Microsoft Sued by a Beijing Student Over 'Privacy Violation'

freakxx writes "Xinhua report that a Beijing University student has sued Microsoft for allegedly gathering personal information via Windows Genuine Advantage. He has demanded a compensation of 1,350 RMB (around US$ 180) and an open apology printed in a national newspaper. The student has accused Microsoft of using WGA to gather information about his computer and himself, rather than solely checking whether or not the installed Windows XP system was genuine. A Microsoft spokesman has declined to speak on this issue and said that the matter is under investigation."

Comments

I'd rather Microsoft have my info

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather Microsoft have my personal info than the government. Any government.

Re:I'd rather Microsoft have my info

[vux984]

I'd rather Microsoft have my personal info than the government. Any government.

If Microsoft had it they'd just sell it to the governent. Any government.

Re:I'd rather Microsoft have my info

[jandersen]

Yes, because as we all know, private companies are accountable to The People, whereas governments are only accountable to their shareholders.

Come on, do you really think that a private company like Microsoft will hesitate as much as one second abusing the information they hold about you if it could earn them money? At least a government - any government - is ultimately accountable by the people. Even the Chinese government has to take the population into account when they make their decisions if they don't want to end up having an uprising on their hands, but Microsoft, and most other multinationals have repeatedly demonstrated a complete disregard for the rule of law, as you well know. Multinational companies can just move to another country, but a government can't, you see.

Customers.

[Tackhead]

> "What we can say is that Microsoft is fully committed to letting customers control their personal information."

"Customers." They keep using that word. I do not think that word means what most of us think it means.

OEMs are the customer. The end user who purchases a PC from an OEM and finds himself dependent on Microsoft is not the customer, he is the product.

Re:Customers.

[Anonymous Coward]

> How about a more realistic look: OEMs are the customer who buys the Windows licenses. And end-users are the customers of the hardware vendors who preinstall Windows on their machines to make them usable for the masses.

The problem with Microsoft is they're no longer working this way. Their business model is much more like that of RIAA/MPAA.

The guy watching Battlestar Galactica isn't the customer of the Sci-Fi Channel. He's the product. Sci-Fi's customer is the advertiser, who purchases the product (us). BSG is merely the means by which Sci-Fi delivers the product (us) to the customer (advertiser).

Similarly, Microsoft's installed base is the product. OEMs are the customer, users are the product, and the operating system is the means by which Dell gets to monetize its investment in Microsoft OEM licenses.

solidarity begins at home.

[porky_pig_jr]

to those living in United States. before you start making fun of China, think of the situation with privacy in your homeland. Love, PPJ.

Re:solidarity begins at home.

[Foobar of Borg]

At least I, as an American, am allowed to think of such things.

So are the Chinese. The problem is, how much are you practically able to express these things publicly? Recent events have shown that to be rapidly eroding in America.

Re:solidarity begins at home.

[E 99]

The problem is, how much are you practically able to express these things publicly? Recent events have shown that to be rapidly eroding in America.

Such as what? What are you not able to express publicly in America?

A guarantee you that somewhere in America right now someone is standing on some street corner with a megaphone (covered in and-written cardboard signs probably) shouting that Bush did 9/11, that he's a war criminal, and should be tried and found guilty of treason. And if the police are doing anything, they're protecting him from the more sensible people who would like to smack him around.

Hyperbole is one thing, but when it becomes a paranoid fantasy-land where all statements are absurdities, it just takes us that much further from having rational debate and therefore rational policy.

Re:He's Chinese He Has No Rights!

[RealGrouchy]

If he lives in China, where the government censors a hella lot of information, how do you expect him to know that the government is spying on him?

- RG>

Re:Let him sue his government first

[cromar]

Same could be said about us USians.

Why Doesn't Someone Do It In the U.S.?

[asphaltjesus]

WGA works the same here as it does in China. The notion that they collect "no personal information" is very clever, but untrue.

Microsoft can easily associate your pc with a record in their backend because each pc generates a unique signature. They don't have your name at the moment, but that doesn't mean they don't know who's using their OS when and where. Given the number of times a windows box phones home when it goes online, I'd say there's plenty they know about you.

This is exactly like the story some months ago where AOL gave out search data that was supposedly private. Same situation, bigger fish.

BTW, if you are still married to a microsoft OS, your software firewall should be good enough to alert you when it attempts these connections. My Kerio firewall at work does it. And marriage is the right word for it because sometimes you wonder what the hell you got yourself into.

Re:M$ should be abelto forceM$ should be able to..

[EvanED]

...and, now I see that the OP is where the "sing" came from.

Me == idiot.

Probably the most important lawsuit this year

[SpeedDevil]

I truly hope he wins. And I am glad that he is not asking for much. I'm pretty sure Microsoft will try to settle out of court but I am also pretty sure this guy is not really doing this for the money. The Chinese government has been trying to reinforce the people's trust in their legal system so I don't think they will just push the case aside, especially after it being covered on Slashdot. I really hope this case gets the attention it needs because this case could be the answer to protecting the privacy of all of us. Setting the precedent in China will make way for more precedents elsewhere. Lu Feng ... we are with you!!! K PS: I'm pretty sure somebody in Microsoft is going nuts right now ... hehe

Re:He's Chinese He Has No Rights!

[Petrushka]

And, er, which country would you suggest he move to? Are you under the impression that there are any countries that don't collect personal data on their inhabitants and conduct surveillance on them? (I omit wiretaps, of course, as there are lots of countries that don't do that.)

Re:Why so stingy

[zen-theorist]

i'd say its a bit of a gamble. maybe if MS fess up to this one and pay it instead of contesting (why not?) it could set legal precedent, and then the amounts could be much higher..

Re:Outsource. This is not really funny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please point to a single case of people looking at the wrong web site, and then being killed, with their organs harvested. China has its major political problems but just the idea of what you're saying is totally ridiculous.

Re:He's Chinese He Has No Rights!

[rts008]

So basically, if I catch M$ spying on me, I should get the hell out of the U$?

There, fixed that for you.

But, yeah...I understand your sarcasm, but for the clueless wonder you replied to, here are some Educational links (heh!heh!):

Maybe you missed these earlier: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/13/1259202, http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/11/1615211,
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/11/1228241, http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/22/1712252, http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/02/139251, http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/22/2223236, or this...their version of the future: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/13/1447235.

And let's not forget all of TFA's about the NSA, FBI, and who only knows who (or should it be whom?) else is tapping into our tubes in the War Against Terrorism! (tm) here in the good old USA.

I could go on and on here, but I think this should suffice for now.

Yes, he probably has not crawled out of mom's basement yet. Let's have a good laugh at his expense just thinking what a shock to his world it will be when he finally does!