08.31.08

Lesson in Attacks by Proxy: Microsoft Versus Google

Posted in Law, Microsoft, Google at 5:56 am by Roy Schestowitz

Let someone else absorb the blame

Microsoft’s attacks on competitors do not usually come directly from its own mouth, but there are a few exceptions. Remember SCO and “stolen code”? Or Novell with “intellectual property peace of mind”? Anyway, having already covered examples where Microsoft used the Federal Government, lobbying arms, copyright holders, intellectual monopolies, Yahoo and hired AstroTurfers to slam or to sue Google [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], we turn attention to this item from the news where a hugely hypocritical Microsoft denounces privacy violations at Google. It even does this directly, adding:

“I desperately hope that they…in fact I expect, that they will change. They will become as grown up as some of the larger companies around, so in some respects it’s a predictable thing,” added [Microsoft’s] Cullen.

It could not be any further from the realms of comedy coming from Microsoft itself. To daemonise Google, one must not be Microsoft because:

It violates people’s right for privacy when it sets up back doors in its software for ‘privileged’ access
It obtains and keeps complete copies of all the Web addresses Internet explorer users ever visit
It is profiling Web users aggressively
It eavesdrops on people on their own desktop, not just Internet activities (hardware/software installation, usage statistics, file tracking for forensics, etc.)

Google weather

This Google face-off is not just a direct one. Microsoft has already hired AstroTurfers (via LawMedia at the very least) in order to fake on-line backlash against Google. This dirty maneuver leaked and more recently was alluded to here, where similar tactics were described. In other words, if you spot people who protest against Google, they could be Microsoft shills on its payroll.

Microsoft is trying very hard to break the relationship between Google and Yahoo. Here is the latest:

Google is apparently going to disregard the investigation into any antitrust practices, and move forward in its advertising deal with Yahoo! in October, unless the government stops them.

Needless to say, excessive accumulation of personal data is harmful, but neither Microsoft nor its many proxies are in a position of higher moral grounds which enables criticism to be met with anything but laughter. Microsoft is a lot worse than Google, privacy-wise.

Speaking of privacy and how sensitive an issue its is, watch this from this news:

Labs Remove Genetic Data from Public Databases After Forensic Breakthrough

Now it has been reported that on Monday, four days before the paper came out, the National Center for Biotechnology Information pulled aggregated data off its Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP). The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Wellcome Trust in Britain have also removed aggregate data from public view.

See some of Microsoft’s very own Orwellian patents (list at the bottom), whose aim is to perform biological surveillance too. Never ever count on Microsoft for your privacy. 40% of all Windows users are claimed to be already sharing their own PC with strangers. █

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