RealNetworks to Stop Tracking Users’ Tastes

The company that produces a popular software program for listening to music on computers apologized to users for secretly collecting details about music preferences of its customers. RealNetworks Inc. of Seattle said it will distribute a patch for customers of its free “RealJukebox” software to block the tracking technology. More than 12 million people use the software, among the most popular programs for listening to CDs and digital music on the Internet. A security expert, Richard M. Smith of Brookline, Mass., found that the software secretly transmitted to the company’s headquarters details about which music CDs each customer listens to and how many songs he or she copies, along with a serial number that could be used to identify him or her. RealNetworks said it never stored the information, which would have been lucrative for marketing purposes. Privacy groups had expressed outrage that RealNetworks never disclosed its practices. in the privacy statement on its Web site or in the software’s license. The corrective patch can be downloaded from the company’s Internet site and will be built into future versions of the software.