Emerald Viewer began a crusade against privacy rights of Second Life users last week with the launch of its latest version. The rather harmless previous features which included bouncing breasts have been eclipsed by this latest version which allows users to see who has allowed map rights, and crucially, who has denied the right to see them online.
Not being able to see somebody online was a feature introduced by Linden Lab a few years ago, as the community rapidly grew. In the past, anybody on your friend’s list could see you online and had map rights to see where on the grid you were.
The added privacy function which allowed a user to appear online or offline to particular people allowed many to live a quieter or simpler Second Life. It would allow designers to work without distraction where busy mode doesn’t keep people from trying to find you.
This privacy has now been shattered by the release of the latest Emerald Viewer, which has caused grief amongst residents. Finding out someone on your friends list doesn’t want you to know they’re online (regardless of motives behind it) leads to everything from silent rage to full-on confrontation to simply just deleting the “friend”. Additionally, the viewer has also alerted you as to who has viewed your profile.
This latest release of Emerald has done nothing but undermine the privacy within Second Life, and yet again raises the question of what other information can be integrated into the SL viewer that may breach other users’ privacy.
How long before granting map rights is obsolete and you can view where any of your contacts are on the grid? How long before your recently visited sims are revealed in your profile? How long before no longer feel like you have no freedom in Second Life?
The latest version of Emerald viewer includes breaches of privacy which could potentially kickstart an assault on the Second Life users’ freedom within the grid, and it’s worrying to think of the consequences of what the creators of this viewer may have begun.
And then there’s what you find under the bonnet. Emerald viewer’s Privacy Policy states that the viewer places a cookie on your computer that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. Precisely why Emerald Viewer needs to know what websites I’ve been looking at is totally beyond me, and I’m interested as to why they might have reason for doing so.
zigadena gabardini on February 26, 2010
PITY..I like it a lot..not so sure any more
Danny Dwyer on February 26, 2010
Last paragraph brings out the smoking gun I most feared about the emerald viewer, that it compromises my computers security.
A viewer that places a cookie on your computer that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information is something hackers and griefers would find useful to attack someone’s computer with a trojan virus. Emerald should be banned. Period.
Misty Harley on February 26, 2010
before anyone gets up in arms about Emerald….the actual SL viewer does the Same Exact Thing re: gathering data. You can read more about how they collect data and use cookies here: http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php?lang=en-US#priv1
# We collect personal information and usage statistics to maintain a high-quality customer experience and deliver superior customer service.
# Some information we request directly from you during registration. Other pieces of data are gathered indirectly from website traffic, your computer hardware and Internet connection, or Second Life usage.
Just though I would point that out since it’s not something unique to Emerald by any means, and what is listed on their forum and you can read more about their privacy policy, etc here: http://modularsystems.sl/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=39
We collect information from you when you register on our site or respond to a survey.
Any data we request that is not required will be specified as voluntary or optional.
When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your name or e-mail address. You may, however, visit our site anonymously.
Like most websites, we use cookies to enhance your experience, gather general visitor information, and track visits to our website. Please refer to the ‘do we use cookies?’ section below for information about cookies and how we use them.
Nika Dreamscape on February 27, 2010
The difference is, I TRUST Linden Labs as a registered company of business professionals who have been around for many years.
I don’t trust a handful of teenagers that we don’t know.
Lilly on April 20, 2010
The author of the article has requested that a full avatar name and email address, and then proof of the allegations are provided before this comment is published.#
-Pending-
aloha on February 27, 2010
The ability to see who is hiding from you is not a new emerald feature, it’ll been around for a few versions. It just wasnt as easy to find. Also, it’s a hud you can buy that shows you who looks at your profile, thats not an emerald feature.
New Emerald Anti-Privacy – Discussion, Poll & Feedback « Vamp's SL Overstuffed Inventory on February 27, 2010
[...] http://blog.pradprathivi.com/2010/02/26/is-emerald-viewer-anti-privacy/ [...]
Kymee on February 27, 2010
Emerald is well know by most as a ‘stalkers tool’ It has for a very long time allowed your avi key code to be seen, your avi to be seen from extreme distances and so much more. Why Linden Labs has allowed these things I will never understand. Add to that that the viewer is ‘open coding’ which allows anyone with knowledge to alter, add viruses etc, leaves me baffled that anyone would even risk using it. All this existing BEFORE a cookie issue.
As much as many are worried about their real life privacy, I am just as concerned about my sl privacy. Not because I am up to anything. But because I had seen another assaulted on his won property, secured property, and it could be done because the avi uses Emerald.
So while this latest is disturbing, I have always been disturbed knowing people use this viewer.
Kymee on February 27, 2010
“before anyone gets up in arms about Emerald….the actual SL viewer does the Same Exact Thing re: gathering data. You can read more about how they collect data and use cookies here: http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php?lang=en-US#priv1
Read more: http://blog.pradprathivi.com/2010/02/26/is-emerald-viewer-anti-privacy/comment-page-1/#comment-5320#ixzz0gijWMKDb”
I assume people expect Linden Labs to collect data. I don’t think they expect a third party viewer too.
Kean Kelly on February 27, 2010
To know wheter or not anohter ‘friend’ was online or not, and compare that to you friends list data, has allways been possible. LL has chosent to code it that way. All you needed to do was to IM your offline friends. This is not a new thing.
Now it is just more available, meaning not only ‘the pros’ can figure this out. I do think it’s nicer with a more tranparent and honest viewer though, than having the fake feeling of privacy.
Concerned on February 27, 2010
The cookie they use isn’t for identifying your computer or browser on other sites, they only use a SINGLE cookie, and it is ONLY used to record a preference for the login screen, that is, it records whether or not you want to see background images, then stores that information in a cookie for the next time the page loads.
Itazura Radio on February 28, 2010
The problem is what Emerald does is essentially take holes in the code that have always been there and build them into a viewer so it makes it easier for everyone to exploit. The builders of Emerald put in features for the most part just because they can without ever really asking if they should. Some features like “bouncing boobies” are somewhat harmless (if degrading to women) but others have significant ramifications. The ability to hide your online status was built in for a reason. LL recognized this as something reasonable that most people wanted for their privacy.
The Emerald devs put in a feature to circumvent it for a reason too… because they think it’s a ‘cool’ feature and screw your privacy. Modular Systems likes to talk a lot about privacy, especially when defending things like OTR chat that encrypts your IMs so Linden Lab cannot read them (which is enabled in Emerald by default). That’s not surprising since many of their crew come from or are tied to the griefer ranks of Woodbury and naturally will defend to the death their right to hide any evidence against them from the eyes of LL.
Modular loves that more people are using their hacked viewer with all it’s features that give people the ability to do things they really shouldn’t. Just think how much of a boon OTR has been to everyone from casual griefers to copybotters to ageplayers. And how nice it is that you can make a new alt with a new spoofed IP and everything in a minute or two and go right back to what you were doing that got you banned in the first place.
Sure, you could always do those things before Emerald if you knew how. But most people didn’t. And with a viewer that gives you those tools at your fingertips now any old half-baked yahoo can do it. The more that do the more it strains the ability of LL to police the grid. More mayhem = good for griefers in general. You know those times when you make an abuse report and nothing happens? Do you know why? Because that kid who just told you he was 12 did so in an encrypted IM and LL can’t read it. Either that or they are too busy looking at the 100 other reports just like it they can’t do anything about for the same reason. Or they actually did ban him and he just made a new alt and even though your reported him again they can’t trace it back to the first one.
The truth is that the guys behind Emerald don’t give a lick about anyone’s privacy but their own. They know who you are but you don’t know who they are and they like it that way. It’ll be interesting to see if LL requires everyone on a 3rd Party Viewer’s dev team to have clean records and disclose real identities. If so, it’ll be a cold day in hell before Emerald qualifies unless they fire a good portion of their ‘team’. I just hope the Lindens finally grow a pair and stick to their guns on this one and don’t cave. I doubt they will, but maybe they will surprise me for once.
The fact is this is what happens when you let the anonymous hackers with the moral scruples of hamsters code your viewers for you. They create viewers that play to the baser instincts of humanity rather than the nobler ones. When that happens the social fabric of the virtual community starts to break down. That’s the last thing LL wants. Modular? I doubt they care. And considering their ties to Woodbury I suspect they would be more likely to dance around the funeral pyre.
So if you’re on Emerald now my best advice is to dump it, erase it from your hard drive, and change all your passwords. And to everyone who wants to tell me about all the nice features it has my response is, “Yeah… well, the Nazis made some damn fine roads. It still doesn’t make up for the other thing.”
Prad Prathivi on February 28, 2010
You were doing really well there, but invoking Godwin’s Law let you down.
Itazura Radio on March 1, 2010
I guess that last statement needs clarifying. I was running out of time when I posted it.
I’m not comparing Modular Systems to Nazis. I’m comparing the people who laud Emerald as the greatest thing since sliced bread to those of us who allowed Nazis to exist and rise to power. It’s not difficult to find examples in history where society has chosen to turn a blind eye to something glaringly ugly because we liked the things that benefited us in some way. Only in retrospect do we later recognize the true cost of what we’ve done.
I could have said the same thing about American slavery, extermination of Native Americans, British colonialism, child labor, Jim Crow laws, Japanese internment camps… how about deregulation of the US banking system? Would that have been better? Pick any time in history when otherwise moral and intelligent people ignored the corrosive influence of something and allowed it to exist out of a petty desire to keep the parts of it that directly benefit themselves and you have the core of what I’m comparing this to.
I’m referring to us… not them. The people behind Emerald may be asshats, but they can’t be directly compared to Nazis any more than they can be directly compared to southern plantation owners or to executives of Goldman Sachs. Those of us who blissfully ignore the warning signs however, CAN be compared to those did the same thing then for the same reasons we do so now. We like our shiny baubles too much.
“Godwin’s Law” doesn’t mean than any analogy that involves Hitler or the Nazis is inherently false because of it. Godwin only argues that overuse should be avoided because is detracts from valid comparisons. This case IS a valid comparison. If Godwin’s Law let me down it’s because too many rednecks with Obama posters sporting a Hitler mustache have let us all down to the point we read anything referencing the Third Reich and instantly stop listening.
JKL on March 2, 2010
Quite simply, no.
Anyone with a modicum of LSL scripting ability in Second Life can hash something together that will allow them to track the online status of an avatar, if you have no scripting ability it takes all of a few moments to search for something you can purchase which will perform the same function.
Consider also that anyone with half a brain can simply join a group they know someone is in and check the listings to see when an avatar was last online, or if they are online. The functionality there is broken by good old Linden Lab whom you thank for introducing the broken feature, not some shadowy figures with a grand conspiracy to infringe upon your privacy via a third party viewer.
Checking who allows you to map to them is simplicity in itself in a standard viewer as well. Here’s how: Search for the person you wish to ‘stalk’ and open their profile, then check if “Find on Map” is greyed out. Is it? Hard luck. If not and it’s highlighted, drop in on them and hope to catch them in a compromising situation! With some luck they’ll start a misinformed blog to rant at Linden Lab for conspiring to invade their privacy with features they chose not to investigate and understand, it’s quite the same as what you’re writing about the Emerald Viewer.
You point out that Emerald alerts users to someone viewing their profile but on this point you are badly misinformed, it was never a feature. There was a bug that was caused by the Emerald viewer not using a random channel to report the information to the Bridge attachment. An unscrupulous individual developed a LSL scripted HUD to capture the information and display it, but it was quickly nixed by the responsive dev team and a system of random channel communications was implemented instead, meaning anyone with an updated Emerald Viewer is not at risk.
Compare this to the Labs’ response times on bug reports and you’ll start to see why people are switching to a greener outlook.
Cookies, who doesn’t love them? Although in the digital form and in this case it’s only used to store information about a few preferences used on the login page which have nothing to do with your connection to the Linden run servers, as pointed out by ‘Concerned’ above. I sincerely doubt that the Modular Systems team have any desire to track your browsing habits. Plus as outlined in their privacy policy, the information is NOT shared with any third parties outside of those listed, and only then in the cookies used on the Modular Systems website, not those relating to your viewer.
The rest of your post is mostly sensationalist drivel of the sort I’d expect to find on Fox News, please Prad, have a bit of journalistic integrity if you’re going to make an effort to report on what you feel to be a shocking breach of privacy. Oh, and phrasing the title as a question then proceeding to hold bias for the entire article is a bit of a faux pas, provide the information from an impartial viewpoint and allow the reader to make up their own mind if you wish to be taken seriously.
Before you claim I’m biased, yes I do use Emerald, I’m quite happy with it as I’m certain it’s secure, the MD5 checksums on the site compare up just fine to a compiled version and multiple independent coders have verified the source code. In my time here I’ve used Nicholaz Beresford’s viewer, Henry’s CoolViewer, BoyLane’s viewer, KirstenLee’s viewer, Imprudence and Gemini viewers. Emerald tops them with usability and stability and provides a better user experience than the standard client.
Prad Prathivi on March 2, 2010
O Hai! You must be new here – this is Metaversally Speaking. If you look to your right, you’ll see a disclaimer which clearly states I’m not looking to put down any journalistic integrity, and quite clearly states that this is an “opinion blog”. As such, I invite people to share their opinions too, as you have, and I thank you for.
You make good points, and throw some new light on the subject of the Emerald Viewer. I still have my suspicions regarding it, but I’m happy you have the confidence in it, and your comment definitely balances out the point of views expressed.
JKL on March 2, 2010
Opinions and untrue statements of fact are entirely different. One is generally protected by free speech and the other is an act of libel. I am pleasantly surprised you allowed the comment however, but still concerned you’re jumping on the Prokofy crazy wagon.
kumi kuhr on March 16, 2010
we fought for so long to be able to not be seen online … for a semblance of privacy. This news sorely depresses me (and I really liked the Emerald viewer once).
Tristan Rogers on June 14, 2010
There never has been any privacy in SL and there never will be. I just found this blog and was browsing the comments. I have been in SL essentially from it’s beginnings. At least as far as when they begin to beta test. Privacy is literally something that was not ever intended in SL.
I think Modular did a great thing by reintroducing the ability to see the options other residents have marked for you on their friends list. Kind of shows who respects you and who doesn’t.
There are any number of other tools that allow you see a residents online status. And I know it has also been mentioned in the comments here that you can very easily script your own item to do so.
Once you begin living, playing working etc in an online world be it SL, facebook or anything else you pretty much trade away your privacy for the enjoyment you get from what you are doing.
Emerald doesn’t do anything that would infringe on your real life privacy. The only thing they had done is reintroduce what had been a feature in the past. The removal of the feature just created a chance for others to script objects that do the same thing and make a small profit from the scripting.
Traxton on March 20, 2010
I note with some dismay the general Prokofyesque tone of not only the original post but most of the replies to it.
Once, just ONCE I’d love to see people actually study up on the viewer by going to its site and reading the docs before comment or even (gasp) trying it before passing judgment.
After the nasty little heap of code Linden Lab just dumped on it’s unsuspecting customer base in the form of a horrid beta viewer, I’d never face SL without my Emerald.
Still, many thanks to Prad for having the stones to step up and create a well reasoned, (if misinformed), comment, instead of getting wild-eyed and rabid about it!
Muziekfreak1980 miles on April 20, 2010
So funny to read this bullcrap here aswell.
Hello it is internet as is anything BUT safe. And privacy breaches..scuse me?
As far as it goes to that UUID’s (to what the LL world is build on) are anything BUT private information. A simple key script gets me what i want also. Ppl seem to forget that Emerald is purely a client that based its tools on tools that were allready there from day 1.
Then some other guy/woman here states “i TRUST LL”
Muhahaha yah do so, the more you get the shaft certainly if your into some serious business on the grid. Its a hoax the entire SL community for that matter and there arguments.
FACTS for you…
*Emerald has more users then LL client (in case of doubt ) check the statistics.
*Emerald provides a SERVICE, just like LL does, plus LL condones the viewer (READ CONDONE )
But go ahead burn it over idiotic reasons as privacy. Afterall you got so much to hide from them. Again gimme a break, the entire WWW is one big gathering pool of information. Including yours…ppl that tell me i got hacked !!
Sure sure…the really do that because your such a important person, with sensetive information. What i read here is pure paranoia and yes maybe im biassed too.
I use emerald and i use the 2.0 to get used to it (having still a ver hard time doing so”
*Emerald has no griefer toold pure bullocks in this article to begin with. The show friends on map is a option you can SET ON/OFF in you friendslist. You only see a friend color yellow on your minimap is you are both in the same sim. WOOUWW thats privacy breach ? Gimme a break !!
There is no way you can activate that for someone else. Simply because, i pick in my list laika amat now she can see ME, i cannot see her on the map unless SHE puts that option on behind my name in HER list.
Prad Prathivi on April 20, 2010
Your inability to read astounds me.
JamesWells on May 15, 2010
Well the cookie part is certainly no grave breach of privacy. It is commonplace for webs to use little text files so that when you log to them it “remembers” you to avoid things like logging back on too frequently. Cookies can be “cleared” at any time: meaning very simply all the information they contain is gone. So they are always within anyone’s control to both gain the benefits and not as they so desire. The real worry is having a Linden lab monopoly on browsers. Greanlife/emerald viewer have made great innovations not mentioned here.
Crashman Infinity on May 29, 2010
Well… a cookie left on my computer… O noes… that’s why you can clear cookies and low and behold. it’s gone till you use the client again… Shocking….
I’ve use Emerald. have for quite some time. Was laughing at the bouncing breast thing actually. and sad part… i know more women that have it turned on then GUYS!!! o noes.. your avi behaves a little more realistically.
The feature to see who is just hiding from you, wow.. was even easy to do on the regular viewer… so i don’t know why it’s all up in arms about it now. It’s pointless to be.
I come on SL to do one thing. HAVE FUN. and yes that involves me working on SL as well. I found it quite nice being a DJ Manager to be able to see if someone is skipping off a shift and FAKING being offline. So to claim this feature is only used for “stalkers” grow up people.
Carina on June 27, 2010
Just a side note: this webpage leaves cookies on my computer too.