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Microsoft Talks Daily With Your Computer
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Jun 07, 2006 09:20 PM
from the what-could-go-wrong dept.
from the what-could-go-wrong dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform users that its tool for determining whether a computer is running a pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software maker.
The company said the undisclosed daily check is a safety measure designed to allow the tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage, to quickly shut down in case of a malfunction."
The EULA is suppose to disclose this daily call-in feature. Lauren Weinstein, who is co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility, was one of the first people to notice the daily communications to Microsoft. Report from Yahoo.com"
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Ask Slashdot: Has Orwell's '1984' Come 22 Years Later? 1272 comments
gabec asks: "This weekend my mother bought a grille lighter, something like this butane lighter. The self-scanner at Kroger's locked itself up and paged a clerk, who had to enter our drivers license numbers into her kiosk before we could continue. Last week my girlfriend bought four peaches. An alert came up stating that peaches were a restricted item and she had to identify herself before being able to purchase such a decidedly high quantity of the dangerous fruit. My video games spy on me, reporting the applications I run, the websites I visit, the accounts of the people I IM. My ISP is being strong-armed into a two-year archive of each action I take online under the guise of catching pedophiles, the companies I trust to free information are my enemies, the people looking out for me are being watched. As if that weren't enough, my own computer spies on me daily, my bank has been compromised, my phone is tapped--has been for years--and my phone company is A-OK with it. What's a guy that doesn't even consider himself paranoid to think of the current state of affairs?" The sad state of affairs is that Big Brother probably became a quiet part of our lives a lot earlier. The big question now is: how much worse can it get?
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What kind of bullshit excuse is this? (Score:5, Insightful)
So Genuine Advantage needs to contact the mothership in order to be told that it's broken and needs to terminate?
Please.
Re:What kind of bullshit excuse is this? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have often wondered whether Steam has a similar feature - if Valve goes bankrupt, for instance, does it release you from the (ridiculous) copy protection/licensing arrangements put in place when you install Half Life 2 and other products?
The best way to do any of this would be to simply check if the parent company's server is still there and able to provide authentication/updating. If it is unavailable for some reason the local software should function autonomously, as it always should, but without the need for approval from the parent.
Of course the *real* best solution is to stop trying to monitor usage on a micro-level and just make good products at a reasonable price. As has been demonstrated over and over again, this is the way to stop piracy.
Parent
Re:What kind of bullshit excuse is this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, whats this? It pops up every 10 minutes asking me to reboot and gives me no option like "remind me tomorrow"
Come on microsoft...dont force me to sit through this shit on nonessential updates
Parent
Re:What kind of bullshit excuse is this? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:What kind of bullshit excuse is this? (Score:5, Informative)
The file is in the system32 directory and the filename is : "WgaTray.exe". I simply renamed it
Hope this help. Chow
Parent
Re:Old News (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Whoa! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm protected. (Score:5, Funny)
BRING IT ON!!!
XP Phone Home! (Score:5, Funny)
Ethereal anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
If nobody has I'll sniff anything going to Microsoft's Class B (207.46.*.*) later tonight.
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Re:Ethereal anyone? (Score:5, Informative)
The DOS command route -p add 207.46.0.0 mask 255.255.0.0 [192.168.0.254] (replace the address in brackets with a random address on your current subnet) will permanently route all would-be "phone home" packets to the random address that you specified.
Parent
Re:Ethereal anyone? (Score:5, Informative)
I have seen it with the NT Server Network manager (I think that was it?) that sniffed out the packets. I remember reading how to enable your firewall to block it. ITs been awhile since I read about it but its old news.
Parent
Ooops! (Score:5, Funny)
Talks daily to whose computer? (Score:5, Funny)
Ah screw it! And screw Microsoft, too.
Re:Talks daily to whose computer? (Score:5, Funny)
Not mine. I renamed the icon to be "this".
Parent
Re:Talks daily to whose computer? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
OMG! Everyday?! (Score:5, Funny)
...the hell? (Score:5, Funny)
- Our new operating system, Windows Vista, requires only the best high-end hardware so that, even on a system well beyond the power you should ever need, you'll still get the true Windows Experience(TM)
- The new Windows Media Player 11 features all-new and exclusive DRM, or Degradation Resistment Technology by Microsoft, which not only provides wonderful sound in the new and improved WMA format, but protects your rights as well.
- Our operating systems now report back with system information and other information which we feel should be collected from your system at any given time to improve your computing experience.
Microsoft: Where do we want to take you today?
Re:Yawn (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Yawn (Score:5, Insightful)
If a corp. license gets out into the wild, it's going to spread like mad (duh). With all those updated PCs phoning home on a daily basis, Microsoft should be quick to get wise to whose key just slipped out and put the kibosh on it.
How many people had the FCKGW key before that got pulled in SP1?
Parent
Re:Yawn (Score:5, Insightful)
Regarding point 2: Where is the safety switch for internet explorer? I'm sure IE causes way more "computer explosions" than genuine advantage.
Let's be honest here. A phone-home capability in genuine advantage is suspicious, given the function of the genuine advantage program. It makes people running pirated versions of windows especially nervous. The bottom line is, if it isn't a spy tool, there ought to be an option to disable it. If it is a spy tool, get it the fuck off my computer. Period.
Parent
Re:Yawn (Score:5, Insightful)
Boo hoo.. poor people running pirated copies.
If they're too stupid/lazy/cocky to keep themselves isolated by a good firewall, then I have no sympathy.
There are plenty of valid reasons why this "feature," or at least the lack of disclosure, is immoral. Protecting piracy is not one of them.
Parent
Re:This happened to my moms computer yesterday (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:This happened to my moms computer yesterday (Score:5, Interesting)
The Genuine Advantage tool doesn't lock your system. It just doesn't let you download cool freebies (at this time).
You got hit by something else. Upthread someone said that there's some spyware which masquerades as the Genuine Advantage system, and *does* lock your system down.
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
B) We are supposed to trust MS that this thing is only asking MS if it needs to be shut off? What the hell kind of reason is that to phone home?
C) Why the hell does this software need to be running all the time? It's taking resources doing nothing but asking MS if it should be shut off?! Why can't it be started up and shut off only when needed?
D) There have been false reports of pirated software. Will this software one day just decide you're using a pirated version and kill your machine? Some people depend on their computers to feed themselves. If this software screws up and kills a machine and the owner has several days of downtime who's going to compensate them?
E) If you really think MS (or any large corporation for that matter) is above abusing phone home programs you got blinders on. Why should we trust large companies with our private informaton while not trusting actual people with our social security number?
F) The reason megacorps and the people who run them are so successful is always a combination of luck, smarts, and ability to stab people in the back and laugh about it. I'm not saying large corporations should be ended, but they should be approached with caution. They will try to get away with whatever the hell they can. It's the consumer's job to keep them in check... Well it's the goverment's job too, but they seem to be doing a shit job to say the least.
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