Month: February 2011

Slip-sliding away

Posted on by Inara Pey

Today, in theory, we should see something on policy relating to data mining in Second Life – or at least what amounts to being “private” data & how it can be used.

As reported last night, LL has changed the wording of the Section 4 of the Community Standards – but frankly, this is not enough.

zFire Xue himself is busily informing his followers that he is working on ways to – essentially – render the new CS null and void. While we do not know what, if any, conversations have been held between Mr. Xue and Linden Lab, it is clear from some of the posts on his own forum that he fails to grasp the precedent of formal consent over implied consent – in much the same way that those with statement in their Profiles relating to their ability to freely disseminate IM conversations fail to grasp this fundamental point. An example of this failure to comprehend comes in his statement that if people do not respond to a request for consent to be “background checked” then they “have given their consent” and the check will be enabled.

This is akin to saying that a vandal is entitled to kick the glass out of someone’s front door because they failed to answer it within 60 seconds of the bell being rung. The vandal may think it is OK – but the authorities are liable to inform him otherwise.

Elsewhere, Xue mob rail against the upcoming media patch that has been accepted into Phoenix, resulting in some vile and outright threatening posts being made – so much so that Jessica Lyons herself was prompted to step into the fray, thus:

“I guess it’s time to make a formal post here. While I may control the official position of the Phoenix Viewer Project on matters such as this, I do not control and would make no attempt to control the opinions of the members on this team. That is to say, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and EVERYONE has an opinion… Internally.. we have team members in favor of Rz, and team members against it… Those opinions do NOT reflect the official position of the Project as a whole.

“The official position of the Phoenix Viewer Project in regards to the Redzone matter, is neutral.. The project is not in favor of.. nor against Rz. There are valid arguments on both sides of this fence and we will not take sides.

“However, we as a team have discussed at great lengths and agreed that users should have the right to control what connections their viewer or computer make to the internet. Because of this, we have accepted and are currently improving a patch that was submitted to us which provides the user a partial url string to which they can allow or deny a connection.

“When a user enters a parcel that has a media url, and they have media enabled and the “Media Filter” option enabled, it will prompt the user before allowing the connection and say “The owner of this parcel has requested media at the following location to be loaded by your viewer”… The URL will be parsed beyond the domain, example… “http://sim4328.agni.lindenlab.com:……/…. php?…. /…. “

“We feel this implementation provides acceptable privacy for both the visitors and the stream owners by not giving out the full URL. The visitor can then choose to Allow, Deny, Black list, White list. This feature can be enabled or disabled completely by the user in media preferences. The black list and white list will be shipped empty.

“Now, while Redzone users may feel this feature is targeting Redzone.. and no amount of statement by me may change that opinion to which you are all entitled too.. I will again state the purpose of this feature for the record. “To provide the user the ‘Right’ to control what connections their viewer makes to the internet.” This is of course no different than the purpose of any firewall.”

[with thanks to Hitomi Tipomi]

And she is absolutely correct. The risks in leaving the Viewer in its “default” mode are legion when it comes to potential abuse through the media stream. As such, providing the user who opts to have media turned on with a media to review and accept incoming media streams is not “helping the copybotters and griefers” – not in the slightest. It is about protecting SL users and their computers. Period.

Henri Beauchamp also understands this, releasing as he does today an update to his Cool VL Viewer:

“Cool VL Viewer v1.25.0.23 (stable branch, Snowglobe v1.5-based)

“New in this release:

  • New MediaFilter patch: based on a patch by Sione Lomu, this (largely) reworked patch allows you to authorize or deny individual media and audio streams. See this message for full details.
  • Updated SLPluginAndMediaFixes patch: this new version fixes the internal web browser “cache” folder quirk which caused the latter to be written at the root of your filesystem (“/cache” in Linux, “c:\cache” in Windows). See this thread for details.
  • Updated ContextMenuTextEntry patch: this new version improves the context menu of input lines and text entries by greying out automatically unavailable actions in the menu (for example, disabling “Copy” when no text is selected).
  • Updated RevertUIchanges patch: changed to cope with the new MediaFilter patch.
  • Updated CoolPreferences patch: changed to implement the options related to the MediaFilter patch (in the “Miscellaneous” sub-tab of the “Cool features” tab: new checkbox and “Reset filters” button).
  • Updated CoolVLViewerBranding patch: Sione Lomu added to the contributors list.

“Enjoy ! “

[with thanks to Innula Zenovka for raising this.]

Doubtless, this will also make Henri a “supporter of griffers” (or “Greenzoners” as the term now appears to be).  All I can say is: kudos for him in giving his users the freedom of choice. I look forward to seeing more 1.x TPVs making the patch available and – hopefully – the coding being ported to 2.x TPVs.

Personally, I have media disabled on my computer – and I’ll continue to do so moving forward (although I might give the patch a try once it is available in a Phoenix release). Of course, admitting this doubtless confirms to Mr. Xue and his Crackerjack followers that I’m a “copybotter and griefer” (or indeed “griffer”, as they insist on spelling it).

The fact that I have media disabled because a) I simply do not and almost never have watch a video stream in-world (other than just after my return to SL), and therefore never have had media streaming turned on; and b) I actually prefer having my own music playing over the stereo while in-world, as 98% of “music” played in stores usually gives me a dose of the screaming heebee geebees; is something that Xue et al will not accept as being my right.

But then, it is more fitting for these people to adopt the mob mentality and loudly proclaim that anyone with media turned off does so “because they have something to hide”, because the right of the user to make a choice in what they do and how they go about their Second Life is precisely what Xue and his Crackerjack crowd want to try and prevent. Not because it means that those using RedZone will no longer be able to “protect” their stores and business (RedZone is already an abject failure in this regard, so ’nuff said). No. The reason that Xue’s Crackerjack followers don’t like the idea of you and I exercising our right of choice as to what goes on in relation to our in-world experience is because it ruins their immature sense of entitlement that they have the right to “police” the Grid and determine who is who and who can go where.

And this remains the core issue with this tool in particular – as zFire’s continued talk of circumventing the revised Community Standards most ably demonstrates – the ability of a minority to attempt to hold sway over the majority and consider themselves somehow above the ToS and CS.

However, there is an old truism about hanging and giving someone sufficient rope. Given the noises being made within LL as regards privacy – from the likes of Rod Humble and Mitch Kapor (who recently tweeted “The more I learn, the more I see how the whole biz side of social networking is built on surreptitiously stealing personal data” – I’m hoping that the truism applies in the case of Mr. Xue and his self-supposed immunity from the revised CS.

Addendum Feb 26th

It would seem that zFire Xue is determined to hang himself. With speculation continuing to run as to the future of RedZone and the potential for it to be banned from SL, he responds with pure (and exceptionally stupid) thug-like threats.

Note the highlighted portion. The thuggish attitude here is clear: he’s threatening to “out” the data he’s gathered; he’s trying to bully Linden Lab and he’s attempting to stifle legitimate concerns about his product (although this last point, to be fair, has always been his tactic and so comes under the “nothing new here” category).

Perhaps he actually realised he was giving away too much as to his intentions, as this reply was later re-edited into something far milder and with the threats removed – and can be seen on his forum in this latter format:

Sadly for xFire, however, the original reply – and his intentions – are now a matter of public record, thanks to Innula Zenovka, who captured the original in a screen shot prior to posting it over at SLU, – and to others who have since circulated it for broader consideration up to and including posting a copy on the JIRA related to this issue.

What was I saying earlier about the old hanging, rope, and man truism? zFire, meet rope.

 

Nailing the data harvesters (2): LL make a move

Posted on by Inara Pey

It seems LL have made a move to clamp down on tools like RedZone.

Until today, Section 4 of the Community Standards read:

“Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Life experience. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident –including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident’s privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.”

However, this has now been revised to read:

“Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Life experience. Sharing personal information about your fellow Residents without their consent — including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, alternate account names, and real-world location beyond what is provided by them in their Resident profile — is not allowed. Remotely monitoring conversations in Second Life, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without the participants’ consent are all prohibited.”

[my emphasis]

Thus, at a stroke, the surreptitious ability of RedZone to gather information on SL users without their knowledge, much less consent is rendered void – or is it?

It’s not quite time to proclaim victory as yet. While the change to Section 4 of the CS is indeed welcome, it does not go far enough: sharing information that can be regarded as personal may not “not be allowed” – what about gathering of said information?

There is also the matter of in-store scanners (note that on his own blog zFire only comments on his nasty little (and purely voyeuristic) HUD as being updated to request people allow it to scan them).

The playing field has shifted, certainly – but, depending on what policy announcement is forthcoming from LL tomorrow – it seems that it may not have shifted enough.

Right now, the rule of thumb would be to keep your media tools disabled – at least for the time being.

ADDENDUM – Feb 25th

Thanks to Theia Magic’s investigations, it now appears that the RedZone in-world scanners give you a link to follow to the RedZone website in order to “give your consent” to be “background checked”.

This being the case, I’d advise people to keep media disabled and to stay away from the RedZone website – especially if following links using your own web browser,  rather than the built-in Viewer browser. Visiting that website is giving a clear indication that you’re OK with data being captured and – potentially – a cookie being deposited on your computer – even if you’re attempting to “opt out” of your information being captured!

The website is further confusing inasmuch as only those already scanned need to “opt out”. Despite the claims of zFire Xue, RedZone’s creator, those scanned / placed on the database are liable to be in the minority – therefore this approach could fool people into exposing themselves where there is no need for them to do so.

Beyond this, the solutions currently being offered up by zFire Xue relate purely to having your details (if any) “checked” on his database – they do nothing to prevent any actual scanning by his in-world items in the first place.

So – simplest solution: keep your media options disabled and remember there are a lot more stores you can shop at / clubs you can dance at that don’t use RedZone than there are stores that do use it.

Viewer 2 – one year on

Posted on by Inara Pey

One year ago today Linden Lab finally launched Viewer 2. I say “finally” because the project was originally called “Viewer 2009”, and was running several months late to warrant that name; however, the more accurate definition might have been “prematurely”.

Reactions to the launch announcement were fairly mixed. Leaving aside the fact that generally, people don’t react well to change and all bar the freshest of new users were very, very grounded in Viewer 1.x – so Viewer 2 was going to have an uphill battle to start with, no matter what functionality it offered – it was fairly clear there were issues with the Viewer. Issues that went beyond people’s personal likes / dislikes in terms of UI; things simply didn’t work – and basic things at that. Worse, some decisions had been made concerning the interface that made common tasks a lot more obscure – such as the lack of any CREATE option in the initial Context menus, as well a terms – such as APPEARANCE –  meaning different things depending on where you encountered them within the Viewer. There were other issues as well – basic usability issue that should have been more comprehensively considered prior to simply springing the Viewer on an unsuspecting audience, as I commented on at the time.

The biggest criticism concerning Viewer 2 – other than it apparently having been developed by people who spent very little time actively in-world – was no so much that it wasn’t ready for prime time (it was in fairness launched as a “beta”, and therefore was expected to have rough edges), but rather that for a time it appeared as if Linden Lab were not prepared to accept any form of criticism for the major faults within the Viewer, be they technical or with usability. For example, repeated complaints concerning the way the Sidebar both violently interfered with the world view and took up far too much screen real estate were ignored until well after Kristenlee Cinquetti’s S20 hybrid demonstrated just how easy it would be to make this feature both less intrusive and less jarring on the eye.

Beyond this there were security issues with the Viewer raised from day one relating to media usage which are – even now – entirely unresolved. And while it is true to say these vulnerabilities existed in Viewer 1.x – the situation with Viewer 2 is a lot worse, given the way the Viewer has been set-up to enable shared media and the like. Indeed, these issues are currently the focus of much concern among the user community because of the way they are being abused – and rightly so – and that LL apparently considered and dismissed them from the outset in their desire to push ahead with media sharing within the Viewer, has always been something of a bone of contention.

Indeed, such is the situation at the moment that these issues look set to overshadow any celebrations around the launch of Viewer 2. In some respects a shame because – to be fair – it cannot be denied that in many areas, the five iterations we’ve had with the Viewer since its launch have seen significant improvements made on many fronts, such that many early negative issues with the Viewer have (however grudgingly on the part of LL) now been eradicated.

Speaking as one who has taken the time to get to know Viewer 2 through its various iterations, I do appreciate the effort that has been put into it since the premature launch a year ago. However: and here’s the rub – it is still not a Viewer I will use full-time.

This is not because I refuse to learn the new interface – far from it, or that I simply “hate” the Sidebar. I’ve learned the essentials of using Viewer 2 by spending time with with it, with Kirstenlee’s S20 and S21 and with Firestorm; so actually finding my way around the Viewer isn’t an issue: I actually have no preference for pie menus over context menus (both work fine for me) or anything else of this ilk.

No, the reason I won’t use Viewer 2 is that compared to the likes of Kirstenlee’s hybrids and even the “pre-alpha” Firestorm, and despite the improvements made, it is still far too incongruous and intrusive; rather than form a part of my world-view, it remains something that sits between me and whatever I’m, and making its presence felt, rather than remaining largely invisible to me.

Oddly, this is something I don’t find so much with Viewer 2 TPVs like Kirstenlee’s and Firestorm, both of which – while resembling Viewer 2 – offer a flexibility in use that far exceeds anything seen within either Viewer 2 or Viewer 1.x. In this, the developers have shown themselves to be far more responsive to user feedback than Linden Lab has demonstrated in a very long time.

Beyond this, there is the question of information security. The Client Detection System farrago is not going to go away; and while it is true that the answer does not only reside in a technical solution – we need, as has been stated previously a policy to resolve these issues once and for all – the fact remains that it is through technical approach that people are going to feel more comfortable. As reported, one solution is already on its way. As such, the first Viewer 2 TPV that can offer the same options and capabilities is going to gain my support and adoption at least until Linden Lab demonstrate that user privacy is a genuine matter of concern for them, and provide similar technical capabilities as well as a decent policy on these matters.

Doubtless, there will be other issues along the way that will affect things like security and privacy. But as long as Linden Lab respond to them be either going entirely dark (rather than even give a simple, “We hear your concerns, and we are looking into things and will get back to you”), or by becoming somewhat hostile towards concerns (such as by threatening to revoke JIRA privileges), I will always sway towards a Viewer that, when combined with my own common sense, will help me minimise my exposure to situations where people opt to exploit the Viewer code for their own questionable ends.

And, I rather suspect, such matters will cut to the overall take-up of Viewer 2 compared to TPVs as Viewer 1.x code is wound down and deprecated.

“Great company, but….”

Posted on by Inara Pey

We’ve all had our views on Linden Lab. Some have been favourable, some haven’t. Some have blamed specific people, some have blamed the culture. Most have felt the company was suffering bumhand syndrome (that’s where you can find your bum with one hand but never with the other).

But… have you ever wondered what Linden employees, past and present, felt about the company? Well – here’s your chance.

(With thanks to Daniel Voyager for raising awareness.)

RedZone HUD users don’t like being called out

Posted on by Inara Pey

I’ve already referred to a recent thread (still available as read-only) dealing with more on the subject of RedZone.

In this thread, the OP became rather abusive towards those putting up valid arguments against RedZone, culminating in the following post:

“Nooo Ann.. what i’m sayiing, is IF you haved a legitmate gripe, is there are ways that LL can help You solve your problem. i invcluded the inks to help You.

“What i’m saying is this. Yes.. we desrerve  a way to protect ourselsve. this is a prime example.

“LL offers many ways to deter this behavior.

“if ALL else fails. yes.. get redzone,, wear the HUd.. and feel safe once again.”

(page 6, forum page view).

Now, given the RedZone HUD is a tool that allowed the wearer to surreptitiously sim-hop and gather data on other avatars therein, I couldn’t help but respond with a cheeky:

“if ALL else fails. yes.. get redzone,, wear the HUd.. and violate the ToS by travelling from sim-to-sim, gathering data on others without their consent

FIFY!”

And guess what? Someone abuse reported me!

It seems that despite the 18+ language employed by both the OP and other in the thread (remembering that forums are supposed to be PG/G in both subject and content, and can be read by under-18s)…my little comment was the one that was reported to the moderators – and subsequently removed!

Now, I don’t for a minute believe the OP herself went to this much trouble – but it would seem that someone, somewhere has a major insecurity complex when it comes to having the nasty little tool they use / their dirty raincoat-like voyeurism being (again) outed.

Sadly, no express reason for the removal of the comment has been given by Linden Lab. I’m guessing the comment was hung on a technicality surrounding “violate the ToS”. Even so – that people are prepared to go this far in an attempt to whitewash this product and its uses again causes me to ask this question of all genuine store owners in Second Life:

Do you really want your store, your products, your reputation identified with the kind of people who engage in this kind of activity, and who go to the greatest of lengths to try and hide their immature, voyeuristic needs? Is using a tool that cannot provide you with anything other than a wrinkled comfort blanket, and which is coveted by the kind of idiocy routinely seen on the creator’s own forums really the way to promote your hard work?

The RedZone Challenge

Posted on by Inara Pey

The very good Lord of Dee (Ciaran Laval) throws down a challenge to those who are convinced RedZone is an ethical tool – and I’d like to join hands with him in this challenge.

Here’s what he says:

“…for those who feel Redzone is an ethical tool, aimed solely at reducing the risk of grieifng and copybotting, I challenge them to do the ethical thing here and set aside a landing point that fully informs potential visitors and customers of their sims and stores of exactly what will happen with their data once they enter a Redzone enabled parcel.”

Indeed, not only do I join him in laying out this challenge to users of RedZone – I extend it to anyone still using Gemini CDS or using any other static tool that operates under the same principles / methods.

There is no harm in being honest with those who are giving you their custom / visiting your land, and if you are as honest as you purport to be, this little extra step into transparency with your customers / visitors will do your reputation no harm at all.

Anyone willing to step up to the plate?