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Re: [News] Windows EULA Modified - Further Restrictions Added

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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