, Sony keeps track of the domains from which people visit, and also measures visitor activity on Sony websites. However, these tracking records are performed and maintained in ways that keep the data non-identifiable.
Cookies may also be used to recognise your computer next time you visit a website. This might save you time (e.g. by ensuring that you don not have to register again) or help you by customising your internet settings.
If you do not wish to accept cookies, they can be disabled by referring to your browser manufacturer’s instructions. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions. For example, in Internet Explorer, you can go to the Tools/Internet options/Security and Privacy Tabs to adapt the browser to your expectations.
Web beacons, also known as single pixel or clear gif technology, or action tags, may be used on our site. This technology show us which visitors clicked on key elements (such as links or graphics) on a Sony Web page or a Sony email. When you ask us to send you information on a promotion or a newsletter, we may use web beacons to establish which emails are actually opened. We use this information in order to optimise our content and services.
These Web beacons usually work in conjunction with cookies. If you don\'t want your cookie information to be associated with your visits to these pages, you can set your browser to turn off cookies. In Microsoft Outlook 2003 or similar, downloading of pictures can be turned off on a site by site bases.
I know what cookies are, and I\'ve heard a little about these so called web beacons, but I\'m not entirely sure what they constitute.
I did a search for them and a lot of shit about yahoo came up, most of it about them using web beacons to track emails and shit.
Like I said, I don\'t know how these things work, do they pose a security threat? How much info can they aquire by using these things? Is it in effect, a form of spyware, and should I continue with the product registration, or piss it off altogether?
