Windows in exchange for privacy

It's amazing how Microsoft's interesting initiative was overlooked, designed to give the company's software developers information to improve its products. Up until Tuesday, MS literally handed out licenses for Windows Vista Ultimate, Office Ultimate 2007, Encarta Premium 2008, and a number of other programs. Distributed free of charge in exchange for a subscription to the Windows Feedback Program , according to which a special utility is installed on your computer that monitors your actions and sends reports about them to Redmond on average once a day.

All this is needed in order to more accurately prioritize work: which functions are most demanded by users, which are hardly used or cause problems, etc. The utility collects information from your computer during the first three months after installation, and then it can be deleted.

The list of data that can be sent to Microsoft is clearly stated. The only thing that confuses is that the list of data that the utility can collect is not limited to any obligations. The threat to the privacy of private life here, though ghostly, is certainly significant for many. And yet not so for many, if you look at how quickly the number of licenses allocated to the participants of the initiative was exhausted.