Microsoft Storm Warning
curious_guy
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/rose/2001/03/28/hailstorm/index.html
and
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/rose/2001/03/28/hailstorm/index1.html
"In case you haven't yet read about it, you may need a brief explanation
of HailStorm. If you have read about it, you definitely need an
explanation, because this is surely one of the murkiest product
announcements in history. "
"If you dig through the mountains of buzzwords in Microsoft's HailStorm
"white paper," you eventually discover that HailStorm is Microsoft's
effort to make computing more convenient by allowing you to A) collect
all your personal information in one format intelligible across many
platforms and devices, and B) store all that information with -- who
else? -- Microsoft. For a fee, of course."
"HailStorm purports to give us more control. But there is no escaping
the simple fact that Microsoft is asking us all to move our data from
its current home on our desktops into a paid service on a server inside
a Microsoft data center -- Bill Gates' Control Room."
"There's a mountain of reasons why this is a bad idea, beginning with
the technical and ending with the philosophical."
"For starters, the moment all your data is collected in one place, any
failure in security at that place becomes catastrophic. The Microsoft
Control Room becomes a classic "single point of failure" -- an Achilles'
heel that, once pierced, would give an electronic trespasser uniquely
comprehensive access to your preassembled data profile."
"These vulnerabilities are real and serious. But even if Microsoft were
somehow able to build a foolproof, fail-safe fortress of a system,
there'd still be reason to doubt the wisdom of handing Microsoft your
data. Depending on how you used it, HailStorm would know who you were,
where you were, what you were doing and when you did it, how much money
you had and how you spent it. It would hold the keys to your life. How
would you feel about handing those keys over to Microsoft?"
"HailStorm is to be built on the foundation of Microsoft's Passport
software, a service that lets you enter your personal data once and then
reuse it on multiple Web sites. Passport currently features an
industry-standard policy that assures users of their privacy. But it
also boasts a "Terms of Use" featuring clauses that, were they applied
to HailStorm, would make any user blanch."
"Try this one on for size: "By posting messages, uploading files,
inputting data, submitting any feedback or suggestions, or engaging in
any other form of communication with or through the Passport Web Site,
you warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control the rights
necessary to do so and you are granting Microsoft and its affiliated
companies permission to: Use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit,
publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, publish, sublicense,
create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any such communication
... Microsoft is under no obligation to post or use any materials you
may provide and may remove such materials at any time in Microsoft's
sole discretion."
"I think Gates and company are honest when they say that they're trying
to "build user-centric experiences": They believe that finding a way to
connect disparate technologies in a seamless way, and making personal
data more accessible, benefit everyone. They're right. But then they
insist that the best way to achieve this is via a paid service owned and
operated by Microsoft. Who'd buy that?"
http://www.passport.com/Consumer/TermsOfUse.asp