Microsoft dirty trick: installing stuff you don't need or want

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The Windows Updater is supposed to patch your system against critical flaws and exploits. To make things easier for normal users, there's an "Express Install" button where you don't have to review each update one at a time and can just trust Microsoft to install only the most security critical patches.

Enter the Windows Genuine Advantage notification tool. It tool doesn't protect you or do anything at all to help your system, it collects data about your computer and declares your copy of Windows legal or not. In millions of cases, it wrongly identifies systems as being "pirated" and nags users repeatedly about having an illegal copy and how to contact Microsoft for a legitimate one. Even worse, it locks you out of further security updates until you do.

To make sure that you don't miss WGA, they slipped it into IE7, Windows Defender, and Windows Media Player 11. But the worst of all was issuing it as a "critical update" on Windows updater. This way, anyone who clicked the "Express Install" button would get it by default without knowing better.

It's because of practices like this that geeks don't like Microsoft. They slipped a tool onto your machine that spies on your system and disables functionality. Sounds like a virus to me.

So why am I posting such old news now? First, I haven't talked about this before and it really ticks me off. Second, the WGA made PC World's 20 all time most annoying tech products (at number 9).

Annoying. Yup

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For it's incessant prompts to "allow or continue", it's terrible compatibility with older software, and for Aero not working on most machines even though Microsoft marketing always shows the Aero experience (which so many people don't actually get to see). PC World puts Vista as #8 on the top 20 most annoying tech products of all time.

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It looks like there's a legitimate working hack for Vista that kills their bogus activation scheme. Microsoft is saying that they're not going to do anything about it yet because they don't know if it will become a wide exploit. But I think this commentor (from the source article) has it more correct:

They didn't think it through as a "hacker" (pirate more like it) would, and now they have a problem. Millions of legitimate users are out there with legitimate hardware sold with Vista. MS can't simply pull the carpet out from under these users. They will need to devise a way that all users can continue using their systems without having to do something drastic like reinstall or update the BIOS because many users simply don't know how to. Even locating the product key on the sticker would be difficult for some.

MS can't simply pull the OEM keys and try again.

But on MS's side, the number of users using this method is very low. And MS have said they'd prefer we pirate Windows than use MacOS or Linux.

Want this? Lol, nope

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This is useful. A short write-up on how to tell when someone can get away with not giving you what was advertised vs when you can force them to honor a deal to their detriment. Here's the interesting part:

Employs compensation methods that discourage or penalize sales people for selling the bait.

So that means that any kind of negative reinforcement used to make sales people not want to sell the advertised "junker" is bait and switch too. Employees take note.

Sleazy Sales

Here's a sheet they use for upselling people on what many consider to be worthless insurance.

They dropped their "don't be evil" motto for a reason

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I love Google and almost all they do, but they've got to stop with the data brokering. Of course, of all data brokering companies, I trust them more since they keep they will actually fight to protect your privacy unlike some other companies.

Hey buddy... wanna rebate?

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In a trend that we hope continues, Best Buy Canada has killed mail in rebates. Companies have been ripping off customers for years with rebates so it's nice to see the trend finally reversing.

Suck it all down

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Data Brokering (what I refer to as data brokering) is the practice of buying and assembling personal information and then reselling it. As opposed to credit reporting companies, these people collect everything they can about you. Companies like Facebook and Choicepoint for example.

James Derrell White, 41, who happens to live in Alpharetta, Ga., where ChoicePoint is based, was denied a job with Home Depot this year because data provided by ChoicePoint incorrectly identified him as a felon. "We thought we were in a bad dream," says Julie White, James' wife.

Data brokers have very little regulation which is what leads to problems like these.

"No matter how good any company's attitudes toward privacy, there are too many players in the (data-collecting) industry — too many intricate parts when it comes to privacy issues — to expect self-regulation to effectively deal with the problems," Solove says.

Hear, hear! We need laws and we need laws now.

(Image copyright Jeremy Duffy)

Maybe not beating, but at least not falling for it. The Consumerist hosted a fantastic expose on how dealers use a four square piece of paper to rip people off right in front of their eyes. I have actually seen this before and don't remember what the result was, but I'm pretty sure we walked away thinking we had "won" when we got a lower monthly payment.

It's harder to bully people out of their money if they've been educated on their rights.

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Apparently, there's a new anti-RIAA force called the Digital Freedom Campaign.

With the DFU initiative, Digital Freedom wants to paint a bigger picture of copyright law for students, one that is not forthcoming from the movie and music industries. "The Digital Freedom University Initiative will fight to ensure that these thousands of college-age students, who represent future artists, innovators and consumers, fully understand their rights, and have a voice in the long- term solution."