Former Microsoft Privacy Chief Doesn't Trust Company, Uses Open Source Software

MojoKid writes "Microsoft's onetime Chief Privacy Advisor, Caspar Bowden, has come out with a vote of no-confidence in the company's long-term privacy measures and ability or interest to secure user data in the wake of the NSA's PRISM program. From 2002 — 2011, Bowden was in charge of privacy at Microsoft, and oversaw the company's efforts in that area in more than 40 countries, but claims to have been unaware of the PRISM program's existence while he worked at the company. In the two years since leaving Microsoft, Bowden has ceased carrying a cell phone and become a staunch open source user, claiming that he no longer trusts a program unless he can see the source."

Comments

Routing Connections from Point A to Point B

[jiadran]

The article mentions that a connection from one point to anohter within Europe would likely stay within Europe. Maybe technically... On a recent trip to Paris I did a traceroute to an e-mail server in Switzerland, and essentially what I saw was: Paris (F) -> London (UK) -> Paris (F) -> London (UK) -> Paris (F) -> Lyon (F) -> Geneva (CH). There might be good reasons why the connection would go through London, but twice, and then come back? Considering that the UK is closely collaborating with the US in its data gathering, I have a feeling that this routing was not entirely by accident.

Re:The next obvious step is to ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Intel SandyBridge CPU's have 3G wireless connectivity..... (in case they are stolen.... yep that's it)

Go google it. Every Intel CPU since Sandy has a nice cellular link built in. You can't even trust your processor these days.

Even if you change up memory locations for storing passwords, they can just reprogram it to learn how to snag data right out from under running processes.

Wonder why they banned Lenovo Laptops years ago from Gov use? I'd say that plus TPM and other goodies can hide all sorts of nastiness.

Re:The next obvious step is to ...

[aztracker1]

I really wish we had a -1 Misinformation mod. We have a +1 Informative.. but there are actual posts, like the parent that are just plain inaccurate, wrong and misleading.