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Please note: The reports in this section are not product reviews or tests; they're meant to spotlight options for you to consider, as well as milestones in children's online-safety technology development. Comments from readers on their own experiences with these products and services are most welcome - and, with your permission, we publish them. Do email us your own product reviews anytime!
MediaFence file-sharing detection software (November 14, '03 issue)
MediaFence is a simple new software program that "helps people who don't know their way around a computer understand what's on their computer in terms of file-sharing," said Scott Schwendiman, president of BRS Technology, the product's makers. Designed for parents and tech newbies, MediaFence scans and shows two types of results at a glance: 1) which P2P applications (Kazaa, Grokster, Piolet, etc.) are on their system, if any, and 2) the number and type of files being shared by their PC. Here's a page in the company's site with a screenshot showing what each results list looks like. Users will see what file types are being shared, whether they're media files such as songs, films, or video, or a Quicken file with family financial information on it!
Interestingly, BRS Tech's marketing message at the top of its home page focuses more on "exposure to identity theft" - the inadvertent sharing of personal information when file-sharing networks are used - than on music piracy. We asked Tim Lordan, head of Washington-based GetNetWise.org, about this, and he said that - though the risk is still theoretical and reports of violations as yet nonexistent - exposing personal files on the P2P networks is definitely happening - emails, tax returns, medical records, in some cases people's entire hard drives. Tim pointed to a study done over a year ago that found this kind of file-sharing a widespread mistake, partly because the design of the software is confusing. "Many users do not realize that when they add files to the download folder, all the files in the directory, as well as the directories below it, can be recursively shared," reported PCWorld in its coverage of the study. "The report also criticizes the way the software searches for files to be shared, noting that it does not give criteria for discovering folders to be shared, such as searching only for media files. Therefore, when it discovers a folder to be shared, 'it presumes that users have a perfect knowledge of what kinds of files are contained in those folders and what will be shared,' the researchers wrote."
We noted with interest that MediaFence doesn't delete files. To avoid liability issues, BRS Technology decided not to remove files for you but rather to provide step-by-step instructions so users can do any deleting themselves.
Related links
- "Over Exposed: The Threats to Privacy and Security on File-Sharing Networks," a hearing by the US House of Representatives's Committee on Government Reform, May 15, 2003 (thanks to Tim Lordan for pointing this out)
- Information from the University of Chicago on how to disable various brands of file-sharing software
- Other types of parental-control software (7 monitoring and filtering products) were reviewed by PC Magazine last July in "Parental Guidance Suggested."
