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Microsoft to Rid Windows of Tracking Numbers By Ted Bridis

Associated Press

Monday, March 8, 1999; Page A08 Microsoft Corp., which sells the software runs most of the world's personal computers, said yesterday that its latest version of Windows generates a unique serial number that partly is planted within electronic documents and could be used to trace the identity of authors. In a disclosure with privacy implications, Microsoft said it was investigating whether it was collecting the serial numbers from customers even if they explicitly indicated they did not want them disclosed. "If it is, it's just a bug," said Robert Bennett, Microsoft's product manager for Windows. "If it is indeed happening . . . we'll absolutely fix that." A software programmer, Richard M. Smith, of Brookline, Mass., noticed last week that documents Smith created using Microsoft's popular Word and Excel programs in tandem with the Windows 98 operating system included within the hidden software code a number unique to his computer. The 32-digit Windows number also appears in a log of information transmitted to Microsoft when customers register their copies of Windows 98, even if they say they don't want details about their computers sent to the company. Microsoft's Word and Excel programs are among the most widely used, and its Windows operating systems run about 85 percent of the world's personal computers. Smith compared the code number with a person's Social Security number being stamped on every document they create. "Nobody to my knowledge has had a database that would allow a piece of written material to be traced back to who wrote it," said Smith, president of Phar Lap Software Inc. "I don't expect Microsoft to do that kind of tracing, but it's sort of unprecedented." Steven Sinofsky, a vice president for Microsoft's Office products, which include Word and Excel, said the electronic documents contain only part of the Windows number, including 12 digits unique to each network adapter. Such devices are common in business computers and allow high-speed Internet connections. In computers without such network devices, among them most home personal computers, a common "dummy" address is used, effectively making it impossible to trace authorship of documents created on those machines. "There is no reason for people to have these worries," Sinofsky said, adding that Microsoft will disable the feature in upcoming versions of the programs. "I'm super-sensitive to people's concerns." Bennett said Microsoft will create a software tool to let customers remove the number, which he said is meant to help diagnose problems for customers who call with questions. Smith suggested, however, that Microsoft also could use the technology to identify stolen copies of Windows by comparing the hardware serial number with a 20-digit product number that also is transmitted when a customer registers. Bennett said Microsoft was looking into whether the number, called a Globally Unique Identifier, ever was obtained from customers who didn't want details about their computer hardware disclosed, such as their network addresses. Bennett promised that Microsoft also will wipe any of those numbers from its internal databases that the company can determine may have been inadvertently collected. Privacy activists weren't mollified. "The impact is, if you have one of these tattooed numbers, you can extract the Ethernet address of the computer that created the document," said Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp. of Green Brook, N.J., which lobbies on privacy issues. © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company Back to the top