Adobe Flash Player or Spyware/Trackingware !!! ? You Decide.

These are Extracts from the EULA for the new Flash Player.I'm not a lawyer so I can only understand some of what I've read.The impression I get is that Flash Player is a very cleaver tracking program that stores tracking info, on sites users haven't gone to yet, on the user's computer.Between FaceBook and Flash Player which one is the most intrusive?

14.4 Settings Manager. Use of the Web Players, specifically the Flash Player, will enable the Software to store certain user settings as a local shared object on a your Computer. These settings are not associated with you, but allow you to configure certain settings within the Flash Player. You can find more information on local shared objects at http://www.adobe.com/software/flashplayer/security/ and more information on the Settings Manager at www.adobe.com/go/settingsmanager

Tracking, use of cookies, web beacons and similar devices

In order to improve our Products and Services and the Site and provide more convenient, relevant experiences to our customers, we and our vendors may use "cookies", “web beacons”, and similar devices to track your activities. A cookie is small amount of data that is transferred to your browser by a web server and can only be read by the server that gave it to you. It functions as your identification card and enables Adobe to record your passwords, purchases, and preferences. It cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses. A web beacon is a small transparent gif image that is embedded in an HTML page or email used to track when the page or email has been viewed. A similar device may be used by which a Product and Service may send data to a server when a set of user-initiated events occur such as the “Add to Cart” button is clicked. This device is similar to a cookie in that it tracks your visit and the data can only be read by the server that receives the data. It is different than a cookie in that it is not browser-based, may not function as an identification card, and does not store any data on your computer.

While Adobe uses cookies and similar devices to track your use of the Site and the Products and Services, such as the number of downloads, types of Products and Services used and downloaded, how many users we receive daily, and our web servers automatically log the IP/Internet address of your computer, Adobe does not generally use this information to identify you personally. However, if you expressly provide consent for the Site or the Product and Service to "remember" the unique identifier that you select when you register for various activities on the Site or the Products and Services, that unique identifier will be stored on a cookie on your computer and that unique identifier will be linked to your Registration Information. As a result, your navigation path around the Site and the Products and Services will be tracked.

Adobe also hires other companies to place our banner ads on other websites and where they are permitted to perform tracking and reporting activities ("third-party advertisement servers"). Aside from IP addresses, they do not collect personally identifiable information in doing this work for us, and we do not give any personally identifiable information to them. Third-party advertisement servers are subject to their own privacy policies. Adobe may also allow other companies to display advertisements on certain pages of the Site or within the Products and Services. If you click on these advertisements these companies may place a persistent cookie on your computer which will allow them to contact you directly. It is our policy to require these companies to provide accessible methods for you to disable these cookies, and should you have any complaint about the practices of any of these companies you should contact privacy-officer@adobe.com.

What can I do with the Settings Manager?

Adobe is committed to providing you with options to control Flash content and Flash applications. The Adobe Flash Player Setti

Body [quote="dwr50"]These are Extracts from the EULA for the new Flash Player.I'm not a lawyer so I can only understand some of what I've read.The impression I get is that Flash Player is a very cleaver tracking program that stores tracking info, on sites users haven't gone to yet, on the user's computer.Between FaceBook and Flash Player which one is the most intrusive? 14.4 Settings Manager. Use of the Web Players, specifically the Flash Player, will enable the Software to store certain user settings as a local shared object on a your Computer. These settings are not associated with you, but allow you to configure certain settings within the Flash Player. You can find more information on local shared objects at http://www.adobe.com/software/flashplayer/security/ and more information on the Settings Manager at www.adobe.com/go/settingsmanager Tracking, use of cookies, web beacons and similar devices In order to improve our Products and Services and the Site and provide more convenient, relevant experiences to our customers, we and our vendors may use "cookies", “web beacons”, and similar devices to track your activities. A cookie is small amount of data that is transferred to your browser by a web server and can only be read by the server that gave it to you. It functions as your identification card and enables Adobe to record your passwords, purchases, and preferences. It cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses. A web beacon is a small transparent gif image that is embedded in an HTML page or email used to track when the page or email has been viewed. A similar device may be used by which a Product and Service may send data to a server when a set of user-initiated events occur such as the “Add to Cart” button is clicked. This device is similar to a cookie in that it tracks your visit and the data can only be read by the server that receives the data. It is different than a cookie in that it is not browser-based, may not function as an identification card, and does not store any data on your computer. While Adobe uses cookies and similar devices to track your use of the Site and the Products and Services, such as the number of downloads, types of Products and Services used and downloaded, how many users we receive daily, and our web servers automatically log the IP/Internet address of your computer, Adobe does not generally use this information to identify you personally. However, if you expressly provide consent for the Site or the Product and Service to "remember" the unique identifier that you select when you register for various activities on the Site or the Products and Services, that unique identifier will be stored on a cookie on your computer and that unique identifier will be linked to your Registration Information. As a result, your navigation path around the Site and the Products and Services will be tracked. Adobe also hires other companies to place our banner ads on other websites and where they are permitted to perform tracking and reporting activities ("third-party advertisement servers"). Aside from IP addresses, they do not collect personally identifiable information in doing this work for us, and we do not give any personally identifiable information to them. Third-party advertisement servers are subject to their own privacy policies. Adobe may also allow other companies to display advertisements on certain pages of the Site or within the Products and Services. If you click on these advertisements these companies may place a persistent cookie on your computer which will allow them to contact you directly. It is our policy to require these companies to provide accessible methods for you to disable these cookies, and should you have any complaint about the practices of any of these companies you should contact privacy-officer@adobe.com. What can I do with the Settings Manager? Adobe is committed to providing you with options to control Flash content and Flash applications. The Adobe Flash Player Setti[/quote]

Alert me when my forum post is replied to.

What can I do with the Settings Manager?

Adobe is committed to providing you with options to control Flash content and Flash applications. The Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager lets you manage global privacy settings, storage settings, security settings, and automatic notification settings by using the following panels:

* To specify whether websites must ask your permission before using your camera or microphone, you use the Global Privacy Settings panel.
* To specify the amount of disk space that websites you haven't yet visited can use to store information on your computer, or to prevent websites you haven't yet visited from storing information on your computer, you use the Global Storage Settings panel.
* To view or change your security settings, you use the Global Security Settings panel.
* To specify if and how often Flash Player should check for updated versions, you use the Global Notifications Settings panel.
* To view or change the privacy settings for websites you have already visited, you use the Website Privacy Settings panel.
* To view or change the storage settings for websites you have already visited, or to delete information that any or all websites have already stored on your computer, you use the Website Storage Settings panel.
**This should be added to the above post as it didn't fit in the original post.

Body [quote="dwr50"]What can I do with the Settings Manager? Adobe is committed to providing you with options to control Flash content and Flash applications. The Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager lets you manage global privacy settings, storage settings, security settings, and automatic notification settings by using the following panels: * To specify whether websites must ask your permission before using your camera or microphone, you use the Global Privacy Settings panel. * To specify the amount of disk space that websites you haven't yet visited can use to store information on your computer, or to prevent websites you haven't yet visited from storing information on your computer, you use the Global Storage Settings panel. * To view or change your security settings, you use the Global Security Settings panel. * To specify if and how often Flash Player should check for updated versions, you use the Global Notifications Settings panel. * To view or change the privacy settings for websites you have already visited, you use the Website Privacy Settings panel. * To view or change the storage settings for websites you have already visited, or to delete information that any or all websites have already stored on your computer, you use the Website Storage Settings panel. **This should be added to the above post as it didn't fit in the original post.[/quote]

Alert me when my forum post is replied to.