Friday, August 08, 2003
WINDOWS UPDATE SPYWARE
Go re-read the last part of my FROM RUSSIA WITH LUST August 6th post about the mysterious hotfixes. I swear I'm not paranoid--I'm just very smart (I say). Now I find that business people, researchers and technology people are beginning to say the same thing: Is Microsoft using Windows Updates to suck up information about users and what do they plan to do with it?
Look at this 2003 And Beyond that Anne over at Semi Compos Mentis was nice enough to share with me so I could learn that the Longhorn will take over, and Windows will soon become obsolete. But that's for another post.
This 61-page paper is a listing of "Technology trends that will affect your business and how you do business. Warning: very little of the following is speculation. Most of it has already been announced and is being implemented." Then use control f to go to security and in "Home and Entertainment" you will find this little shocker:
"Of course, Microsoft will be selling plenty of information about you and your family to advertisers, market researchers and probably Homeland Security. They've already contracted for profiling software for their current TV set top boxes." The money making stuff is a given and isn't what gets me as much as the government invading my privacy. Brian Livingston writes in Info World that Microsoft is collecting various product information, hardware, software so they can turn around and then sell you updates. I wouldn't put it passed them but I am not up in arms about it as some people will be. I am more concerned about my personal information being taken, leaked, passed and stored, disseminated--just yuuck.
So maybe you're thinking, okay, a few people are paranoid. So what?
Now hear from a German scientist in Inside Windows Update Unfortunately we can only read the first few contributions. After that the information becomes password protected. But do read basic observations, a black box approach, and don't pass up the communication protocol. Then drop me a line and tell me who's paranoid.
And the Chinese believe, and supposedly this includes people in the Chinese government, according to this article Paranoia that Microsoft software contains secretely embedded code that the U.S. government can manipulate at will. Who needs bombs when you can topple an infrastructure bloodlessly?
Maybe that's why my Microsoft caseworker, Jimmy Fung, was so sensitive about my spying charges that he won't write me back. Well, I still want some answers and I don't have Bill Gates' e-mail address. I do have an e-mail from him to his staff about the theme of 2003 being Microsoft as truthworthy. (It's in the 61 pages.) I'm sorry, but it reminds me of compassionate conservatism. I don't trust them. I don't trust big business period, especially one that comes in and puts its tentacles in my computer and does and takes God knows what without a word to me.
Word is the Chinese plan to go with Linux. They now see themselves as "operating system agnostic." I can definitely dig it. I just got my Windows XP but Linux doesn't belong to anyone and doesn't represent any government or political group. It's a very appealing thought right now. I am new to computers, and the only thing I know enough to think is that I am going to have to reinstall the whole thing to get rid of all the spyware Microsoft has put in here. And even then will I be sure? Will there be more? It just goes on.
Wonder what will happen to my computer and software once this post hits google?
aolSo What Do YOU Think? COMMENTS
Go re-read the last part of my FROM RUSSIA WITH LUST August 6th post about the mysterious hotfixes. I swear I'm not paranoid--I'm just very smart (I say). Now I find that business people, researchers and technology people are beginning to say the same thing: Is Microsoft using Windows Updates to suck up information about users and what do they plan to do with it?
Look at this 2003 And Beyond that Anne over at Semi Compos Mentis was nice enough to share with me so I could learn that the Longhorn will take over, and Windows will soon become obsolete. But that's for another post.
This 61-page paper is a listing of "Technology trends that will affect your business and how you do business. Warning: very little of the following is speculation. Most of it has already been announced and is being implemented." Then use control f to go to security and in "Home and Entertainment" you will find this little shocker:
"Of course, Microsoft will be selling plenty of information about you and your family to advertisers, market researchers and probably Homeland Security. They've already contracted for profiling software for their current TV set top boxes." The money making stuff is a given and isn't what gets me as much as the government invading my privacy. Brian Livingston writes in Info World that Microsoft is collecting various product information, hardware, software so they can turn around and then sell you updates. I wouldn't put it passed them but I am not up in arms about it as some people will be. I am more concerned about my personal information being taken, leaked, passed and stored, disseminated--just yuuck.
So maybe you're thinking, okay, a few people are paranoid. So what?
Now hear from a German scientist in Inside Windows Update Unfortunately we can only read the first few contributions. After that the information becomes password protected. But do read basic observations, a black box approach, and don't pass up the communication protocol. Then drop me a line and tell me who's paranoid.
And the Chinese believe, and supposedly this includes people in the Chinese government, according to this article Paranoia that Microsoft software contains secretely embedded code that the U.S. government can manipulate at will. Who needs bombs when you can topple an infrastructure bloodlessly?
Maybe that's why my Microsoft caseworker, Jimmy Fung, was so sensitive about my spying charges that he won't write me back. Well, I still want some answers and I don't have Bill Gates' e-mail address. I do have an e-mail from him to his staff about the theme of 2003 being Microsoft as truthworthy. (It's in the 61 pages.) I'm sorry, but it reminds me of compassionate conservatism. I don't trust them. I don't trust big business period, especially one that comes in and puts its tentacles in my computer and does and takes God knows what without a word to me.
Word is the Chinese plan to go with Linux. They now see themselves as "operating system agnostic." I can definitely dig it. I just got my Windows XP but Linux doesn't belong to anyone and doesn't represent any government or political group. It's a very appealing thought right now. I am new to computers, and the only thing I know enough to think is that I am going to have to reinstall the whole thing to get rid of all the spyware Microsoft has put in here. And even then will I be sure? Will there be more? It just goes on.
Wonder what will happen to my computer and software once this post hits google?
aolSo What Do YOU Think? COMMENTS
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