[sigcomm] Anonimity problem with pdf files

[Kave Salamatian]

Dear all,

I think that the following experience might be useful for a lot of us as 
we are frequently reviewing paper. I was recently reviewing a paper and 
looking at my access log on the firewalll I figured out that my acrobat 
reader was making outgoing connection to a site registered under 
"remoteappraoch.com". Searching a little more I figured out that 
remoteapproach is company that add some script in acrobat file and 
through this code is able to track the IP address of the computer the 
pdf file is open on it  (have a look at 
http://lwn.net/Articles/129729/?SID=8EA81D45601439DA364B1F185795031C).

This seems to me an important breach to reviewer anomity. Even if I am 
not a fan of this reviewer anomity and would have preferred to move to 
an open and transparent reviewing process, it is not yet the case. I 
want therefore to make aware the colleagues of the existence of this 
thread. I don't  think that the problem cannot be solved easily (maybe a 
verification tools at EDAS can be the solution or using a firewall on 
your computer can solve the problem or more simply not using reader 7.0 
but xpdf) but meanwhile your anonimity is not garanteed.

In a more general setting the publishing community is going toward 
adding this kind of script for author right purposes. Meaning that the 
question should be dealt at the community level.

Bests

Kavé Salamatian
Associate Professor LIP6-UPMC