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Subject:Win'95 handing our directories over to MS????? From:Richard Mateosian <srm -at- C2 -dot- ORG> Date:Tue, 15 Aug 1995 08:59:08 -0700
I installed the beta version of Windows 95 last weekend. I used the online
registration option. At one point it presented me with a configuration
summary and a short list of applications it found on my machine and asked if
it was OK to transmit them.
It could have been LYING. And this is only the beta. The real version may be
craftier. However, it seems to have transmitted rather innocuous
information, and only after asking permission. Obviously the information is
valuable to Microsoft, or they wouldn't ask for it, but it didn't cost me
anything to give it to them, and I don't see any harm in it.
I've also long since stopped refusing to give out my social security number
(it never occurred to me to give out a false one), I use my credit card over
the phone, and I set up as many automatic payments of my regular obligations
as I can. ...RM