CueCat
The CueCat was named CUE[1] for the unique bar code which the device scanned and CAT[2] as a wordplay on "Keystroke Automation Technology".
[3] It enabled a user to open a link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode — called a "cue" by Digital Convergence — appearing in an article or catalog or on some other printed matter.
[14] Starting in late 2000 and continuing for about a year, advertisements, special web editions, and editorial content containing CueCat barcodes appeared in many US periodicals, including Parade, Forbes, and Wired.
The Dallas Morning News and other Belo-owned newspapers printed the barcodes next to major articles and regular features like stocks and weather.
[15] The CueCat bar codes also appeared in select Verizon Yellow Pages,[16] providing advertisers with a link to additional information.
For a time, RadioShack printed these barcodes in its product catalogs, and distributed CueCat devices through its retail chain to customers at no charge.
[21] Registration required the user's name, age, and e-mail address, and demanded completion of a lengthy survey with invasive questions about shopping habits, hobbies, and educational level.
The :CRQ software then used that unique serial number from the device to return a URL which directed the user's browser to the sponsored website.
[21] In The Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg criticized CueCat: "In order to scan in codes from magazines and newspapers, you have to be reading them in front of your PC.
[22] Joel Spolsky, a computer technology reviewer, also criticized the device as "not solving a problem" and characterized the venture as a "feeble business idea".
Joe Salkowski of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "You have to wonder about a business plan based on the notion that people want to interact with a soda can",[25] while Debbie Barham of the Evening Standard quipped that the CueCat "fails to solve a problem which never existed".
However, the barcode itself is closely related to Code 128, and the scanner was also capable of reading EAN/UPC and other symbologies, such as Priority Mail, UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8, 2-of-5 interleaved, CODABAR, CODE39, CODE128, and ISBN.
[33] Because of the weak obfuscation of the data, meant only to protect the company under DMCA guidelines (like DVD-Video's Content Scramble System), software for decoding the CueCat's output quickly appeared on the Internet, followed by a plethora of unofficial applications.
[36] Belo officials said they would not track individual CueCat users but would gather anonymous information grouped by age, gender and ZIP code.
This was not a breach of the main user database itself, but a flat text file used only for reporting purposes that was generated by ColdFusion code that was saved on a publicly available portion of the Digital Convergence web server.
[35][47][48][49][50][51] Other unrelated companies sold and supported surplus new CueCats as low-cost barcode scanners for use with their software, such as the Readerware library cataloging utility.
