Microsoft Sued by a Beijing Student Over 'Privacy Violation' 157
freakxx writes "Xinhua report that a Beijing University student has sued Microsoft for allegedly gathering personal information via Windows Genuine Advantage. He has demanded a compensation of 1,350 RMB (around US$ 180) and an open apology printed in a national newspaper. The student has accused Microsoft of using WGA to gather information about his computer and himself, rather than solely checking whether or not the installed Windows XP system was genuine. A Microsoft spokesman has declined to speak on this issue and said that the matter is under investigation."
Priceless (Score:5, Funny)
Settlement of legal dispute: $150
Suing Microsoft for collecting your personal info when you live in the People's Republic of China: Priceless.
There are some things you can blame on the government. For everything else, there's Microsoft.
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Re:Priceless (Score:5, Funny)
In a press release, MS claims:
We have NO idea what information is gathered as part of WGA. We promise to investigate what information is gathered, and then blame the collection of personal information on a rogue programmer who did it without the permission or knowledge of management. In the future, we promise to encrypt all the personal information we collect so you can't tell that we are doing this anymore.
No more than 2 puppies were killed to produce this press release.
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Outsource. This is not really funny. (Score:1, Flamebait)
There are some things you can blame on the government. For everything else, there's Microsoft.
How do you tell the difference [slashdot.org]? The severity of punishment for thought-crime in China makes privacy a very serious matter.
I'd like to make a joke about in how Communist China, you sue the BSA, but it's just not funny. People who look at the wrong web page are put in jail and executed for their organs. Technicians have testified before the US congress that prisoners were skinned alive to better preserve the s
Re:Outsource. This is not really funny. (Score:5, Informative)
That's not to say the charges against China are without basis. I'm just advocating some skepticism about people who may have a grudge against China, or have a good reason to lie about torture back home (so they can get asylum and citizenship here in the United States).
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I'm just advocating some skepticism about people who may have a grudge against China, or have a good reason to lie about torture back home (so they can get asylum and citizenship here in the United States).
You must realize that the desperation people feel, which you think makes them less than honest, is also an indictment of China. Technicians are comparatively privileged people without economic reasons to immigrate. What grudge can they have that's great enough to make them leave their friends and fam
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One of my roommates in college was a Palestinian guy who grew up in Kuwait. His family was in vacation (thank heavens) in America when Saddam invaded. They broke into his house, pissed on the carpet, stole his TV and anything else valuable, and lived in it for the duration of the occuptation. His family's bank accounts got frozen, which he never got back. Fortunately, his father was a big believer in cash when going on vacation and had two hundred thousand dollars *on hand* in LA, with which the
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And stupid too, apparently -- what idiot pays for porn?
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How did that get modded up (Score:2)
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How fucking stupid are you?
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Yeah, we should all be grateful for that. Most especially the people of Tibet.
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Self worth (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Self worth (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, what are we talking about?
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In communist China.... (Score:2)
Seriously will buy you six hundred and seventy five 22oz beers here!
I think you guys are selling him short - he has this totally figured out......
Re:Self worth (Score:5, Funny)
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If only... (Score:5, Funny)
M$ should be abelto forceM$ should be able to..... (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:M$ should be abelto forceM$ should be able to.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:M$ should be abelto forceM$ should be able to.. (Score:5, Funny)
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You know, having only read the first half of this post, I was sure that you had transposed the "ng" in "sing."
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Me == idiot.
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Re:M$ should be abelto forceM$ should be able to.. (Score:1)
- RG>
Oblig. Simpsons quote (Score:1)
Customers. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Customers." They keep using that word. I do not think that word means what most of us think it means.
OEMs are the customer. The end user who purchases a PC from an OEM and finds himself dependent on Microsoft is not the customer, he is the product.
Re:Customers. (Score:5, Funny)
1) Person who potentially buys things. The one they buy from is known as a vendor.
2) (Microsoft dfn). Ugly bags of mostly water+some money. The idea is to get the money out of the bags and then be able to keep it. For some reason, the bags sort of hold on to it when it's being taken.
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OEMs are the customer. The end user who purchases a PC from an OEM and finds himself dependent on Microsoft is not the customer, he is the product.
Oh, really. I really don't like when a Slashdotter pulls a one-bit logic on a painful issue.
How about a more realistic look: OEMs are the customer who buys the Windows licenses. And end-users are the customers of the hardware vendors who preinstall Windows on the
Re:Customers. (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem with Microsoft is they're no longer working this way. Their business model is much more like that of RIAA/MPAA.
The guy watching Battlestar Galactica isn't the customer of the Sci-Fi Channel. He's the product. Sci-Fi's customer is the advertiser, who purchases the product (us). BSG is merely the means by which Sci-Fi delivers the product (us) to the customer (advertiser).
Similarly, Microsoft's installed base is the product. OEMs are the customer, users are the product, and the operating system is the means by which Dell gets to monetize its investment in Microsoft OEM licenses.
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Microsoft doesn't hand out free copies of Windows with embedded ads in them. But I enjoy your circular logical nonsense nonetheless. Enjoy.
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I think you're being too narrow minded. If you're male, gay, and a big fan of 'receiving'
He's Chinese He Has No Rights! (Score:1, Troll)
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- RG>
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There was an interesting little bit about this topic in the transcript of the conversation when Nixon met Mao.
Nixon: We're concerned that people in your country don't have freedom of movement, Mr Chairman.
Mao: (thinks for a moment) Tell me how many million you want, Mr President.
Needless to say, the topic was dropped, and has never been raised again. How many tens of millions do you want?
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So basically, if I catch M$ spying on me, I should get the hell out of the U$?
There, fixed that for you.
But, yeah...I understand your sarcasm, but for the clueless wonder you replied to, here are some Educational links (heh!heh!):
Maybe you missed these earlier: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/13/1259202 [slashdot.org], http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/11/1615211 [slashdot.org],
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/11/1228241 [slashdot.org], http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/22/1712252 [slashdot.org], http://yro.slashdot.org/art [slashdot.org]
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Re:He's Chinese He Has No Rights! (Score:5, Insightful)
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solidarity begins at home. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:solidarity begins at home. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Such as what? What are you not able to express publicly in America?
A guarantee you that somewhere in America right now someone is standing on some street corner with a megaphone (covered in and-written cardboard signs probably) shouting that Bush did 9/11, that he's a war criminal, and should be tried and found guilty of treason. And if the police are doing any
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Keep dreaming [yahoo.com] ...
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You're not very good at this whole "reading" thing, are you Mr. Coward. I'll give you an example that even your obviously feeble mind should be able to understand.
You are an idiot. Now, by my saying that you are an idiot, that does not in any way imply that I believe everyone else is a genius. As to the specific topic at hand, yes I do believe that erosions of rights are occu
situation of privacy in the usa: (Score:2)
getting worse
still a couple of orders of magnitude better than it is in china
this stunt is more of a nationalistic chest thumping exercise. were microsoft a chinese company and this guy had done what he did, he would be ignored, reprimanded, harasssed, or arrested. but being an american company, the authorities probably approve of it
and who said i found the situaiton in china, or the usa, funny?
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At that price... (Score:2)
I'd imagine MS has a tough decision to make... just pay up as going to court would be a lot more expensive (but perhaps set a precedent allowing others to sue them or threaten suit), or go to court and spend a lot more to hopefully prevent a precedent (assuming the guy wins).
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Just fighting against spyware (Score:1)
The fact it's made by Microsoft should be irrelevant, just analyze the behavior of the application and judge it on that.
WGA communicates unique information at any time to an American based advertising company (msn anybody?) with you the user having no idea of what data and what the implications are of giving this company that data.
Can your business really risk an application like this on your systems? Are you
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I already have.
Why Doesn't Someone Do It In the U.S.? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft can easily associate your pc with a record in their backend because each pc generates a unique signature. They don't have your name at the moment, but that doesn't mean they don't know who's using their OS when and where. Given the number of times a windows box phones home when it goes online, I'd say there's plenty they know about you.
This is exactly like the story some months ago where AOL gave out search data that was supposedly private. Same situation, bigger fish.
BTW, if you are still married to a microsoft OS, your software firewall should be good enough to alert you when it attempts these connections. My Kerio firewall at work does it. And marriage is the right word for it because sometimes you wonder what the hell you got yourself into.
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Can not mix person and non-personal info ... (Score:4, Informative)
I have some experience in this area. According to our attorneys, but being informally paraphrased by myself, it was important to never mix personally identifiable information (PII) and non-personal information. Any mixing or linking would cause the non-personal to become PII and therefore under the jurisdiction of US and international legislation, with more legislation on the way given the new found importance of this topic. So to make life simple, I may collect the operating system version for demographic reasons but I can not record an account name, IP number, or other PII with that information, nor could I have some common key to associate records in PII and non-personal databases.
Common key? (Score:1)
I may collect the operating system version for demographic reasons but I can not record an account name, IP number, or other PII with that information
I still don't see how that should make Windows users feel secure.
History has repeatedly shown it's quite easy for Microsoft to argue in court they don't "collect" PII despite the fact they most likely do. Anecdotes abound of Judges and cases where technical fiction often passes as fact.
Judging by the number of times my windows box phoned home on
under investigation? (Score:1)
On a more funny note : the spell checker (of course) thinks i should write microsoft with a capital; wasn't really expecting that :)
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Because "we will investigate" is the standard, canned answer for ANY corporation. It sounds real pro-active and nice and all that.
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qz
We're doomed (Score:5, Funny)
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Probably the most important lawsuit this year (Score:5, Insightful)
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After all, there are many US bashers here.
Why so stingy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why so stingy (Score:4, Funny)
Not a problem. If he wins, millions of other Chinese will follow suit. I don't think that China has class actions, so Microsoft will have the fun and expense of defending each suit separately if they don't settle.
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Sneaky :) (Score:2)
Lacking details? What information? (Score:1)
He has already lost. (Score:2)
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I'm from China so lemme have some say ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'd rather Microsoft have my info (Score:5, Insightful)
If Microsoft had it they'd just sell it to the governent. Any government.
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Tin Foil Hat #132 (Score:2, Informative)
You are assuming they are mutually exclusive...
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I'd rather Microsoft have my personal info than the government. Any government.
How do you know Microsoft won't give the government your info? Wasn't MS one of those cited for giving the Chinese government data on people? Wasn't MS cited for sharing data with the US government, along with Yahoo while Google refused?
FalconRe: (Score:2)
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Come on, do you really think that a private company like Microsoft will hesitate as much as one second abusing the information they hold about you if it could earn them money? At least a government - any government - is ultimately accountable by the people. Even the Chinese government has to take the population into account when they make their decisions if they don't
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Perhaps
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You can keep using the evil software for free and keep paying hidden fees or you can get a new install of the good software that someone else has already paid for.
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Not everyone has the exact same legal system as the USA.
[caveat - IANAL but I did take legal courses in high school and college in B.C. and most of my friends in Seattle are lawyers, including my brother and uncle and some ex-gfs]