I swear, this big brother thing is getting out of hand. A Slashdot article is reporting on how Microsoft wants to develop a technology that will allow them to identify internet users based on the websites they visit and such. Honestly, I think if it really got to that point I would hope for some hack that disabled that feature or I would have to stop using the internet. I don’t have anything to hide but I think that’s a serious invasion of privacy and don’t want to provide them with information that would help them develop their program.

From the article:

New Scientist reports on a technology Microsoft is developing to identify users based on their browsing habits. Quote: ‘The software could get its raw information from a number of sources, including a new type of ‘cookie’ program that records the pages visited. Alternatively, it could use your PC’s own cache of web pages, or proxy servers could maintain records of sites visited. So far it can only guess gender and age with any accuracy,’ but the aim is to be able to identify name, occupation and location as well. On a related note, The Inquirer reports on Microsoft’s plans to widen the use of its identity-verification technology CardSpace, which is built into Windows Vista and available as an add-on to XP. It’s being envisioned as an identity solution for the entire internet: says Kim Cameron, pioneer of the technology, ‘We feel it has to solve all use cases.’ (Aha, so the anonymous use cases, too, eh?) One might ask, with all of this user-ID information on hand, how long will it be until the Feds come knocking on Microsoft’s door asking for help? They already have.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 9:58 pm and is filed under Microsoft, Slashdot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.