James Delahunty
9 Mar 2007 10:32
The latest version of Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software phones home regardless of whether or not a user installs it. Microsoft has admitted, that even if you choose to click Cancel when prompted to install the anti-piracy tool from Windows Update, the software will still phone home to the Redmond-based company.
WGA has been criticized for many reasons; mainly over privacy concerns and the software's mistakes of branding fully legitimate Windows XP installations as pirated. However, even though this latest development has provoked an angry response from web sites and bloggers, Microsoft ensures that it does not send information that could identify an individual user, but is instead used to collate statistics on WGA use.
"The data collection and transfer in question are part of some of our update download services, such as the Windows Update service. As with other programs downloaded via these services, the success or failure of WGA Notifications' installation is sent to Microsoft," Microsoft UK anti-piracy manager Michala Alexander said in a statement.
He added: "If the user interrupts installation of WGA Notifications, we send the number of the screen on which installation stopped (first, second, etc.). In order to establish an accurate count, we also generate several globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) that do not contain any personal information. We use the GUIDs to tally the number of individual machines without identifying the user. Other data sent includes user and machine language settings and whether or not the machine was joined to a domain."
Source:
The Register