Monday, May 13, 2002

Slashdot Article : Flash Privacy and Security misperceptions Slashdot posted an article with concerns about privacy and security in the Flash player due to the players access to a user's camera, microphone and its ability to store data (via shared objects). Below is some information and links which will hopefully dispel some of the misperceptions in the original article and in some of the comments attached to the article The Camera and Microphone access defaults to off. Anytime that a Flash movie tries to access the camera or microphone the user will be asked to allow or deny the access. The access is domain based. The Shared Objects are very similar to cookies, the main difference being that you can store entire ActionScript objects, and they can be used with Flash projectors (they don't require a web browser). Macromedia Flash MX Security Whitepaper http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/mx/flash/whitepapers/security.pdf Macromedia Flash MX Top 5 topics http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/mxtopics.htm Microphone Settings http://www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/help/microphone/ Camera Settings http://www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/help/camera/ LocalStorage Settings http://www.macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/help/localinfo/ TechNote : What is a Shared Object http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/local_so.htm Using Shared Objects in Macromedia Flash MX http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/action_scripts/local_shared_object/ Interview with Jeremy Allaire (Macromedia CTO) where he discusses a "new communications server". http://radio.weblogs.com/0106797/2002/04/30.html#a24 TechNote : using the local video object in Flash MX http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/local_imbedded_video.htm 7:10:20 PM    comment []  Google It!

Macromedia JRun 4 announced with Flash Remoting support Macromedia JRun 4 was announced today. JRun 4 is a J2EE 1.3 Compatible server for deploying Java applications. Among its new features, is the inclusion of Flash Remoting. JRun 4 comes with some Flash Remoting samples. However, be sure to first read the known issues document. You can view a diagram of how Flash Remoting fits in with the JRun architecture here. 11:40:18 AM    comment []  Google It!