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Microsoft Talks Daily With Your Computer
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform users that its tool for determining whether a computer is running a pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software maker.
The company said the undisclosed daily check is a safety measure designed to allow the tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage, to quickly shut down in case of a malfunction."
The EULA is suppose to disclose this daily call-in feature. Lauren Weinstein, who is co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility, was one of the first people to notice the daily communications to Microsoft. Report from Yahoo.com"
... quickly shut down in case of a malfunction.
So Genuine Advantage needs to contact the mothership in order to be told that it's broken and needs to terminate?
Please.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Just one more reason NOT to use Windows as my operating system!
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash." Notebooks of Lazarus Long, Robert A. Heinlein
The article is a bunch of fluff. Here is the boiled down version.
1. The Microsoft Genuine Advantage tool is installed on many computers now and checks to see if your copy of Windows is legit.
2. Microsoft wants a safety switch in case this tool starts causing PCs around the world to explode. Thus the program checks with Microsoft once a day to see if it should shut itself off.
Microsoft is not spying on you. This is a safety feature that I'm glad is included. Did you know your computer also checks with them daily to update your time with the atomic clock? Where's the Slashdot story for that?
"MicroSoft Talks Daily With Your Computer" ;-)
This implies that we all have either pirate copies of Windows, or have Windows at all. And a 'net connection.
What frightens me more than Microsoft's program calling the mother ship is that so many people didn't have a firewall that notified them that a new program was sending out information.
Redirect 207.46.*.* to 255.255.255.255. Only stop doing this when you feel the need to update. Disable automatic updates and all other update services except when you want to update. Problem solved. Really, if people just took the stance of "Why does this thing need to communicate to another computer?" instead of "Why shouldn't I allow this thing to talk to another computer?", 99% of security issues would be complete bork. But, of course, that requires common sense.
Lazar said that so far, about 60 percent of users who were offered the piracy check decided to install it.
Really? Decided seems to imply some sort of informed consent. From what I've read about this thing, there are a number of people who are surprised to have this on their system and have received it as part of their automatic updates without actually being aware of it. I certainly wouldn't opt to download something like this.
WTF? This isn't old news. Every time I have downloaded this to do installations on the computers we setup at work it says very clearly it performs a "one time check". When did "one time check" become every day? Microsoft is fucking scum.
i used uinux in the older days , switched to Linux 10 years ago and now use ubuntu . never had any problems with "are you legit ? or are you stealing from us ? i would never want a company to treat me like i was a illegal alien . one like that doesnt get my money
Yes, Microsoft is using GA to call his mother nasty names. They decided it was worth the pain to innocent users.
A) They didn't tell anyone the software would do this.
B) We are supposed to trust MS that this thing is only asking MS if it needs to be shut off? What the hell kind of reason is that to phone home?
C) Why the hell does this software need to be running all the time? It's taking resources doing nothing but asking MS if it should be shut off?! Why can't it be started up and shut off only when needed?
D) There have been false reports of pirated software. Will this software one day just decide you're using a pirated version and kill your machine? Some people depend on their computers to feed themselves. If this software screws up and kills a machine and the owner has several days of downtime who's going to compensate them?
E) If you really think MS (or any large corporation for that matter) is above abusing phone home programs you got blinders on. Why should we trust large companies with our private informaton while not trusting actual people with our social security number?
F) The reason megacorps and the people who run them are so successful is always a combination of luck, smarts, and ability to stab people in the back and laugh about it. I'm not saying large corporations should be ended, but they should be approached with caution. They will try to get away with whatever the hell they can. It's the consumer's job to keep them in check... Well it's the goverment's job too, but they seem to be doing a shit job to say the least.
-Derick
In contrast, the ``phoning home" talked about in the article involved sending information TO Microsoft about your computer but for their purposes.
"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under." - H.L. Mencken
And Google Toolbar with pagerank checking enabled tells Google every url you ever visit.
if microsoft can remotely 'unlegitimize' a copy of windows,
couldn't a virus or worm massively remotely cripple loads of machines
by exploiting this...?
Microsoft seems too dense to realize that they've squandered trust, and need to be above reproach like Caesar's wife (see Shakespear's "Julius Caesar" ;-)). That means that they need to make sure to disclose these kinds of things; failure to do so (before a third party does it for them) just makes them all the less trustworthy. This episode demonstrates sheer idiocy on their part.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
What makes you so sure this will work now and in the future when all MS has to do to make your solution useless is modify their networking code to ignore any custom routing rules to their class B? MS did something like this with the HOSTS file, so I wouldn't be taken completely by surprise if they did this.
Because of this, I'd rather trust a firewall that isn't running on a Windows box to get the job done.
Yes. If you fail to read the contracts you agree to, you may very well have your first-born taken away from you.
By denying Microsoft the rights you agreed to granting them, you are indeed in breach of contract. You are not doing what you agreed to do, simply put.
If you have a problem with this stuff - buy a Mac (and read the contract/EULA before you start using it) or run Linux (the same applies here).
Stop the brainwash
The "d" in "supposed" is increasingly seen as redundant
By who, exactly?
If someone had a certain item stolen and then looked in your window and saw that similar item in your house, they do not have the right to break down your door and check the serial # to make sure it isn't theirs. Yet for some reason big software companies have to right to invade my personal property (my computer) to verify that I actually own the software. This totally bypasses our entire legal system and our constitution and I have no idea why they are getting away with it.