RealEmbarrassed

Only a few days ago, RealNetworks Inc. was threatening to sue security researcher Steve Gibson. Gibson discovered that RealDownload was sending a "global unique identifier" that could be used to log specific user behaviors whenever the software was used to acquire certain types of files from the Web. Now, however, RealNetworks Inc. has admitted that its download software, also licensed to Netscape, accidentally sent the identifying information. The company says that the data was never used. RealNetworks says it is fixing the problem and will issue a repaired version of the program by this weekend. Last year, RealNetworks was similarly embarrassed when its RealJukeBox was proven to leak user information.

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