Fwd: FW: Win'95 handing our directories over to MS?

[Stuart Reynolds <stuartr -at- FIRSTGRAPHICS -dot- COM>]

-- [ From: Stuart Reynolds * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --

Hi Gang..
I got his forwarded to me, in response to "our" little uprising of the fact.
 Eric, I realize that this is not a TW topic, but thought soem people who
were maybe uneased by the MS myths, would like to read it.  I hope this is
OK .  Dick, oh artful one, what are your guys' comments, seeing as youz ran
a sniffer?

Stui


Subject: RE: Win'95 handing our directories over to MS?
Date: Thursday, August 17, 1995 12:15PM

My!  Lots of possibilities.  However, here is a story that came over the
wire last night.  Me, I've basically got no opinions here.


> RUMOR ABOUT WINDOWS 95 SNOOPING PROGRAM WON'T DIE

> By Lee Gomes, Knight-Ridder Newspapers

> It's the software world's version of the toothpaste tube with a Satanic
image, or the bubble gum containing spider eggs: a rumor that won't seem to
die about a bit of alleged malevolence deep inside of Windows 95.

> The report repeated for most of the year on the rumor-friendly Internet
despite repeated Microsoft denials, even turning up in Australia earlier
this
week has it that the installation process for
Windows 95 surreptitiously searches through an owner's hard drive and those
of other
computers on a network, and then sends a complete report about what it finds


to
Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters.

> The reality is interesting enough, but vastly less ominous, according to
Microsoft and technically minded people outside the company who have
investigated the matter.

> After buying Windows 95, customers can mail in a traditional registration
postcard or else register on-line. Should they choose to do the latter,
they'll use a program known as the "Registration Wizard," which as one of
its steps,

checks to see if the owner has any of a few dozen programs. Then, if the
user approves doing so, it sends the list to Microsoft for use by the
company's marketing department.

> The company said the program only runs if a user asks it to, only sends
information that a user approves, does not search files on networked
computers and does not send the serial numbers of the programs it finds.

> Reports to the contrary started earlier in the year, Microsoft said, with
an erroneous trade magazine story, one that has since been circulated and
even amplified on the Internet.  One version of the rumor, consistently
denied by Microsoft, had it that the Registration Wizard sent the serial
numbers of  the programs it finds so that Microsoft could crack down on
pirated copies of  its software.

> Windows 95 marketing manager Mike Conte said the registration program
looks for about two dozen programs by Microsoft and its competitors
including  Lotus Development, Novell Corp., and Intuit Inc. in such major
software categories

as
word processing, spreadsheets and personal finance. He said the installation


program does not search through every directory on a hard drive, but instead


looks for "signatures" of the programs, such as their "initialization files"


in
the main Windows directory.

> But for a piece of software that Microsoft's critics have labeled Big
Brother-ish, the Registration Wizard is surprisingly buggy. In a test of the


final Windows 95 software at the San Jose Mercury News, for example, the
Wizard
didn't detect an installed version of Microsoft's Excel. Then, when a copy
of
WordPerfect was installed, it "saw" the
Novell product but didn't see the copy of Microsoft Word that it had earlier


detected.

> Even if demonstrably false, the rumors about the snooping software have
been a PR headache for Microsoft. Some companies, for example, have balked
initially at installing Windows 95 for fear that competitive information
would end up in Microsoft's hands. And earlier this week, there were reports
that the Australian Navy was investigating the program, believing it might
lead to security violations.

> Microsoft has been concerned enough about the situation to have posted a
lengthy discussion of the issue on its World Wide Web home page.

> Its size and power in the computer industry not to mention its history of
very aggressive behavior around competitors make Microsoft a target for all
manner of rumors and conspiracy theories, which can then spread unchecked on


the Internet. For example, a recent one is that the Justice Department's
decision to not take action against the
Microsoft Network before the Windows 95 launch came after a secret meeting
in
Washington between Bill Gates and President Clinton.

> According to a company spokesman, Gates was recently at the White House as
part of an annual Washington visit and met briefly with Clinton, though the
antitrust action did not come up.

> And perhaps the firm should consider it a compliment, but its new
operating system is important enough in the popular culture to be the target
of this week's Doonesbury.  The comic strip's creator, Garry Trudeau, knows
how to spread it around, new technology-wise; when Apple introduced its
Newton, he skewered its handwriting recognition as comically inaccurate.

> The current strips are about an effort to install Windows 95, one in which


the product takes on a life of its own. In Tuesday's installment, Windows 95


takes over the computer and summarily begins issuing demands for more memory


and a faster microprocessor. And in a strip later in the week, a character
asks, "Why don't we just give Bill Gates all the money NOW and get it over
with?"

> "Pride," his friend answers.

As I said, I've got no opinions about this, save one:

> Personally, I avoid such attempts by commercial interests to "help me."
  Privacy is a terrible thing to waste.

THAT, I agree with.

 - Tara.

------- FORWARD, End of original message -------


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