Kort Explores conundrums of the human condition

It was reported on Compuserve by individuals who attended a Microsoft Win95 developer's workshop, that the long delayed Microsoft product "looks just like OS/2 Warp". However, if you install Microsoft's new Win95 product, you'll be getting an additional feature that's not listed on the box.

An unintended by-product of Microsoft's operating methods has been the creation of a whole new industry based on investigating and identifying the "undocumented features" of Microsoft products. Many of the technical computer magazines have regular columns on undocumented features. Reverse engineering is the usual method employed to find out what's really happening inside MS.DOS, Windows, and now Win95.

Until recently Microsoft managed to keep tight control over any real information about its new Win95 operating system through stringent nondisclosure agreements. Microsoft pre-announced Win95 more than a year before it was ready for release, and has worked hard to keep its vaporware product in the computer headlines. Whenever a competitor released a real product, Microsoft would flood the media with announcements of the imminent release of Win95, only to recant once the competitor's efforts to publicize their new product had been frustrated and exhausted.

With Win95 due "any day now" for over a year, there has been a lot of pressure in the computer industry to get past the hype and find out want was really there. Maintaining an absolute prohibition on the truth has proved difficult for Microsoft to maintain.

But after more than a year of manipulating the market with false promises and missed release dates, Win95 is now "almost" ready to release. A few copies of the beta version have leaked out of Microsoft's net of secrecy and the reverse engineers have been at work. One of the most disturbing revelations, disclosed in MacWEEK, regards what is possibly the world's first digital spy.

Microsoft has been consistently reticent about divulging to its customers any information about its digital spy. It first neglected to disclose that it had built the digital agent into its Win95 product. When confronted with the evidence of its existence, Microsoft has continued to be less than candid regarding the details of its agent's instructions. Microsoft has acknowledged that it calls its spy a "registration wizard". Obliged to admit to its agent's existence, Microsoft now claims that its "wizard" is only engaged in a marketing survey. One must wonder as to what other surprises remain undiscovered.

What is known so far about the Win95 digital spy is that it will search the computer on which it's installed and catalog the contents. If the computer is connected to a local area network, the agent will also search all of the other computers on the network. The agent stashes the information it has collected and waits for an opportunity to pass it on to its spy masters at Microsoft.

That opportunity occurs when the unsuspecting customer tries out his free "trial subscription" to the Microsoft Network. While the customer thinks he is trying out a harmless new service, the digital agent on his computer is secretly uploading to Microsoft valuable information about the contents of his computer. At no time is the customer asked permission to search his computer, or informed that his confidential information will be electronically transmitted to Microsoft.

Microsoft appears to believe it can avoid legal sanctions for the activities of its spy by claiming it's just a harmless marketing survey. But crime must always be considered from the point of view of the victim. Forewarned of the dangers, I will not consider installing Win95 on any of my computers or using the new Microsoft Network. But consider if I had fallen prey to the false claims that Win95 was safe for me to install and use on my computers, innocently unaware of Microsoft's intention to subvert my property to their own venial purposes.

As a computer owner, I would not willingly provide this information to Microsoft. I have purposefully chosen not to register those Microsoft products I currently possess expressly because I do not want to provide Microsoft with any information about me or my company. I especially do not want to provide Microsoft information about competitor's products installed on my machines. The information Microsoft is seeking has value - they wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to create their spy if it didn't. For Microsoft to take this valuable information from me against my will through deception would seem to cross the line into criminal conduct. However, the rules often appear different for perpetrators with billions in the bank.

I'm not the only one concerned about Microsoft's actions and intentions. The Federal Judge who presided over the hearings tried to block the recent settlement of antitrust charges against Microsoft claiming that the deal Microsoft made with the prosecutors failed to adequately address the issues in the case. The government has recently launched a new investigation of the Microsoft Network.

Perhaps more disturbing than spying on individual users is the potential threat to our national security. Microsoft has already or is in the process of placing its products on the computers of major defense contractors. Lockheed, for example, is contemplating dumping its majority installed base of Mac based computers in favor of Intel based computers running Win95. It would seem reasonable to be concerned as to what other information Microsoft's spy has been, or is capable of collecting.

Of perhaps greater concern is that even if Microsoft's current spy turns out to be relatively benign, what other more malignant uses can this agent be modified to serve? "Turning" a digital agent to serve a new master would seem even easier than turning a human agent. No messy brain washing, drugs, extortion, etc. Just fiddle the code a bit and turn it loose.

The first computer viruses were relatively benign, and look how dangerous they've become with a few years to mutate in the diseased minds of computer terrorists. Just as in organic biology, computer viruses are relatively simple code fragments that need the functions of other more complete software to survive. Imagine what can be done with a self contained digital agent capable of autonomous operation and possessing the first glimmerings of artificial intelligence.