It turns out that Microsoft's Genuine Advantage anti-piracy program is also keeping daily tabs on Windows users. Who knew?
Well, until a few days ago, nobody outside of Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., knew.
According to an Associated Press report, David Lazar, director of the WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) program, Microsoft was doing this as "kind of a
safety switch."
More at source
The explanation makes no sense at all to me.
In order to protect you from being tracked MS tracks everything you do if you use their new software. And they had to destroy the digital village in
order to save it.
The last thing anti-piracy software users want is for their software to do exactly what MS did.
If they didn't think of this all by themselves they are idiots!
[edit on 11-6-2006 by Malichai]
I block those packets through my Software Firewall so no being tracked for moi. This is also not the first time Microsoft has done something
like this either, and frankely the fuss isn't the fact that they are tracking you, it's about how they disclose that information(or don't disclose
it as is the case here). If it were in the EULA then people would have known about this since the minute they added in this "feature" because,
believe it or not, there are people who scour EULA's on a regular basis of large software companies, just because they don't trust 'em. Will
microsoft get in trouble for this? I doubt it, either that or a slap on the wrist like a 50 million dollar fine or some such. Gates won't care, he
makes more on interest alone per day then a measily fine like that. 
