Thursday, October 30, 2008
A Chinese citizen has filed a civil lawsuit against Microsoft after the Windows Genuine Advantage software was installed on his computer as part of an automatic update.
The program is designed to identify pirated copies of the Windows operating system and changes the background colour to black and issues an onscreen warning every hour when it suspects that a version is cracked.
Dong Zhengwei, 35, a Beijing lawyer, told China Daily that the software amounted to an invasion of privacy, calling Microsoft "the biggest hacker in China."
"They should target producers and sellers of fake software, not users. The authorities should take action to protect citizens' property and privacy rights," he continued.
He has also approached the ministry of public security in an effort to launch a public lawsuit against the software giant.
Elsewhere, data security researcher Ed Dickson has criticized the claim of invasion of privacy on the grounds that China has a long history of reported internet monitoring and eavesdropping.
Writing on Blogcritic.com, he noted that many cases of identity theft and fraud have also been traced back to China.
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