Microsoft exec bloviates about privacy

[unixronin]

The basic drift of this article is that Microsoft is working on cleaning up its act with respect to user privacy, after the recent fuss over the WGA Notifications tool "phoning home" system information on startup.  Microsoft's peter Cullen explains how Microsoft is trying to be a good player.

Then he blows it by bringing up the Trustworthy Computing Initiative:

Is there much debate, or do you have to fight for certain things when you're working with product teams?  Are there certain things that you really have put your foot down over?

Cullen:  One of the most gratifying things about Microsoft is privacy is a core tenet of the company.  It's part of the Trustworthy Computing Initiative, which was proclaimed by Bill Gates four-and-a-half years ago.  I find privacy is actually a forethought as opposed to an afterthought.  There are situations where we do provide counsel, but usually it is because the business unit really wants to do the right thing.

Privacy a forethought?!?  Lest anyone be unclear on this, the one person in the world whom the Trustworthy Computing platform explicitly does NOT trust is you, the owner of the machine.  Trustworthy Computing is not for one second about keeping your data private -- or even safe.  Trustworthy Computing doesn't give a tinker's damn who gets their hands on your data.  It's all about keeping you from getting your filthy, grubby little end-user hands on bits that some content provider doesn't want you copying, or even viewing in "unapproved" ways.

For example, the Trustworthy Computing Initiative does little or nothing to keep an intruder from gaining access to your computer and your files -- it doesn't monitor who accesses your data, or make sure your data isn't sent unencrypted over the Internet, or try to expose phishing attempts -- but it does encrypt data between your video card and your monitor, lest you try to steal or copy the video stream in some way.

Trustworthy Computing is not about you having a computer that YOU can trust.  It's about you having a computer that the MPAA and RIAA can trust.

Comments

[drdemure.livejournal.com]

I've noticed lately that my most diligent spammers have found glomped on to the topic lines of my normal email. I'm starting to think I should just turn off my computer for a couple of months and see what happens. It's not like I have anything to hide, but it kind of bothers me when they try to sell me something based on what I said to my sister at three a.m.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Do you have any idea how much of the "Trustworthy Computing" framework is in Vista? I must confess that I haven't been keeping track.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone outside of Microsoft knows, they're not telling any firm details, and it could change next week anyway. They've promised to ship it by November, but from what I've heard, the betas are still almost unusable.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

That matches what I have seen. (They are running the beta a few places at school. It pays to know lots of CS students and operators.)