>
> How did I miss this??
>
> MICROSOFT RESPONDS TO PRIVACY ISSUE
> Reacting to a controversy started when a programmer in Brookline, Mass.,
> discovered Windows 98 generates a unique serial number that is implanted in
> every electronic document and that can be used to trace the identify of its
> author, Microsoft said it will create a software tool to allow customers to
Why are you surprised???
* We have allowed them to abandon Open Standards which everyone can
clearly see everything in a document
* They believe many people, maybe everyone with a computer,
is a thief
* It is trivial to hide identification markers in proprietary
standards
With those beliefs, what would you do?
I'll give you three guesses who inspired Intel to come up with a
processor ID. It probably wasn't IBM!
> remove the number, which was created to help support specialists diagnose
> problems for customers who call with questions. Jason Catlett, who lobbies
> on privacy issues, says, "This is going to be a cleanup job larger than the
> Exxon Valdez oil spill. There are billions of tattooed documents out
> there." (AP 8 Mar 99)
Do you really believe MS will produce such a tool?
Do you really believe they won't just shift that number elsewhere?
Do you really believe that the average user, who won't even install a
Netscape plugin, will actually make the effort to obtain, install, and
test whatever that tool is???
I, for one, doubt it. MS seems to believe the average user is either
a moron, or too pre-occupied with other aspects of his or her life to
realize what they are doing. And I fear they may be right.
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