Photoshop CS spies on you from your jpeg file?

[shoot_a_star]

no lon

[Moppie]

Prehaps a tin foil hat for your PC?

[lomond]

Yes, it's true, but only for pirate copies of PS. :p

[CyberPet]

I'm glad I'm allowed a copy for free (being a reviewer and a translator helps)... not afraid of the "cops".

Although I think it's great that Adobe has adapted a stricter copy protection on their software, it can also be a bit of a hazzle. Luckily I had no problems activate my software, I can just imagine if you're on a slow modem or don't normally use Internet much and you one day go "duh!" the program doesn't start.

[Longwatcher]

I do know that PS puts tags in the metadata when ever you save a copy of an image.
Whether those tags can be used to determine whose computer it was and whether the copy of PS is licensed or not I don't know, But I do know the technology is well within Adobe's capabilities. Kodak does have a similiar scheme for photographers to be able to hunt down illegaly posted copies of their images on the internet, so I don't see why Adobe couldn't do it.

[tommykjensen]

I only see 2 reasons for anybody to be concerned about this:

1: the user is using a pirate copy of PS
2: the user steals other photographers photos and post them as his/her own

***** NOTE: I am NOT implying that shoot_a_star is doing any of the above

[elbirth]

let me chime in here...

first of all, yes, I'm quite sure it's within Adobe's capabilities to do this. Do they actually do it? I seriously doubt it. I say this, because this is all of the embedded information I've been able to extract from a simple image created entirely in Photoshop CS:

JFIF_APP1 : Exif
JFIF_APP14 : Photoshop 3.0
JFIF_APP1 : http
JFIF_APP15 : Adobe
AdobeResource
Unknown (1061) : 16Byte
DisplayInfo : 16Byte
Unknown (1062) : 14Byte
GlobalAngle : 4Byte
Global Altitude : 4Byte
PrintFlags : 10Byte
CopyrightFlag : 2Byte
Print flags : 10Byte
Grayscale and multichannel halftoning information : 18Byte
Grayscale and multichannel transfer function : 28Byte
Grid and Guides information : 16Byte
URL List : 4Byte
Slices : 842Byte
Unknown (1064) : 12Byte
ICC Untagged : 2Byte
Document specific IDs : 4Byte
ThumbnailResource : JPEG Format (Offset:2849Size:1294)
Thumbnail Type : JPEG
Thumnail Width : 100
Thumbnail Height : 100
Version Info : 84Byte
JPEG quality : 00010100
Main Information
Orientation : left-hand side
XResolution : 72/1
YResolution : 72/1
ResolutionUnit : Inch
Software : Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
DateTime : 2005:06:11 18:15:39
ExifInfoOffset : 164
Sub Information
ColorSpace : Uncalibrated
ExifImageWidth : 100
ExifImageHeight : 100


I'm not seeing any kind of identifying information in all of that. Even if they did put something like that in there, I actually believe the pirated copies would be more "safe" than the legal copies being purchased.
As a side project in a class in college, we took a look at the issue of pirated software and looked at the various methods involved in pirating software. You'd be quite amazed at what goes into it. Don't be mistaken to think that pirated software is simply a process where someone gets a CD, makes a copy of it and distributes it. For one thing, there's too much copy protection on CDs these days that has to get worked around to even be able to make a direct copy of the CD or DVD. Once that's broken, the disk is copied to the harddrive and they begin a process of reverse engineering the registration information so they can create a generator that generates cd keys to install it with, exactly like the key we have to type in when we install Photoshop.

Once all that's accomplished it's then distributed on the internet or elsewhere. When it's installed, it gets installed identically to legal software, and in fact software that wants to connect back home to download updates or run any kind of check is not allowed to do so when it gets pirated.

So, do I think this is an issue in Photoshop CS or any others? I HIGHLY doubt it. Besides, if it was, they'd have to have reason to track you down and come after you to prove that you're using an illegal copy. They're more concerned with stopping the source of the pirated software, than the end-user.

[lomond]

Yes, it's true, but only for pirate copies of PS. :p


Ahhhh !!. Before this goes too far, I was being facetious here.

Sorry if anyone took me seriously. :o

[elbirth]

Ahhhh !!. Before this goes too far, I was being facetious here.

Sorry if anyone took me seriously. :o

I was sure you were just kidding, but I wanted to just make a point regarding the differences between legal copies and illegal copies.

[shoot_a_star]

Make sure, no misunderstanding here:

I asked this because I am going to edit a research paper to post on the internet, "Introduction to Spywares and Solutions" I wrote for my class "Introduction to Information Security".

You won't be suprised many legitimate software out there somehow spy on you legally.

Yes, "encrypted steganography" is what I am talking about.

[PacAce]

let me chime in here...

first of all, yes, I'm quite sure it's within Adobe's capabilities to do this. Do they actually do it? I seriously doubt it. I say this, because this is all of the embedded information I've been able to extract from a simple image created entirely in Photoshop CS:

JFIF_APP1 : Exif
JFIF_APP14 : Photoshop 3.0
JFIF_APP1 : http
JFIF_APP15 : Adobe
AdobeResource
Unknown (1061) : 16Byte
DisplayInfo : 16Byte
Unknown (1062) : 14Byte
GlobalAngle : 4Byte
Global Altitude : 4Byte
PrintFlags : 10Byte
CopyrightFlag : 2Byte
Print flags : 10Byte
Grayscale and multichannel halftoning information : 18Byte
Grayscale and multichannel transfer function : 28Byte
Grid and Guides information : 16Byte
URL List : 4Byte
Slices : 842Byte
Unknown (1064) : 12Byte
ICC Untagged : 2Byte
Document specific IDs : 4Byte
ThumbnailResource : JPEG Format (Offset:2849Size:1294)
Thumbnail Type : JPEG
Thumnail Width : 100
Thumbnail Height : 100
Version Info : 84Byte
JPEG quality : 00010100
Main Information
Orientation : left-hand side
XResolution : 72/1
YResolution : 72/1
ResolutionUnit : Inch
Software : Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
DateTime : 2005:06:11 18:15:39
ExifInfoOffset : 164
Sub Information
ColorSpace : Uncalibrated
ExifImageWidth : 100
ExifImageHeight : 100


I'm not seeing any kind of identifying information in all of that. Even if they did put something like that in there, I actually believe the pirated copies would be more "safe" than the legal copies being purchased.
As a side project in a class in college, we took a look at the issue of pirated software and looked at the various methods involved in pirating software. You'd be quite amazed at what goes into it. Don't be mistaken to think that pirated software is simply a process where someone gets a CD, makes a copy of it and distributes it. For one thing, there's too much copy protection on CDs these days that has to get worked around to even be able to make a direct copy of the CD or DVD. Once that's broken, the disk is copied to the harddrive and they begin a process of reverse engineering the registration information so they can create a generator that generates cd keys to install it with, exactly like the key we have to type in when we install Photoshop.

Once all that's accomplished it's then distributed on the internet or elsewhere. When it's installed, it gets installed identically to legal software, and in fact software that wants to connect back home to download updates or run any kind of check is not allowed to do so when it gets pirated.

So, do I think this is an issue in Photoshop CS or any others? I HIGHLY doubt it. Besides, if it was, they'd have to have reason to track you down and come after you to prove that you're using an illegal copy. They're more concerned with stopping the source of the pirated software, than the end-user.
See all those "unknown" bytes of data? What do you supposed are hidden in there? :confused:





:mrgreen: :lol: ;)

[mdm]

Whewww, thought I was going to have to move again.

[Rob612]

See all those "unknown" bytes of data? What do you supposed are hidden in there?

Well, I would say the you've got a point here. I'm glad I browsed trough the entire post before answering because I was ready to ask the same question. Beside this, my personal opinion is that they CAN use those "unknown" fields but I doubt they'll do. There are several more tricky methods to do things whane you have several millions lines of code that make up a program. One of these that comes up very easy is the use of encrypted steganography to embed some data (and yes, any software actually can get all your personal data from your machine) directly in the image itself.