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Date: 1999-03-07
Win98: "Feature" identifiziert User online
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Noch um ein gutes Stück gefährlicher als die Seriennummer
der Pentium III Chips von Intel ist ein Win98 "Feature", das
zu einer vollständigen und automatischen Online-
Identifikation der User führt. Microsoft hat heute
angekündigt, dieses "Feature" zu entschärfen.
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John Markoff
March 7, 1999 SAN FRANCISCO -- The Microsoft
Corporation moved to defuse a potentially explosive privacy
issue today, saying it would modify a feature of its Windows
98 operating system that has been quietly used to create a
vast data base of personal information about computer users.
Microsoft conceded that the feature, a unique identifying
number used by Windows and other Microsoft products, had
the potential to be far more invasive than a traceable serial
number in the Intel Corporation's new Pentium III that has
privacy advocates up in arms. The difference is that the
Windows number is tied to an individual's name, to identifying
numbers on the hardware in his computer and even to
documents that he creates.
The combination of the Windows number with all these data,
the company said, could result in the ability to track a single
user and the documents he created across vast computer
networks.
....
"We're definitely sensitive to any privacy concerns," Robert
Bennett, Microsoft's group product manager for Windows,
said.
"The software was not supposed to send this information
unless the computer user checked a specific option."
full text
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/07soft.html
relayed by
Axel H. Horns axel.horns@fitug.de via gilc-plan@gilc.org
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edited by Harkank
published on: 1999-03-07
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