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June 24, 2004

"Big Brother" Xten Networks is WATCHING you...

One thing that I learned while I was at Supercomm was that each time someone launches their XTen FWD Client, Xten Networks gets a data notification of the event and they have an ability to track on a real-time basis every one of their mutual customers around the world.

This was news to me and while on one hand it is pretty cool that this is possible, I had no idea that the FWD population that choose to use the Xten softphone was being "tracked" by the software publisher.

I wonder how many other software/hardware vendors are tracking the use of their products/services on a real-time basis.

Posted by jeff on June 24, 2004 08:01 AM | Permalink

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Comments

Erik,

I'll second the request to know where Xten is disclosing this in your privacy policy or terms. I haven't been able to locate such a disclosure on your website.

I'm assuming your lawyers told you that what you're doing is illegal in most EU countries becuase you are not specifically asking the end user to permit sending this information.

- Daniel

Posted by: Daniel P at June 25, 2004 05:26 PM

Shouldn't there be a way to shut this reporting feature off? I wouldn't like it to have my IP phone report each time to a server each time I make a phone call and have my IP address stamped on it..

Could you also show me where in your license or documentation that shows your software does this?? It's one of the things that's making me use my hardware phone more than X-PRO.

Steve

Posted by: Steve at June 25, 2004 02:01 PM

Erik,

The first time it's run PER DAY or the first time it's run EVER?

Please provide the URL to your privacy policy which states that you are collecting this data.

Joey

Posted by: Joey Stanford at June 25, 2004 12:14 AM

Hi Jeff,

I thought I would chime in here and make sure that your readers understand that we are not data mining. We do this for accounting purposes only. We need to know how many active endpoints we have in the market not only for our purposes but also for our customers.

Here is the data we extract the first time a call is made or received:

- Date and time the call was first made
- The license key
- Software version number and build stamp
- NAT IP Address

This only happens one time when the Xten SIP softphone is first run.

Cheers,
Erik

Posted by: Erik Lagerway at June 24, 2004 01:57 PM