The privacy loophole should be closed for isolated & individual privacy violations (like this specific case showed).
But should remain open for large scale privacy violations.
Thing is, you can't close this loophole entirely, because then there would be no incentive for the service providers to work in privacy controls into the product. I believe this loophole exists to address those service providers that are extremely lax in privacy and security. I can easily imagine a scenario where a provider has implemented privacy controls but a new bug / fault has been discovered and is being exploited by a wide group of people. Without this loophole, there would also be no incentive to fix this bug / fault in a timely (speedy) manner.
Problem was, that even though i thought i was using the microphone port, and was properly plugged into the microphone port. I was, in fact, not using it.
Why? Well, i was using a non-powered microphone, which the port didn't support, so when i was talking to people, they actually heard me via the internal microphone (not port) present in the laptop itself, complete with HDD and fan noise.
Once I borrowed a powered microphone from a buddy, the clarity shot through the roof, as the microphone i was talking into was actually being used.
Lesson learned. Lesson shared.
- Joakim
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by joakime.
Re: Programming
When thinking historically about Software patents, 3 come to mind that were non-obvious (at the time).
RSA - Patent 4,405,829
GIF - Patent 4,558,302 (actually a LZW patent)
MP3 - Patent 5,812,672
I view those 3 as the only legit software patents.
Privacy Provisions
The privacy loophole should be closed for isolated & individual privacy violations (like this specific case showed).
But should remain open for large scale privacy violations.
Thing is, you can't close this loophole entirely, because then there would be no incentive for the service providers to work in privacy controls into the product. I believe this loophole exists to address those service providers that are extremely lax in privacy and security. I can easily imagine a scenario where a provider has implemented privacy controls but a new bug / fault has been discovered and is being exploited by a wide group of people. Without this loophole, there would also be no incentive to fix this bug / fault in a timely (speedy) manner.
Bad Microphone Ports
I had this happen as well with skype.
Problem was, that even though i thought i was using the microphone port, and was properly plugged into the microphone port. I was, in fact, not using it.
Why? Well, i was using a non-powered microphone, which the port didn't support, so when i was talking to people, they actually heard me via the internal microphone (not port) present in the laptop itself, complete with HDD and fan noise.
Once I borrowed a powered microphone from a buddy, the clarity shot through the roof, as the microphone i was talking into was actually being used.
Lesson learned. Lesson shared.
- Joakim