Since I encountered some problems with flash on certain websites, I decided to check if my Flash player has been updated since 1972. Normally you can check the Flash settings (incl auto-update functions) through a page on the Adobe/Macromedia website. Which is weird, since you would think that this is a local setting (incl. privacy settings and audio functionalities).... But no. Macromedia/Adobe decided that you have to do that through their website.
The reason being that they can check whatever you are doing with your player.......
Safari Activity WindowAnyway, I headed over to the webpage (which I only found through a post on security.nl). Arrived there nothing happened. The Flash 'control panel' didn't appear. So I tried it with Safari. Same result. A nice page with a white square where the panel should have been. The status bar of Safari informed me that there were errors and pointed me to the Activity window.
SSL Certificate ExpiredThis showed that there is a certificate error. It seems that the SSL certificate on Macromedia website has expired, which results in an inaccessible control panel for Flash. Not that you will access it regularly, but what if some trojan/virus altered your video and audio settings? The only way to reset them is through the web-interface.....
Yet another reason why some things should be controlled locally on your PC/Mac.
The cloud-stuff is nice, but don't depend too much on it. You might find yourself unable to access your stuff if the shit hits the fan...