|
|
The Telecom Digest for July 02, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 178 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
What Does Microsoft Know About You? (Monty Solomon)
====== 28 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address-
included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the
email.
===========================
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters,
viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.
We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. Geoffrey Welsh
===========================
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:42:36 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: What Does Microsoft Know About You?
Message-ID: <p0624084bc851be8c932c@[10.0.1.3]>
In-Depth
What Does Microsoft Know About You?
We take a look at all the various sources of data Microsoft collects
from customers, how it stores and uses that data, and how its use of
it stacks up against Google and other competitors.
By Lee Pender
07/01/2010
Just about every software vendor or Web service collects information
about its users. Some do it with more subtlety than others, but the
fact is that there's hardly an application or Web site that doesn't
gather some sort of intelligence about you every time you use it.
Microsoft, of course, is no exception. From Windows Activation
Technologies (WAT) to Bing, Microsoft stockpiles information on you
even when you don't sign up for services such as Hotmail. But what
does Microsoft know about you?
Actually, a more appropriate question might be: What kind of
information about you can Microsoft see? It could see a lot, but
there are some things that the company chooses not to view or store.
For example, the unpopular WAT, formerly known as Windows Genuine
Advantage, is perhaps the least intrusive of the Microsoft
information-gathering tools. Bing and Hotmail get a little more
personal, but experts and IT professionals say that they're less
worried about Microsoft regarding privacy than they are about some
other high-profile vendors.
What Microsoft Knows
Microsoft starts collecting information on you and your system within
minutes of you starting up a brand-new system. We asked Brendon
Lynch, senior director of privacy strategy at Microsoft, to help us
compile a step-by-step explanation of what Microsoft knows and when
it knows it.
The flow begins when you first start your system, log on to Windows
and go through the WAT validation process.
...
http://redmondmag.com/Articles/2010/07/01/What-Does-Microsoft-Know-About-You.aspx
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup
'comp.dcom.telecom'.
TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational
service offered to the Internet by Bill Horne. All the contents
of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in
some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work
and that of the original author.
The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.
Contact information: Bill Horne
Telecom Digest
43 Deerfield Road
Sharon MA 02067-2301
781-784-7287
bill at horne dot net
Subscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom
Unsubscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom
This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then. Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!
URL information: http://telecom-digest.org
Copyright (C) 2009 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list.
All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.
End of The Telecom Digest (1 message)
|
or 