Watching the Watchers: Silverlight 4 Can Access Your Web Cam and Microphone

Silverlight has attracted little attention on Netflix Underground. Basically, some Netflix subscribers hate Silverlight, have loads of problems with it, wish they had never installed it, and are now stuck with it. There just was not much else to mention.

Now, however, a Netflix Undergrounder is claiming that Silverlight accessed his/her personal webcam and microphone without his/her knowledge. The subscriber claims Silverlight had a live image from his/her webcam, and he/she could view it simply by right-clicking and then selecting on a WebCam/Mic tab.

It is true Silverlight 4 has webcam and microphone support. That may be a nice feature, but it would be creepy to find out that Silverlight actively captures images and sounds from personal web cams and microphones by default.

Hopefully, some solid precautions have been taken to keep the private audio/visuals inaccessible to others, but a resourceful hacker might love to peek in on a person's private web cam just to snoop around and see who watches Netflix movies in their underwear. Nothing online is 100% hacker-proof, so this issue could raise some privacy concerns.

Certainly, this sort of functionality is addressed somewhere in Silverlight's terms of use or user agreement; however, given the massive potential for privacy violations, users should have to manually activate their web cams and microphones. Some people (the smart ones) do not want live audio/visual feeds being streamed from their homes over the Web.

Before anyone freaks out, please keep in mind this is just an accusation from one Netflix subscriber/Silverlight user, and this may just stem from a simple misunderstanding, oversight, or mistake; however, if it turns out to be true that Silverlight is automatically capturing webcam video and microphone audio, there is a concern that a serious breach of privacy has been made.

It must be noted that instructions at SilverlightShow indicate Silverlight 4 does have the capability to automatically detect webcams and microphones, but the same instructions also indicate users must grant Silverlight permission to access theses devices. As long as users are actually aware Silverlight is accessing their web cams and microphones and have a fair chance to allow or disallow access, everything is fine, and there is no cause for alarm.

Please check to see if Silverlight is accessing your webcam and microphone. If Silverlight is accessing your webcam and microphone without your consent, deactivate the access immediately and report the problem to Netflix and Microsoft. Please come back and share your findings here. Hopefully, this open web cam occurrence is just an isolated incident.

Netflix Is Outing You, Gay Communist Serial Killer

Wired is running an article by Ryan Singel about a privacy breech at Netflix and the resulting lawsuit: Doe v. Netflix. At issue is Netflix's intentional release of supposedly anonymous subscriber data to the public for a movie recommendations improvement contest. Concerned parties, however, are worried the data could be easily used to identify specific people by cross-referencing the data with other sources.

The primary concern is one's movie-watching habits and preferences could provide tremendously strong hints about one's sexual interests, religious beliefs, political affiliations, etc. For example, if you have rented Brokeback Mountain, Milk, and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert from Netflix, this data could potentially be used to indicate you have homosexual interests (whether you do or not). Perhaps you rented Lolita, The Lover, and Pretty Baby from Netflix. A nosey person might conclude you have an interest in underage girls. Maybe you rented movies about Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, David Berkowitz, etc. from Netflix. You might be identified as a person obsessed with serial killers. Perhaps you rented movies about Che Guevara, Chairman Mao, and Joseph Stalin from Netflix. You could be viewed as a person with Communist sympathies. The examples could go on and on.

Your movie-watching habits and preferences say a lot about you. What they say could be inaccurate, but they do say things. In the hands of a malicious person, your viewing data can be used to reveal all sorts of information about you. Whether these revelations are true or not, the information could be used to embarrass, harass, persecute, or investigate you.

If you are concerned that Netflix has compromised your privacy by releasing your personal movie-watching habits and preferences, consider contacting an attorney. At the very least, contact Netflix to find out what they are doing with your personal information. Make sure Netflix responds to you in writing. It is your information. You have a right to know. You have a right to hold Netflix accountable for this careless behavior.