Fri, 28 Feb 2003

Scared of M$

This is scary stuff:

Windows Update keeps tabs on all system software. Spy on the wire [The Register]

I'm concerned about the potential for abuse by Software Update as well. Any system that 'phones home' without your knowledge or intervention has the potential to send information you may not want distributed.

Worse is the potential for such as system to be abused by the legal process. Microsoft wants to stamp out piracy. Suppose an automated updater simply does what the BSA recent did and confuses 'Open'Office with M$ Office? According to the terms of the new Microsoft EULA they could disable your workstation until you proved you weren't pirating their product!

What happens when some crusading congresscritter get ahold of the idea to scan users systems for something really obnoxious, say, child porn? Is that file 'nekkid_kid.jpg' kiddie porn? Or is it your wife giving your month old a bath in the kitchen sink? You can tell, and even the local prosecutor could tell (eventually, after they seized your entire computer and went thru every file over the course of several weeks) but could an automated update tell? Given the marginal performance of various web filters, I don't think so.

Perhaps Orwell had in wrong - perhaps the new slogan won't be 'Big Brother is Watching' but rather, 'Big Brother is Scanning' .....

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