I have been taught in my childhood, “Computer is a device that accepts instructions from a user and generates a corresponding output”. Whenever I use computer, I feel free. The basic freedom i.e. the freedom to use it my way.

But what if I’m cannot use the computer my way? Well, I use Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and I’m free from the threat. But what if you cannot use the computer the way you want to use it? What if the basic freedom, “freedom to use”, isn’t valid in your case?

The main reason I shifted to Ubuntu was far more urgent than hardware support. Yes, I moved to Ubuntu two years ago because Windows didn’t support my hardware(that’s the reason my friends think of). I’m not sharing here why I shifted to Ubuntu but pointing out why you should shift.

As most people think, their computer should obey their orders, so do I. But when I found out that, with a plan called “trusted computing” and a program called “Windows Genuine Advantage“, Microsoft and others are planning to make my computer obey them instead of me.

Now let us have a review of M$ and its privacy issues. If you are a M$ lover or advocate then you wouldn’t love to hear this as you may be stuck between your love and freedom. The choice is yours, completely yours fellas.

Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is M$’s system for remotely checking your computer. WGA scans various parts of your hard drive to reassure M$ that you are running an “approved” version of Windows. WGA is mandatory monitoring system and if M$ decides you are not “approved” they can disable your computer’s functionality. Currently Microsoft confirms that WGA checks:

• Computer make and model
• BIOS
• MAC address
• A unique number assigned to your computer – Globally Unique Identifier or GUID
• Hard drive serial number
• Region and language settings of the operating system
• Operating system version
• PC BIOS information (make, version, date)
• PC manufacturer
• User locale setting
• Validation and installation results.
• Windows or Office product key
• Windows ID

WGA have caused a number of privacy related problems, including deletion of software. WGA gets automatically updated as part of M$’s critical update procedures, giving users little choice but to accept changes to the systems M$ can monitor. Many have claimed that WGA is spyware, and although M$ have denied such intent, they retain the power to decide what counts as an invasion of your privacy. Well let us not forget Windows Media Player in Windows 7 Beta phase corrupting mp3′s.

For Windows 7 they are changing the name of the product to Windows 7 Activation Technologies (WAT), but the functionality remains the same.

Microsoft’s version of a “Trusted Computing” scheme is called “Palladium“. Proprietary programs have included malicious features before, but Palladium would make it universal.

Hollywood and the record companies will use Palladium to ensure that downloaded videos and music can be played only on one specified computer and the sharing of ‘authorized’ files will be entirely impossible.

Making sharing impossible is bad enough, but it gets worse. There are plans to use the same facility for email and documents–resulting in email that disappears in two weeks, or documents that can only be read on the computers in one company.

Consider a scenario, your teacher told you via email, to do something nasty and risky. After weeks of the task being completed, your teacher steps aside and you have no proof that it was your teacher’s decision.

Moreover, Treacherous computing puts the existence of free operating systems and free applications at risk, because you may not be able to run them at all.

Some versions of treacherous computing would require the operating system to be specifically authorized by a particular company. Free operating systems could not be installed. Some versions of treacherous computing would require every program to be specifically authorized by the operating system developer.

You could not run free applications on such a system. If you did figure out how, and told someone, that could be a crime.

Now let us not speak of foreign affairs and step back to out country, our society and M$ Nepal.

Let us have a look back at how M$ Nepal is violating its own privacy statements.

Forum Post - Mr. ubuntubay

Forum Post - Mr. Allen

You can go to the forum here to view the full discussion. In the above image you can see that although the user ubuntubay was hidden behind a handle, his information (name) was disclosed publicly. I think the Mr. Admin hadn’t seen the movie Spider Man.

“With great power, comes great responsibility” – Uncle Ben, SpiderMan

This shows that M$ shows no respect to its user’s privacy.

If you still think that you are a human, you have rights and you respect you privacy and want to ship to free OSes like Ubuntu, Fedora, etc then visit our FORUM. Feel free to ask questions there. We are heartily willing to help people to shift to Linux.

Feel free to comment.

Regards
fr3ak

Reference: http://en.windows7sins.org/

Tags: computer, computer privacy, hollywood, hollywood palladium, karmic, karmic koala, M$ monopoly, microsoft, microsoft plans, monopoly, move to ubuntu, palladium, privacy, shift to ubuntu, treacherous, treacherous computing, trusted computing, Ubuntu, why move to ubuntu, windows, windows 7, windows genuine advantage, WMG