nklr-privacy, why microsoft doesn't care

[pstuart@planetweb.com]

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., Peter Berghs wrote:

> Or this, if this write-up is true I'm curious as to the software > desighners built these features into the product. > > http://www.fuckmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml > > Peter B

Well there's several reasons. Some are legitimate, but many concerned with profit. One is piracy. If you were microsoft, wouldn't it be cool if illegal copies of software could squeal on their users? If you could make a profit on all internet commerce transactions made using microsoft products? If you could ensure that only microsoft products were used to make those transactions by eliminating competition? If you could customize browser advertising based on a history of user preferences (and charge for it)? If you could prevent competitors and potential competitors from competing by HIDING HOW THINGS WORK? And/or by providing yourself and your products with information/capabilities that you ensure are unavailable to your competitors and potential competitors? Including information/capabilities intended for potential future products that may (or may not) ever see the light of day. The designers were told to design these things in, or they came up with these "cool" ideas to benefit their company (in which they have stock, so of course it also benefits them), or they just thought they were cool ideas and did it because they could. I'd like to be the last to defend microsoft, but it's also true that there are some legitimate reasons for some of the logging. That fact, unfortunately, can be (and has been, and is) used to justify the illegitimate logging. Because this is highly technical stuff, understood by relatively few people, that argument frequently works. Who can tell if the logging is "legitimate" or not? Microsoft has a long, long history of hiding crap like this in the guise of "system" information (info not related to a specific application program -- that's one reason why it was important for them to claim that IE was "part of the operating system"). It was bad under DOS, it got worse under Windows 3.x (like the dirty tricks used to squish DR DOS), and worse again with the introduction of Windows 95. Of course they're not the only bad guys, either. Wanna bet your ISP is logging what you do on their server somewhere? Especially if they're a big business ISP like AOL, @home, or ATT, and they might be able to use that info (someday) to make an additional profit? Sorry this turned out so long. I better go for a ride instead of a rant. -- Paul Stuart