I was sitting around the other day listing all the things I just love about Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), Microsoft's antipiracy tool. But then I discovered a hidden WGA feature that I'd never heard about, mostly because Microsoft had kept it a secret. It turns out that WGA actually connects to a Microsoft server every time you boot your PC. That's right. It's spyware. Microsoft actually installs a tool on your PC that does nothing more than check to ensure that you're not pirating Windows, and it does this check every single day and then sends the results back to Microsoft. This insidious behavior was first discovered by Lauren Weinstein, the co-founder of People For Internet Responsibility, and it's touched off a debate about disclosure and privacy. But seriously, this situation is ridiculous. It's bad enough that we're treated like pirates. Do we have to be spied on every single day as well
