“I always feel like, Microsoft’s watching me…”

Many of you have already read the story about Microsoft’s Piracy Tool checking in with the mothership once a day. The Windows Genuine Advantage tool supposedly does this as a quick way to shut down. I’m not sure how a program needs to check in daily in order to shut-down if it’s needed.

“It’s kind of a safety switch,” said David Lazar, who directs the Windows Genuine Advantage program. Lazar said the company decided to add the safety measure because the piracy check, despite widespread distribution, is still a pilot program. He said the company was worried that it might have an unforeseen emergency that would require the program to terminate quickly.

Lazar also said the company plans to tweak the program soon so that it will only check in with Microsoft every two weeks, rather than daily.

Now really!? I’m by no means a programmer, although I’m learning. But I know if you’ve got code to tell something to “phone-home” on a daily basis, I don’t think it’s much rocket-science to tell it to do it every 14 days instead of every one.

I think my bigger question though is why is this a big deal? Is it just because it was doing it and didn’t tell anyone? I know I’ve got a handful of programs that connect to their website everytime they’re used to check for updates and/or send information on use. Maybe I just don’t get it, or just don’t care.

Source: Microsoft plans better disclosures for piracy monitoring tool