on the next Windows edition box there should stand: "Now with even more spy features!!!" privacy is sooo overrated...

.

a lot of companies do things that are borderline illegal.

as long as they don't hop over the border they don't care, and some don't even care if they hop over it!

Every big corp does this...it's the sad truth. And for the anti-Microsoft brigade ready to pounce on this

Sony installs rootkits on people's PCs to monitor them
http://www.usatoday.com/tec...

Microsoft wipes rootkit from Windows
http://news.cnet.com/Micros...

I would like to be one of those 1800 people.

wow enjoy investing your money and gaming choices in a company that spies on you

Oh yeah, I can totally see people being excited over Microsoft spying on them. Where's this "opt out" thing, and how do they track you, via IE or via Windows?

This is not a MS issue its a interent on a whole issue. All ads, and site collect some data. Thats how you get specific spam and with google if you clikc certain ads it will reconize those ad you click and feed you more of the same. Old news

Big Corp's never learn. I swear, isn't this stuff illegal? What's scary to me is, if this corporations are doing all of this, just imagine what the government is doing!?

They are probably in your PC's RIGHT NOW! Hacking your CPUs.

How sad...it's like, Xbots pay to get spied on...way to go with your investment

Remember the Sony RootKit scandel?

Everyone spies.

That article is so vague. So what are the "privacy friendly" companies? The majority of data collected by these companies through their ads is not personally identifiable. Practically every website that displays ads, including this one, is collecting some sort of usage data. Maybe not the website itself, but the company serving the ads is.

All of them do it. So what is the point of posting this obviously biased against Microsoft article?

I fully admit I look at ign.com, redtube, xtube, and n4g.com. Is that so hard? who cares if people know you look at porn sites or whatever? You're filmed walking down the sidewalk. You pay for a service, you pay companies to provide your internet connection, your ISP can spy on you, MS can spy on you, satellites can spy on you, who cares? If you want complete privacy, don't leave your home and don't turn on your computer. Sit around reading books. you think Apple is innocent? I bet they have satellites that can pick up iPods and iMacs based on their MAC addresses and other chips inside. Not to mention card access systems at work, I bet your access cards have chips inside that can be read from a distance by hackers using radioscopic antennas. How about your driver's license? They scan them at bars and some liquor stores. How about credit cards and other "cards" in your wallet? Grow up. you don't have privacy and haven't for 60 years

remember were the peasants still big Corporations and Government come at a cost say your privacy, they wont tell you, you think your phones arent still being hacked into HA i laugh at you. yea we have no privacy what so ever we cant stop them, lol and people want obama as president. omglol. it sickens me he doesnt even know how many states are in america, you know what he said, lol get this 57. where are there fiftyseven states in the USA, or maybe theres fiftyseven muslim territories in the middle east, hes not american people hes the enemy and were to dumb to see it, stop following the obama bumper stickers and look around and listen, hes muslim were the infidels remember and hes racsist too. www.michaelsavage.com

The only people concerned about their privacy are the ones leading dual life or doing something unethical. I was earlier working in with accounting software vendor company. Their software could let us get info about the accounts of any company using our software and connecting online. So you'd be naive to know the O/S in your computer, the antivirus software, the spy blocking software etc will not be leaking out info about ur system/activities.

I knew there'd be people who'd defend microsoft even when they do something like this. If microsoft stole all of it's money from blind children people would say "OH and I guess sony gets all its money the honest way right? they've never done anything wrong?"

Now they must admit their console is crap and they lost the console war.

But denial is strong.

It always seem that they never use the results anyway.
I still get a ton of mail trying to sell me credit from banks and cedit card companies, dispite the fact I have never asked for credit in my life.
It just proves that pispite collecting all this information...they just ignore it anyway.

all others are guilty.

Everyone here is ripping on Microsoft for being so terrible but no one is talking about the Sony Rootkit issue which is far worse than something like this?

Hows this gaming news?

The truly sad thing is that people actually think that: 1) There is actually privacy outside your own mind; 2) That you have a right to privacy. Anyone who can show me a right to privacy is either mistaken or just foolish. Also, in other news, the sky is blue, grass is green, water is wet. I know, these tidbits are just as shocking as a business trying to make money off of people.

Not the news but people's reaction..

So which company DOESN'T spy on it's customer and their habits..

Don't be naive.

so the next time I run Windows Explorer I'll be sure to give Microsoft the big one finger salute.

You should run firefox.

as a community, people that play video games are looked down upon by the general society. this is because video games are looked at as childish... which is why i almost can't stand this site anymore. can everyone on here stop acting like 5 year olds? your precious sony spies on you too. whatever brand clothes you wear? that company is spying on you too. every damn business in the world is spying on you. that's how that they know what, when and how much to sell things for. no company is "evil", every company is the same. they have one goal, and that's to make money. the japanese and the chinese industrialists are a HELL of a lot more cutthroat than american business, so you can only imagine what samsung, nintendo and sony are doing that you don't know about. no company is evil or bad, because each and every one of you would do the exact same thing in their position, if that meant the difference between a year end bonus of $20,000 and $40,000 based on performance. stop being childish, or at least wait until you've taken some college business classes before you comment on business practices. microsoft doesn't owe you any privacy, neither does general motors or comcast. they are all going to spy on you as much as they can, and if they caught, they'll pay the fines. and it will be worth it for them for that little bit of market analysis that they got, and they really don't give a damn if you're upset about their invasion of your privacy.