Privacy bugs in RealOne player
Friday, January 25th, 2002Three things I hope get fixed in the new RealOne player before its official release:
1) Shared history among all XP users
Unlike other Windows XP applications, any audio or video streams one user looks at will show up in the player’s history menu when the next person logs in.
Besides the annoyance of having NPR run off your menu by the kids’ Linkin Park tunes, there’s an obvious bigger threat to domestic bliss: Does everyone else in the house know you what were watching last night? They will. 
2) Recurring credit card charges
RealOne’s home page says “Download Now - US $9.95″ on bright orange buttons, as does the next page for download (you’ll only see this on a PC - there’s no Mac version yet). Only later in the process does pale blue text explain the price is $9.95 per month.
You don’t have to be Jakob Nielsen to find this misleading. You can use the player for free (it’s required to listen to album previews on Amazon, for example) without supplying a credit card number for the premium content subscription, but this isn’t made clear, and requires end-running the onscreen process.
3) Pop-up ads, even when not using the player
After a day of RealOne instant-messaging me about all the subscription content I was missing, I was pining for the days of Office98’s little paper clip man. At least he was trying to help.
