Another day, another privacy concern... It seems that Microsoft has admitted to an "issue" discovered in Windows 98 and Microsoft Office. Apparently Office generates its own unique ID number, called a GUID, that is based partially on the computer's Ethernet hardware address (if an Ethernet interface is available). This identifier is then reportedly sent back to Microsoft when the user runs the Registration Wizard in Windows 98. A CNET article has more on this potential violation, which Microsoft is calling a "flaw."

The gentleman who discovered this issue reports that during the registration process, Windows 98 sends a multitude of info back to Redmond, including information about the computer hardware, the GUID, and an ID number generated by each Microsoft application. What's more, the GUID of a specific computer is stored in each document created by Microsoft Office applications. Rob Bennett, a Windows product manager, says that "the GUID is most likely not being stored in databases at Microsoft," which is about as comforting as a teddy bear wired to a car battery. We somehow find it a bit hard to swallow that Windows 98 "accidentally" trasmits this GUID back to Microsoft during registration, but that's just us. As for Microsoft's motives, that's entirely open to speculation. Personally, we think it has less to do with tracking an individual's actions and more to do with finding pirated software. Regardless, Bennett says the "bug" will be fixed in the next service update to Windows 98.

While the "bug" he's specifically talking about is the way that the GUID is sent back to Microsoft when users register Office using Windows' Registration Wizard, there's no indication that the GUID will go away or that Office will stop stamping it into every document. What we at AtAT are wondering is, who's safe from having their Office documents branded with a GUID? Does it affect Mac users, too? The focus of the article is that Microsoft might be secretly collecting information about their customers when the GUID is sent to Redmond-- a scary thought, sure, but we're also a little concerned about the possibility that documents created in Office could then be traceable back to a specific computer. Does this make it impossible to generate a truly anonymous letter in Word, for example? Could analysis of the binary content of a Word file allow someone to prove that it was written on a given computer? It might just be us being paranoid again (no!), but all we can say is, we recommend you don't use Word 98 if you're planning on writing any ransom notes...