Microsoft to Alter Software in Response to Privacy Concerns (1999)

Re:Microsoft to Alter Software in Response to Privacy Concer... by 0x0 on Sunday August 02, 2015 @06:35PM (#9992761)

I seem to vaguely remember some internet story about how these embedded UUIDs were used to de-mask a person by matching an UUID from a document with a known author against an incriminating document. Or was it matching an Ethernet card's MAC address to an UUID in the .doc? Can't remember any details now.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft to Alter Software in Response to Privacy Concer... by ojno on Sunday August 02, 2015 @06:48PM (#9992801)

I think you're thinking of the Melissa virus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_(computer_virus) which did indeed get tracked back to its author like that.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft to Alter Software in Response to Privacy Concer... by 0x0 on Sunday August 02, 2015 @07:00PM (#9992843)

That's it! Thanks for the reminder.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft to Alter Software in Response to Privacy Concer... by h4ckerish on Sunday August 02, 2015 @06:58PM (#9992837)

Not so long ago people were concerned about CPU id. http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i224/s99/GroupJ/whitepap...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft to Alter Software in Response to Privacy Concer... by shillno1138 on Sunday August 02, 2015 @06:47PM (#9992798)

There is very little anonymity in the real world in terms of computing at this point. You would have to be extremely careful to truly mask any electronic media being used as any kind of communication platform, online or offline.

[ Parent | on HN ]