Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's BSOD Is Getting More Descriptive With QR Codes (cio.com)
itwbennett writes: Reddit user javelinnl posted a picture last week showing a new dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) featuring a QR code and a link that may appear in a future version of Windows 10. "Right now, the code and the link take users to a webpage that discusses generic fixes for errors that might cause a crash," writes Blair Frank from CIO. "In the future, though, Microsoft could provide a QR code that leads to more specific information about what caused the computer freeze up." As of this writing, Microsoft had not responded to Frank's request for comment, but when he forced a Blue Screen of Death on his Surface Pro 3, he was unable to get a QR code to appear, though a link to the help page did. The QR code shown in the image simply points to a generic resource page for "troubleshooting blue screen errors."
That was my reaction as well, if it's like the Windows Update help stuff then it's going to be just another way of telling users "Something went wrong. We have no idea what it is, or at least we have lots of data to help diagnose it but we aren't going to give you any of it. Here's a link to a Bing search that will return 200 hits for other people who have run into this problem and couldn't solve it either. Error 800420EE". Totally, utterly useless.
Speaking of 'harvesting data', it would be interesting to see what sorts of URLs end up showing up.
There are always privacy implications if you want to provide genuinely useful input on why a system crashed, since a crash dump can be very informative indeed about what the user was doing when the crash occurred; that's not some sinister MS-thing, just how it works. However, as the wonder full people in audience analytics 'user engagement tracking' and whatnot have spent years exploiting; it's really, really, easy to get additional data on who is following links by programmatically generating unique ones that redirect to the destination, rather than just linking directly.
If the QR code is just "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/123456" then it makes me want the damn kids to get off my lawn; but it's otherwise harmless. If it eventually ends up at that domain; but starts out as an email marketing standard referrer-slurry URL that redirects you through one or more unnecessary tracking steps before eventually landing you at the URL you were supposed to reach in the first place, that's slimy above and beyond the call of duty.