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              | Date: 1999-03-07 
 
 Win98: "Feature" identifiziert User online-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
 
 Noch um ein gutes Stück gefährlicher als die Seriennummer
 der Pentium III Chips von Intel ist ein Win98 "Feature", das
 zu einer vollständigen und automatischen Online-
 Identifikation der User führt.  Microsoft hat heute
 angekündigt, dieses "Feature" zu entschärfen.
 
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 John Markoff
 March 7, 1999 SAN FRANCISCO -- The Microsoft
 Corporation moved to defuse a potentially explosive privacy
 issue today, saying it would modify a feature of its Windows
 98 operating system that has been quietly used to create a
 vast data base of personal information about computer users.
 
 Microsoft conceded that the feature, a unique identifying
 number used by Windows and other Microsoft products, had
 the potential to be far more invasive than a traceable serial
 number in the Intel Corporation's new Pentium III that has
 privacy advocates up in arms. The difference is that the
 Windows number is tied to an individual's name, to identifying
 numbers on the hardware in his computer and even to
 documents that he creates.
 
 The combination of the Windows number with all these data,
 the company said, could result in the ability to track a single
 user and the documents he created across vast computer
 networks.
 ....
 "We're definitely sensitive to any privacy concerns," Robert
 Bennett, Microsoft's group product manager for Windows,
 said.
 
 "The software was not supposed to send this information
 unless the computer user checked a specific option."
 
 full text
 http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/07soft.html
 
 relayed by
 Axel H. Horns axel.horns@fitug.de  via gilc-plan@gilc.org
 
 
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 edited by Harkank
 published on: 1999-03-07
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