Who's Watching Big Brother?

By Stuart J. Johnston

few months ago, a colleague who has a penchant for conspiracy theories sent me the following E-mail:

"Just spoke to a friend at [a major computer vendor] who passed on an interesting tip. He said that techs . . . are reporting that computers with OSR2 [Windows 95 OEM Service Release #2] installed, if left on overnight, call up MSN [the Microsoft Network online service] and connect for about 7 and a half minutes. That's about a 1.5 meg transfer at 28.8. Nothing is printed on the screen to indicate anything is going on. [He] suspects the Registry is being transferred but hasn't confirmed it. Any ideas?"

Wow.

If true, that would be the ultimate violation of users' privacy, wouldn't it? But even for a professional cynic like me, this sounded a little out there. For the record, Microsoft says none of its software will automatically dial anywhere.

There's plenty of skittishness about Microsoft and its respect for individual privacy, but I'm not so paranoid as that. I don't believe that Microsoft has programmed users' machines to sneak around behind their owners' backs to call Redmond and inform on them. However, I'm not ready to say that my friend was being totally ridiculous in granting at least initial credence to such rumors. After all, Richard Nixon was indeed correct when he said that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

That is why a couple of things that Microsoft executives said at last month's yearly Microsoft Financial Analysts Meeting and Windows Platform Briefing made my blood run cold. One of the things that group VP Paul Maritz said was that the Zero Administration features of Windows NT 5.0 would help to cut total cost of ownership by enabling the "a ggressive management" of PCs.

Lets call it the dark side of the Zero Administration Windows (ZAW) initiative. You'll recall that ZAW is a plan being implemented in Windows NT 5.0 and partially in Windows 98 to enable a complete copy of all of a user's files, programs, and profile to be automatically stored on the server so that the user can roam from machine to machine and software updates can be installed automatically.

So a copy of every file you create will be stored on the central server? Well, what if you were keeping a file that documents every time your boss made a pass at you or said something grossly inappropriate? Or maybe your boss is so Dilbertesque that he or she is so totally incompetent that you're keeping a record of all the stupid things your boss has done, just in case. Don't forget that NetPCs will have hard disk drives but not necessarily floppy disk drives that would allow you to make a removable copy of that file.

"PCs [will be] continuously connected to the Internet, and the Internet service provider will be able to see what is on your machine," Maritz said at one point. In fact, he later explained, WebTV set-top boxes already note Web-page access failures in the box, and that information is uploaded to the ISP's server at night. "That's one of the benefits of permanent connectivity," he said.

I don't believe that I'm taking those statements out of context. Neither do I think that Microsoft necessarily plans to use the technology for evil. After all, the wild paranoia over Windows 95's Online Registration Wizard was just that -- wild, unfounded paranoia.

Still, the idea of everything on my machine being accessible by someone other than me does not sound like a good idea. This is partly because I have always closely identified with the "personal" in personal computer, as I think many users have. The combination of continuous connectivity with the ability to mirror on the server everything that resides on your local PC could make a dangerous combination in the wrong hands, particularly if you can't keep a copy for yourself. Network computers, by the way, also have the same potential for privacy violations, because they get all of their intelligence and file storage from a central server.

These possible scenarios recall the plight of Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell's "1984," whose job it was to delete inconvenient "facts" that would show that history had been retroactively revised. In that novel, Big Brother's slogan was: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

You might add to that statement that he (or she) who controls the universal file store controls all three. The potential for abuse is present, and experience teaches that someone will eventually abuse the privilege. So, as in other areas of human rights, you always have to keep your eyes open and operate with a skeptical mind. Otherwise, it might take 20 more years to get there, but we could arrive at Orwell's 1984 after all.

In the meantime , how about someone stays up all night with their computer to make sure that it really doesn't have a penchant for phoning home?

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Rich Levin: Run Time Rich fills you in on all of the latest products, issues, and trends in application development.		Stuart J. Johnston: Redmond Watch As our eyes and ears in Redmond, Stuart gives his perspective on the latest events at Microsoft.		Charles Pelton: Eye On IT Charles explores IT management issues and strategies that business and technology managers face.

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