Roy Schestowitz wrote:
...
| Microsoft may collect information about your computer and may share it
| with other companies, but this may not include personal information
| about you.
On receiving my new notebook (not a laptop - there's a sticker on the bottom
saying "gets hot, do not use on a lap"...) I had a good perusal through
everything MS wants to be permitted to do.
Nowhere did they ask for permission to change the MBR, nor change the size
of a partition, modifying the partition table; on installation, a partition
changed size from 15G to 75G (all the available free space on the HD) - this
has modified the partition table and all the all the clusters that were then
included with the expanded partition: a direct breach of sect 3 of the
Computer Misuse Act 1990.
I also seem to remember reading that the data required for activation
doesn't include any information that can be traced to me; however I think it
does include the MAC address (in some form) - which uniquely identifies my
NIC, and so (effectively) my notebook, and so can be traced back to, and so
identify, me - GUIDs that MS is so fond of are based to a point on the MAC
address.
...
| Microsoft is not responsible for any damages. This includes loss of
| profit, the release of confidential information, or the loss of your
| privacy.
Buyer beware: the DPA requires the DU to ensure that confidential
information (in particular personal data) is /not/ released. Is MS going to
endemnify you against confidential information being released by malware
that has entered your system due to failures by MS to fix holes? (Holes
that have been in existence since /before/ Windwos existed[1].)
[1] Thinking in particular of auto-run when floppy disk^W^Wmedia is inserted
(now extended to auto-run when viewing emails, etc)
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