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To: gdichaz who wrote (51619)	6/4/2002 4:04:19 PM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 54805

re: "Mommy Microsoft", .NET, & "Privacy" (a European view) I found this viewpoint on .NET interesting ... >>Privacy according to Microsoft Adem Sehovic Translated by Miranda Drew GSMBOX May 31, 2001 It might be a bit too early to draw conclusions, or make judgements, but the questions is quite important. On the contrary, we could say that it is sufficiently important to create worry even in the largest European organizations that continue to find themselves fighting for the “essential” rights of European citizens. In this case it is to alert us to the presence of a real “big brother” clothed in stars and stripes, that is right in the heart of Europe, or, better yet, in every home in Europe. What are we talking about? Microsoft, of course. Aside from antitrust suits, Microsoft has done it again. This time, though, it is a “moral” question, if we can say so. In the last few days the issue on the floor has been the “arguable” practices of the software giant, which, without the knowledge of its users, has supposedly been collecting personal information about our daily habits in front of the PC. Is this a violation of the right to privacy? Okay, so Microsoft has never denied the existence of registration files in their systems that note in detail the activities done by the user at the computer. Naturally, we are dealing with information about the use of the PC, such as navigation habits, music files or films that are opened and listened to, not “sensitive” data like your credit card number. In any case, the controversy regards about 80% of PC owners (according to some statistics this is the percentage of the consumer market around the world that uses a Microsoft operating system). This casts doubt on the good faith of Bill Gates’ company, which could take advantage of information gathered (and actually it already has) in order to gain a commercial advantage over its competitors. In other words, we are not dealing with spyware, programs included in some software packages (generally free ones) that install themselves on our PC and, without our knowledge, send all of our data to a central server along with our daily habits of navigation and more. This data is collected and sold with our email address to companies that are interested in knowing us “better”. So, this is not the case with Microsoft. That aside, the “defenders of privacy” ask, why should a company like Microsoft collect our data? Is it only for “statistical” ends? Let’s clear up one point: the writer of the piece is neither against nor in favour of Microsoft. We are simply taking note of the presence of systems that “monitor” our computer use. The forced presence of these programs “could” bother the final users that have not explicitly authorised their use. Such is the case, to return to the European controversy, that the indispensable registration to use the Passport service bothers users. Registration is indispensable in order to use some of the most popular services from “Mommy Microsoft”, as well as obligatory on the “.Net” platform. Here is a fact: in the information age it is becoming more difficult, if not impossible, to defend our own privacy. Maybe we should resign ourselves to this fact. Or should we? << - Eric -