XP, Phone Home 299
Randomeyes writes: "The Register reports that Windows XP has functionality built-in to the Search Companion module that allows Microsoft to log users internet searches. Information collected includes user IP address, search term and related information. A cookie is also set. 'TrustUnWorthy Computing' anyone?" Tanveer1979 writes: though, that "the bright side is that it doesn't send anything to internet, it only downloads files, and compares the files on your computer with the files on server. And I guess a little effort is needed for the malicious to program it to send your data to web."
Microsoft - just stop be honest for once (Score:3, Interesting)
The actual act of aggregating search engine data itself it not particularly bad, its just the way the have to keep all this stuff secret, even if they're doing something innocent, they make it look sinister and because of their history it looks pretty bad, whatever the real reason for doing this.
For marketing reasons, I can see it being useful information to a lot of companies, if they are strictly aggregating data as they say.
Is this for use on MSN etal, as obviously to sell keywords they need to know generally what words are the most popular, and they can't do that without aggregating data about people search preferances.
Is this any different to say googles toolbar, Ok before I get flamed I know google do it right and gather info on an opt-in basis, but all search engines want to know information about our browsing habits, thy've got to make money some how.
Microsoft don't seem to be doing anything really bad here, its just like their software the problem is with the implementation, if they only made it absolutely explict they were doing this it would not be a problem.
Microsoft you build in cookie management to IE and then build in 'freatures' like this without any opt-out, you're just asking for bad publicity here. Guess it must be the pointy haired marketdroids at work.
My LAN *IS* the internet (Score:2, Interesting)
I usually just hook up to the intranet at Uni with my laptop. But the intranet consists of an indisquishable part of internet, 3 separate
Can anybody enlighten me as to whether the search in Windows XP would phone home my search strings? I am quite happy not using XP at the moment, and news like this makes me think that not upgrading was the right decision.
Re:Please explain (Score:3, Interesting)
This is especially true if the software was baught through a UK subciduary.
Re:What a non story! A waste of space! (Score:5, Interesting)
True, when searching local files and intranet, nothing about that search is sent to Microsoft.
Now, I haven't used XP, so I don't know how the Search Assistant works, but apparently you can tell it NOT to use MSN for searches, but something like Google. I don't mind Google collecting info about my searches, but I do mind when Microsoft collects info about my searches on Google - that's simply none of their business.
As a poster above me mentioned, many people in Europe have to pay for the call-time they use when surfing. Why should they have to pay a minimum of 5 cents to their ISP, just to search their own harddrive? I can't think of a single good reason for that.
Read this post: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=30967&cid=332
The privacy statement for Search Assistant has the following provisions, which is what I base some of my arguments on:
http://sa.windows.com/privacy/ [windows.com]
"No information is ever collected by Search Companion when you search your local system, LAN, or intranet for any reason."
"When you search the Internet using the Search Companion, the following information is collected regarding your use of the service: your IP address, the text of your Internet search query, grammatical information about the query, the list of tasks which the Search Companion Web service recommends, and any tasks you select from the recommendation list."
"Search Companion does not record your choice of Internet search engine, and does not collect or request any personal or demographic information. Information collected by the Search Companion cannot be used to identify you individually, and is never used in conjunction with other data sources that may contain personal data."
Now, like I said, I don't use XP, I don't know how Search Assistant works, and I probably wouldn't even use it, but it's still a bad thing to do for two reasons:
1) Making people pay their ISP/phone company to search their local harddrives.
2) IF I can make Search Assistant use another search engine (like Google), it's none of Microsofts business what I search for. If I can't use another search engine, then obviously Microsoft has to know what I'm searching for.
DPA? (Score:2, Interesting)
Part of this act entitles me to phone Microsoft and ask then to enumerate every byte of information they hold on me within a reasonable time period for a fee of no more than £10.
They are also required to have my explicit permission to store any data about me.
Intersting to note they would be breaking various laws by storing data of any form on minors.
Faggots.
sa.microsoft.com and other domains (Score:2, Interesting)
I guess the quickest way in dealing this, is to block the domain on your firewall. It's probably the fifth or sixth domain I've had to add to the FW at home due to some app wanting to phone home.
At work we discovered that the Inktomi search engine was trying to e-mail itself some info about our company searches. Inktomi claims that that the program only sends information about the top-level domain queries? Has anyone else seen this?
Re:Please explain (Score:3, Interesting)
When did we let others decide that they can do whatever they wish with our property? I mean did they pay for my computer or did I? If the system was given to me then I can understand that the company who gave me the system has the right to profit in order to pay for the expense.
I feel that we need better laws to control marketing. Lies should be stopped. If a product does not follow a set standard then they should not be able to mention the standard. IPsec comes to mind. How many poor implementations are there? This accumulation of information should not be permitted unless a written agreement has been approved by both sides. Any changes to this agreement by either party would make it void without a new agreement.
Imagine that sometime in the near futur someone figures out a way to group all this data together and be able to trace every step you take....
It scares the S**T out of me and I'm a law abiding citizen.
/RANT
Probably illegal under UK (& EU) Law. (Score:4, Interesting)
IANAL, however this probably illegal under UK (& EU) Law.
In the UK we have the Data Protection Act, which states that a Company may not share personal data with others, without the Data Subjects permission. They may not send Personal Data abroad, unless the data is equally protected 'abroad'.
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/19980029.h
The Data Protection Act comes from EU treaty obligations so similar laws exist throughout the EU.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/me
We need a UK XP licensee to complain the the Data Protection Registra, I not a XP user so I'm not in a position to complain.
http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/
Re:In places where Internet is still expensive (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not just this file search net connection. Automatic Windows Update in XP does auto-downloading in the background by default if you follow the wizard.
If MS built air conditioners, they'd design them to run full-time. They have zero consideration regarding automatic resource consumption.