Microsoft is spying on me?!

I stumbled upon this on a website, it's an article about how microsoft logs all it's user's web activity. I tried some of the things it said to do like open the c:/windows/local system/content.ie5/index.dat file with edit in dos and i was supposed to see every website i've ever been to and anything i've ever searched in a search engine "in plain text", but it only contained one url: the microsoft update url. im beginning to think it was a joke, the author wrote it in the tone of some kind of paranoid, UFO seeing, psycho(at one point he accuses microsoft of scanning his hard drive for suspicous files on a regular basis). I looked at most of the registry entries and such that they claimed information about me was hidden, but i didn't find anything. anybody know if there is any truth to this?

scary article about microsoft logging activities and stuff

Hi,

I am afraid your link does not work anymore, so I cannot comment on the actual article.

Yes, a lot of personal data is stored on your computer by IE, windows OS, and MS Office. It is generally intended to improve speed and functionality, but can pose a security risk. For example, a lot of "spyware" harvests this information and reports it back to base.

I don't think that MS scan his HDD, even for pirate MS software. I think that such activity would be commercially suicidal? The only scanning is the MS update utility.

Do a search for a utility called "@winspy".................that should frighten you :)

You might also look in C:\windows\history\

Cheers

Some extra HTML was put into the link, some <br> among other things. I editted that out and came up with the real article: http://www.groovyweb.uklinux.net/ind...our%20Computer You can find the original article at: http://****microsoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml

Update: Some of this information does appear real, but I wouldn't be worried. It mostly appears normal. I would suggest just running ad-aware, or some other spyware utility. If you do this, you should be fine.

Some of the information is incorrect, and you'll have to correct some of their typos. I wouldn't recommend doing a lot of that stuff unless you understand what you're doing WITHOUT accepting their recommendations. Altering system files and registry is rarely a good thing unless you know what's going on.

WHOA! don't surprise me tho', if your connected to internet everyday, your computers open and can do something really uncalled for.... i hate windows.. LINUX REVOLUTION......WHO'S WITH ME....BURN BILL

Phonedog,

I use these two to keep the windows partition clean. Beware , the first time you use any of the adware/bot removers you may have a "Charmin Moment". You'll really be surprised at how many (mostly harmless though) critters will be there.

For Lavasoft's Adware 6.0: www.lavasoftusa.com

For Spybot Search and Destroy: www.safer-networking.org


Anyway, have a good one.

The full article, and the original is at www.microsuck.com
It was written for them. I have found a few more of the index.dat files that weren't mentioned in that article...the registry paths are in one of my posts in the OS Specific Forum, dunno which though...though I think there is only two. It's strange how two days ago I sent MS a few lengthy emails about this...I have since reinstalled Windows. I had many problems, couldn't visit many sites offering other browsers, half-assed uninstallation of IE6 led to destruction of Windows Explorer and most other things on here. Don't screw with the system, the most anyone can really do is find all of the index.dat files they know of, and create a BAT file to delete them upon startup or shutdown. I dunno if MS purposely messes with people meddling where they shouldn't or if my PC coincidentally screwed up horribly...It is MS Windows after all, so either is very possible.

i use adaware and spybot, but i just couldnt believe that microsoft was keeping records of all web activity. did you guys read the article? im not talking about gator and malware, it says that windows never really deletes your history and temp files, that they are hidden on your hd and take up alot of space.

i usually run a program called window washer, would that take care of this type of thing? even the "super hidden files" that this guy claims exist? i also have evidence eliminator but that takes a long time to run

Microsuck is a microsoft hate site.......

Why would MS be interested in knowing which all sites u visit....

I guess this topic was discussed earlier too...... Again MS sacnning user PC's I guess it could be for auto updates or other online services....

It there was such a case zi am sure MS would be out of business by now.....

Regards

Axess, the article was originally found at http://www.****microsoft.com, as I posted in the beginning. That contains a link to the full article, as well as the original. http://www.microsuck.com is another mirror of that site (or possibly the original.) But as with all mirrors, it doesn't really matter which one you use for referencing an article.

Phonedog,

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it says that windows never really deletes your history and temp files, that they are hidden on your hd and take up alot of space.

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Remember that NOTHING is ever deleted, it is just flagged as available for re-use ;)

The real problem arises when you have files that are not made available and are cumulative in nature.

This cleaning/shredding software works to some extent, and some are better than others, if you look in the forensics tutorials you will find some interesting contributions from Groovicus on this subject.

There is a utility called "Xen", that seems to do a pretty good job, but use it with CARE :eek:

DON'T let it mess with your fonts.

Cheers

im not really that concerned with cleaning/shredding software... i got nothin to hide ;). i was just curious how much of the article was true. i checked out my index.dat files and the "suspicious folders" and opened them in edit and i didnt see logging or anything, does that mean i did it wrong or is the article is false? it was originally posted on a microsoft hate site, afterall.

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Axess, the article was originally found at http://www.****microsoft.com, as I posted in the beginning. That contains a link to the full article, as well as the original. http://www.microsuck.com is another mirror of that site (or possibly the original.) But as with all mirrors, it doesn't really matter which one you use for referencing an article.

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Almost...If you read the main page...****microsoft.com sold its domain to the group that has it now. They created another domain leading to the same exact site to make it more "family-friendly"

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Originally posted here by Phonedog911
im not really that concerned with cleaning/shredding software... i got nothin to hide ;). i was just curious how much of the article was true. i checked out my index.dat files and the "suspicious folders" and opened them in edit and i didnt see logging or anything, does that mean i did it wrong or is the article is false? it was originally posted on a microsoft hate site, afterall.

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Some bits of the article are sort of true. However, the assertion that MS has done this to spy on you is false. Take the index.dat used by IE as an example: the reason it exists is to speed up the process of retrieving data from your HD, not to log what sites you have visited.

Of course it can be misused in the sense that if you look at it you will find a record of recent sites you have visited. You'll see a similar sort of thing happening with OE - a lot of your 'deleted' messages do still exist - just do a search for dbx files. Again, there is no malevolent intent here - it's just that OE is not very good about garbage removal.

So in essence, yes there is a lot of information on your PC that can be used to trace what you have been doing recently, but that's just a consequence of how must OS work.

And, yes, linux does leave traces behind as well :)

Yeah, Microsoft owns the software that runs 98% of the boxes running now. Okay, as easy as it is to make a routine to spy on schmucks like us using the software, I wonder if MS actually has a team of people to sit at a spy center to see the latest and greatesy pr0n or the latest program we pirated. Personally, I would love to have a job like that. Too bad Bill most likely is more interested in ruling the world.

Seriously, it is not MS you should be worried about sniffing your latest pr0n surfing habits. There is work, your spouse, the kids or the clergy. Heaven knows what would happen if your significant other open IE and sees you are into mature bbw teens wearing dirty socks.

Wait a sec... I am drunk. Disregard this ****.

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Heaven knows what would happen if your significant other open IE and sees you are into mature bbw teens wearing dirty socks.

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Not a lot............she already knows........she is one :D :D

Seriously though, I do recommend removing this stuff because:

1. It wastes space
2. It prolongs routine tasks such as defragmentation and virus scanning.
3. Malware might be hidden there
4. It is a target for market research spyware

Tools I use:

1. Xen
2. McAfee Quick Clean Lite
3. MRU Blaster
4. Internet Sweeper


Just my £0.02 worth

well it cant just be for speeding up harddrive access. emails from Eudora and Hotmail are also found in there.
Also these files are exceptoinally well hidden, and not to mention the fact that MS refuses to comment on the subject.

Jeebus you think they'd make a statement or comment on the matter wouldn't you? Very wierd.

Anyhoo i got lavasoft and am going to reinstall spybot but what better stuff is there thats freeware (i'm broke) at getting rid of these hidden files, or where do i search for them? I'd love to be able to get as much junk out of WindowsMe as possible because it really isn't running very fast at all.

Why would they track what sites that we look at when they could just as easily get a life?!?

Cue my WindowsMe crashing anytime soon..........

Man, people will be resorting to black magic before long in fits of vengeance..................

It might help to clarify that there are two different sorts of files here.

Firstly various temporary files, and things like your 'deleted' emails.
Windows does create a lot of temporary files, a lot of which it doesn't bother to delete afterwards. These are normal files and folders, and show up on directory listings, and can be deleted in any standard way, except for the odd one which Windows is currently using.
I've never been quite sure whether this is intentional behaviour, or just sloppy programming.
Once in a blue moon it can be useful to be able to retrieve a temporary file e.g. if some sort of patch screws your system.
Can also sometimes be useful in a support role when you don't think the end user is giving you the full story :D
Equally of course all this crap does provide pointers as to what you have been doing on your PC.

The other types of files like the various index.dat files are, as has been mentioned, very well hidden, and are difficult to delete. As I mentioned, I'm pretty sure these are (were?) intended to speed up HD access, but in practice it makes no difference whatsoever. If you delete an index.dat file used by a particular application (IE for instance), then it will just get recreated when you restart that application.

EDIT: The index.dat files get recreated as empty files, so in the case of IE it will just contain the sites you have visited in that IE session, rather than in the recent past.

Incidentally products like AdAware do not regard these files as spyware, so draw your own conclusions ...

conspiracy theory or not, these could very well be government mandated, or some weird policy of MS...who knows, all I know is that they are real, they contain "deleted" information, they are exceptionally well hidden, and they restore themselves. I have also been able to use the CLSID and UCLSID keys in the desktop.ini files of those folders to hide complete subdirectories from the find utility and from explorer.

well what do you except? its micro$oft after all.

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Originally posted here by Eonfire

Cue my WindowsMe crashing anytime soon..........

Man, people will be resorting to black magic before long in fits of vengeance..................

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My windows messed up already! Ha! I was messing with the registry and am sure it was my own fault, but hey, you never know..........

Time to get the spells out! Bill Gates here i come! (j/k)

Eonfire

Please start another thread under "hardware" and tell us your system details and what errors you get, frequency and all................I know that this is a security site, but we look at all things? and will try to help if we can.

Cheers

One final comment on this is that if you want to delete your index.dat files this is very easy.
You don't need any special software to do this.

Just boot your PC in safe mode (with command prompt).

Get yourself to the root directory with "cd \"
Then type "del index.dat /s".

Works on every version of Windows, both the 9x line and the NT line using either FAT or NTFS.
The index.dat files will all get recreated, but they will start off empty, so providing you have deleted all the normal files, your PC will be pretty clean.

I do this from time to time to remove the garbage , as well as for security reasons.
After all, what is the point of a 600Kb index.dat file, when it will work quite happily with a 32Kb one :mad:

MS does acknowledge that these files can get very bloated, but gives no reason for this, or how to delete them :)

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Originally posted here by nihil
Eonfire

Please start another thread under "hardware" and tell us your system details and what errors you get, frequency and all................I know that this is a security site, but we look at all things? and will try to help if we can.

Cheers

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OK sorry Nihil, i seem to be making silly mistakes at thge moment because i 'm still trying to work out where to put stuff. I'll have to spend a day or two having a good look around here so that i get a better idea of where to put posts.

oh yes the m$ spying on me thing well its all false...all of it!
microsoft respects the rights and privacy of all its customers by supplying only the best and nearly flawless operating systems you could possibly find!!
<YEA RIGHT!!!>
windows is packed with spyware....as stated before by others,your best bet is adaware or spybot,or if you are like me its both because when ever you recieve updates from windows ...which is always sinse they are always finding flaws...you will find a specail treat in the way of spyware that comes with your update.
get those and rid yourself of bill gates "prying eyes"

CYB3R.