>>Dvorak's column in this morning's newspaper said the Windows 95 release
>>compiles a list of the entire contents of your drives and forwards this
>>list to Microsoft the first you try out the new Microsoft (internet)
>>Network.
>I read about this on comp.risks when the story first broke. The first
>post touted it as a concealed "viral" programme which spied on all
>your networked PCs and secretly sent a detailed report to microsoft.
>The "true story" on this from microsoft was that this is rubbish. They
>claim the software gives you the option of registering your details
>with Microsoft when you first access the MSN, and furthermore that
>by default this is disabled. ie If you don't read the on-screen
>warnings and just hik OK, it won't send any details about your
>system to Miscrosoft. I THINK they also said it only reports on
>the Microsoft products on your PC, ie it is a convenient way to
>register your Microsoft products.
>I don't know exactly what is going on here, but the original post
>was prety off the wall in its accusations. Describing the routine
>as "viral", for eaxample, strikes me as deliberately misleading.
>Simon Hibbs
FYI, I found a similar post on comp.society.privacy, a few weeks ago.
A claim like this should be easy enough to verify.
[text follows]
Path:
ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!computer-privacy-req
uest
Newsgroups: comp.society.privacy
Subject: Re: The Microsoft Win95 Virus - update
Date: 6 Jun 1995 12:16:36 GMT
Organization: Computer Privacy Digest
Lines: 29
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.2.6
X-Original-Submission-Date: 04 Jun 1995 15:53:36 -0700
X-Computer-Privacy-Digest: Volume 6, Issue 051, Message 8 of 15
An update on this. A friend of mine got hold of a copy of the beta
test CD of Win95, and set up a packet sniffer between his serial
port and the modem. When you try out the free demo time on The
Microsoft Network, it transmits your entire directory structure in
background.
This means that they have a list of every directory (and,
potentially every file) on your machine. It would not be difficult
to have something like a FileRequest from your system to theirs,
without you knowing about it. This way they could get ahold of any
juicy routines you've written yourself and claim them as their own
if you don't have them copyrighted.
Needless to say, I'm rather annoyed about this.
Isn't this the same sort of thing that got Prodigy in trouble a year or
so ago? I remember reading about some class action lawsuits in
California when some lawyers found Prodigy reading confidential
lawyer/client info off their harddrives. I never heard how any of the
lawsuits turned out though.
/\-/\ Dean Ridgway | Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
=\_v_/= FidoNet 1:357/1.103 | And that has made all the difference.
CIS 73225,512 | "The Road Not Taken" - Robert Frost.
http://www.peak.org/~ridgwad/
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