A word of warning regarding Windows Update

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike
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Mike

I have been researching with great interest a report from a German company
into their interest into the activity of outgoing data sent back to
Microsoft from Windows Update. This really opened my eyes as to what
Microsoft learn about your PC from hardware device ID's, software installed
on the PC plus probably whatever else they want to know. In my opinion this
is nothing more than a quiet backdoor. Microsoft's disclaimer is that no
personal information is collected; they need to know certain information
about your PC in order to determine what updates are necessary, yet using
SSL it has been discovered that your IP address, OS PID, Product Key,
Activation code plus again, all software installed is sent to back to
Microsoft. Surely Windows Update is breaching some privacy law?
 
Mike said:
I have been researching with great interest a report from a German company
into their interest into the activity of outgoing data sent back to
Microsoft from Windows Update. This really opened my eyes as to what
Microsoft learn about your PC from hardware device ID's, software installed
on the PC plus probably whatever else they want to know. In my opinion this
is nothing more than a quiet backdoor. Microsoft's disclaimer is that no
personal information is collected; they need to know certain information
about your PC in order to determine what updates are necessary, yet using
SSL it has been discovered that your IP address, OS PID, Product Key,
Activation code plus again, all software installed is sent to back to
Microsoft. Surely Windows Update is breaching some privacy law?
Click to expand...
I am far from a fan of Microsoft, but this is the usual trolling rhetoric
you need to beware of. What is more of a concern is people who enable the
"Automatically Update Windows" and "Always Trust Content from Microsoft" on
their updater. The danger is not so much from Microsoft, but the reality
that you are then leaving another vulnerability on your system to be
exploited. For this reason, I have not installed the latest service pack for
Win2K as it seems very difficult to disable the autoupdate "feature" on this
SP.

For the record, I still think OS/2 was the best desktop operating system
created and, given the right conditions, I find Linux an excellent server
operating system. I think Microsoft has made a huge mistake pulling the plug
on support for Win98, but I understand the economics of the decision. I do
think Microsoft has gone a little overboard with the installation scheme
required for WinXP, and it seems to be the wave of the future for Microsoft,
but I do not have a better solution to guard against piracy or the more
common practice of buying one OS and installing it on all your computers and
all your relatives' and friends' computers. BTW, Microsoft is not the first
to use such a scheme. I remember battling with Computer Associates over a
copy of ArcServe that quit working in the middle of a backup session and
going through a very similar registration process.
 
Mike said:
I have been researching with great interest a report from a German company
into their interest into the activity of outgoing data sent back to
Microsoft from Windows Update. This really opened my eyes as to what
Microsoft learn about your PC from hardware device ID's, software installed
on the PC plus probably whatever else they want to know. In my opinion this
is nothing more than a quiet backdoor. Microsoft's disclaimer is that no
personal information is collected; they need to know certain information
about your PC in order to determine what updates are necessary, yet using
SSL it has been discovered that your IP address, OS PID, Product Key,
Activation code plus again, all software installed is sent to back to
Microsoft. Surely Windows Update is breaching some privacy law?
Click to expand...
Which is one of many reasons I don't download and install the things. "If
it ain't broke, why fix it ? " Things work just fine here, thank you.
Reading up on what they're for and the problems they create probably
outweigh the security and privacy issues, but thee latter still are there.
IOW, it's none of their BIZZNESS but they're out to get all they can.

Malv
 
Mike said:
I have been researching with great interest a report from a German company
into their interest into the activity of outgoing data sent back to
Microsoft from Windows Update.
Click to expand...

By saying "researching with great interest" are you telling us that you paid
the small fee (can't remember how much it was) to view the entire article
the German company circulated a few months back? The "teaser" article they
distributed to all the news sources was written to make it sound like they
had made some big discovery about personal data Microsoft collects from
Windows Update. If you in fact put money in these mercenary "journalists"
hands and read the entire article you will find that they found that NO
PERSONAL information was being transmitted or collected.

So do you have some sort of additional reasearch results we don't know about
or did you just read the FREE part of the article and go off on a troll-like
rant?




This really opened my eyes as to what
Microsoft learn about your PC from hardware device ID's, software installed
on the PC plus probably whatever else they want to know. In my opinion this
is nothing more than a quiet backdoor. Microsoft's disclaimer is that no
personal information is collected; they need to know certain information
about your PC in order to determine what updates are necessary, yet using
SSL it has been discovered that your IP address, OS PID, Product Key,
Activation code plus again, all software installed is sent to back to
Microsoft. Surely Windows Update is breaching some privacy law?
Click to expand...


Have you come up with a better way to keep the millions of windows user's
machines updated with the latest patches, fixes, and drivers for the myriad
of software and hardware configurations that Windows runs on? It is my
opinion that Windows Update is singularly one of the best features MS has
ever included with an OS. I can't imagine life without out it, especially
when I'm trying to provide support for my friends who are computer
illiterates. Windows Update allows me to get their computers up to a level
playing field with a minimum of effort and internet searching on my part.

Charles Tomaras
Seattle, WA
 
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