Hi, being fed up with being data mined, I've bumped up the security on my PC and even turned off all cookies on my browser. A few web sites don't like it, no big loss. I'm glad I have some control.
I've noticed a lot of WGA updates lately and decided to have a closer look at what it's doing. Turns out, according to the FAQ, that Microsoft is data mining with WGA:
Information collected during validation
Q: What information is collected from my computer?
A: The genuine validation process will collect information about your system to determine if your Microsoft software is genuine. This process does not collect or send any information that can be used to identify you or contact you. The only information collected in the validation process is:
- Windows product key
- PC manufacturer
- Operating System version
- PID/SID
- BIOS information (make, version, date)
- BIOS MD5 Checksum
- User locale (language setting for displaying Windows)
- System locale (language version of the operating system)
- Office product key (if validating Office)
- Hard drive serial number
Q: How does Microsoft use this information?
A: The information serves three purposes:
- It provides Web page flow, tailoring the pages you see based on your responses.
- It conveys demographics, which help Microsoft to understand regional differences in Windows or Office usage.
- It confirms user input. User input is often compared
Saying that "this process does not collect information that can be used to identify you" is equivalent to taking down my car make, model, year, color, license plate, serial number, specs, etc., and saying it's not personal data. But that's not even the point, what if I just don't feel like being data mined?
Well, I'd like to opt out. WGA confirms my license is valid, but I simply don't like the data mining process. So what can I do to opt out? Do I have any control whatsover? Is my only option to stop using Windows?
