Fwd: Microsoft peeks into your closet

[Guest guest]

Microsoft peeks into your closet

 

 

 

http://tinyurl.com/dya9y

 

When you welcome someone into your home, you are not inviting him or her to

snoop through your desk, your closets or your medicine chest. Some things are

private, even if your guest happens to be a good friend.

 

 

Of course, you would expect the same good manners from Microsoft Corp. if you

invited the software giant into your home or, more specifically, into your

computer, which actually is what you do when you download software updates and

products from the website Microsoft.com.

 

 

Because you are asking Microsoft to give you an add-on to one of its products,

the company is certainly within its rights to ask you for proof that you have a

genuine copy on your computer. Microsoft obviously has no interest in sharing

the latest changes to its software with the estimated 100 million computer

owners worldwide who use pirated software. Such pirated products cost the global

industry about $41 billion last year.

 

 

To verify that you have a legitimate copy, all Microsoft has to do is glance

around your computer's living room, so to speak. There is no need to go snooping

through the drawers. By simply matching the " product key " stored on your

computer with the product you have, Microsoft can tell whether it is genuine or

not.

 

 

But under a new policy, Microsoft has decided to hunt through your computer for

a lot more than a valid product key.

 

 

Among other things, Microsoft now records the make and model of your computer,

all your hardware devices, your region and language settings, a code that

uniquely identifies your computer, your Internet address, and even the name,

revision number and revision date of your computer's BIOS or basic input-output

system.

 

 

Microsoft claims this data will not be used to identify users, but to help it

provide better service to customers. It even hired a German security auditing

firm to confirm Microsoft does not collect any personal information or process

any data that would allow it to identify or contact a user.

 

 

Despite Microsoft's assurances, privacy advocates fear these computer

fingerprints could be used to identify users at some future time. Chris

Hoofnagle, director of the Electronic Privacy Centre in San Franciso, worries

that Microsoft could share its user database with government.

 

 

It is debatable whether Microsoft should have the right to ferret out users of

pirated software who expose themselves to such risk by attempting to download

software updates from the company's website.

 

 

But that is not the central issue. What is critical is the privacy of the

millions of Microsoft customers who have paid for genuine software, but don't

want the company to know who they are, what kind of computer they use, or what

language they speak.

 

 

Why should the purchase of a genuine Microsoft product put their privacy at

risk? Why should the vendor of that product, like the guest invited home for

dinner, have the right to snoop through their closets?

 

 

Just wait till Jesus gets his hands on you, you little bastard...... Abbie

Hoffman

 

 

 

http://BuzzardsRoost.aimoo.com

http://www.GranniesAgainstGeorge.us

 

 

 

 

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