Can default P2P settings break the law? US says yes

[nsane.forums]

So simple!

The Federal Trade Commission has decided that certain default software settings can violate the law against “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” The agency recently went after the peer-to-peer filesharing program FrostWire for sharing too many user files by default, something that could easily lead to identity theft, copyright infringement, and the loss of “intimate photographs.” That's right: the federal government now goes to court to protect the privacy of your nude smartphone pics.

FrostWire settled the charges today and agreed to numerous changes to its default settings. It will also push a patch to change settings for current users.

FrostWire is file-sharing software created from a fork of the open-source LimeWire code. With LimeWire now shuttered by court order, FrostWire has proven popular, but the FTC argues that both its mobile and desktop versions deceive users and share far too much information. With FrostWire for Android smartphones, the default installation automatically shares pictures, video, documents, and music files on the device—including existing, user-generated photos from the built-in camera or user documents copied from a desktop computer running Frostwire Desktop.

Once shared, the mobile app made it difficult to un-share categories of files. The FTC complaint provides an example:

A consumer with 200 photos on her mobile device who installed the application with the intent of sharing only 10 of those photos first had to designate all 200 photos in the “Picture” category as shared, and then affirmatively unshare each of the 190 photos that she wished to keep private. She also needed to remember, when next running the application, to unshare the category or individually unshare any new photos she might have taken in the meantime in order to keep the new photos private. Nothing in the FrostWire for Android installation and setup process, or the application's user interface, adequately informed consumers that the application operated in this manner.

The agency charged that this approach could lead to the loss of voice recordings made on the phone or “intimate photographs” taken with the phone. It might also lead people to unintentionally share copyrighted material, or lose personal documents that could increase the risk of identity theft.

FrostWire's desktop\Android integration

But was this level of default sharing actually illegal? The FTC argues that the process was so confusing and opaque to most users that they would "unwittingly" share information, and that there were no "countervailing benefits to consumers or competition" from this sharing.

It also claimed that the defaults ran "counter to standard software development guidance, and counter to established practices in the development of file-sharing applications.” As for the FrostWire desktop program, the agency pointed to numerous confusing situations in which downloaded files were automatically shared over the network, even when saved to a folder that itself was not shared.

FrostWire manager Angel Leon has agreed to make changes to his programs. Defaults will be altered, sharing will be explained more clearly, and updates will be pushed out to existing users. With the Android app, for instance, Leon is required to update the code so that it "designates all previously shared files on those computers not to be shared by the application unless consumers using those computers affirmatively select them to be shared.

Further reading

• Complaint (ftc.gov)
  
• Settlement (ftc.gov)
  

View: Original Article

[myidisbb]

frnakly is the stupid witch is giong to use an p2p app on a smartphone its her own stupid fault.

awww admins or mods. where is the edit button? anyway just rmemeber a guy at work a year ago sent all his photos from his smartphone to his facebook. load behold had nudes of him and his wife. they realized it i was told after 10 minutes. though as usually the facebook freaks (people that sit and look at facebook all day) notices :P on their friend list.

[DKT27]

awww admins or mods. where is the edit button?

The edit button is floating next (left hand side) to MultiQuote and Quote buttons. Properly visible when you hover over them. :)

[DKT27]

“Going BitTorrent” Settles FrostWire’s FTC Charges

The popular file-sharing application FrostWire has settled its dispute with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC accused FrostWire of disregarding the privacy of its users, by not making it clear enough that their files are publicly shared when downloads are finished. By turning FrostWire into a BitTorrent-only client the company was able to swiftly settle the charges and avoid a lengthy court battle.

To those who are not that tech-savvy, file-sharing applications that share all files by default can pose a threat.

This is one of the main reasons why the FTC filed a complaint against FrostWire at a federal court. The government agency, which aims to protect the rights of consumers, alleged that FrostWire was disregarding users’ privacy by sharing files by default.

Although some companies might view a looming lawsuit by the FTC as a massive problem, the FrostWire team approached the court case in a rather pragmatic way. The commission first contacted FrostWire in May, and by the end of the month the company had already delivered a version complying with the majority of the proposed changes.

“We are software people, and saw this as a bug fix that happened to be reported by the FTC,” FrostWire’s Angel Leon told TorrentFreak.

“Nobody as far as we know ever complained for having finished downloads shared by default, to us it was a given of P2P, but now we feel better that users are in full control of what’s being shared.”

FrostWire users could always prevent automatic sharing in just a click or two, but the FrostWire team understood the issues brought up by the FTC and quickly took action. By leaving Gnutella – which was little more than a spam farm after LimeWire shut down – FrostWire decided to become a BitTorrent-only client.

“We actually made our software compliant by making the allegations irrelevant once we dropped Gnutella. Now there’s no concept of ‘shared folders’ anymore and it’s pretty clear where all files are saved, and if the user is seeding or not,” Leon said.

FrostWire sees the FTC intervention as one of the most helpful bug reports in the company’s history.

“Thanks to this whole ordeal we made our application a lot better. In a matter of a couple of weeks, we had the last version of FrostWire 4.21.x fully compliant with the order, and then we just made the decision to go 100% with BitTorrent,” Leon says.

“With BitTorrent we feel that our users’ privacy is better protected than when we had Gnutella, and now they’re certainly immune to spam search results.”

Aside from the desktop application, FrostWire also has an Android app that runs on a separate file-sharing network developed by the company. For this mobile application the company changed the default settings so users have to opt-in before they share something.

As a result, the number of shared files dropped dramatically, so FrostWire will soon turn the Android application into a BitTorrent client as well. The source of this new client will be released under a GPL license as soon as the first version comes out.

Overall both the FTC and FrostWire are happy with how things worked out. Consumers on the other hand benefit from the relative privacy of BitTorrent, where no shared folders exist.

View: Original Article