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Examining Microsoft Update
eggsovereasy writes "The Inquirer is reporting that a group in Germany has deciphered the information sent to Microsoft during an update using Windows Update and says that information on all software installed on your computer is sent, even that which is not Microsoft's own software." The original article is, unfortunately, pay-per-view. Update: 02/26 18:19 GMT by T : ionyka points to this "related article from ITWorld that deals with Microsoft's transferring of information through Windows Media Player. When you open up Media Player it sends information back to Microsoft like what movies you play, what songs you listen to and where they come from."
The reason why it sends info about other applications (and third party drivers for that matter) is so that they can attempt to be a single-source vendor of patches if needed.
While the intentions may not be all that honest, it's not a horrible idea. I've noticed numerous times when running Windows Update that it's offered to upgrade my Cisco Wireless LAN software as well as my Epson print drivers. Kind of nifty and not all that bad, if you ask me.
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I'm not defending microsoft here but nothing in the blurb that you posted says that MS won't collect the list of software on the machine. To play devils advocate its pretty easy to say that the installed software is part of the configuration information on the machine. Further it makes some sense how this is useful in picking which patches are presented to you. If there is a patch in windows update that fixes a bug that affects 1 software package in the world that 1% of users use then wouldn't it be useful to scan to see if that is installed and only present the patch to the 1% of users that need it. Especially given that many bug fixes cause bugs in other software that relies on the broken behavior or some kludgy work around.
"You can now flame me, I am full of love,"
Microsoft needs to collect this information for driver updates and other *useful* updates.
No they don't. They can just send a list of updates to the client, and the client can display the updates that apply to your computer. This is why Microsoft can claim no information is being sent to their server: because sending information isn't necessary.
This is actually how APT works.
If I tell windows to look for the drivers for a particular device than by all means probe the device for information about it. How does scanning all installed applications aid in this endeavor?
If the reasoning was to better detect and avoid application conflicts I would possibly agree with this method, but the software clearly doesn't do that.
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
Never confuse "Lazy_ass_user computing" with "computing for people who have better things to do with their time than fuck around searching for drivers on some poorly designed manufacturer website".
so this person with a so precious time should think twice before buying products from a company with such a "poorly designed website" or that don't ship a version of the drive with the product
-- SouNerd.com
This isn't just some random company that nobody has ever heard of, with a clean slate. It's 2003. When people deal with Microsoft they know what they're getting into, regardless of what Microsoft says.
Sorry, I'm gonna call bullshit on this one. While it's true that people involved in the industry generally know what's up, many people outside of it don't. People who have better things to do than read IT-related media get all of their news about MS from totally mainstream sources in the first place, and lot of people could really give a rat's ass about today's MS article on Yahoo's front page. As far as Joe Sixpack is concerned, it's an IT-related story, and he probably doesn't care what it says. If you are not into the theatre scene, do you read reviews for every play in your area? If you are not interested in business, do you read every story in the business section? Probably not, and my mother doesn't read every store about Microsoft.
Saying that the victim is at fault is not a solution to the problem, and is not an excuse for bad behavior on MS's part.
teeker
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I use the Update Agent in RedHat almost on a daily basis - the RH Network knows absolutely everything about my setup (programs, modules, etc.) right down to what version of the Kernel I'm running - that way they can inform me of vulnerabilities and problems that I'm probably susceptible to as soon as there's an update available...it's a "good thing".
Why is it that when Microsoft does this kind of thing, suddenly there's a more sinister motive behind it all?
I don't hear anyone complaining about Redhat's privacy policies...