One of Holland's leading magazines on "freedom, rights and rules/law" on the internet reports about Windows and Internet Explorer keeping invisible files containing ALL the URLs of the sites you've EVER visited whether you had IE clean up or not, and Outlook keeping similar invisible copies of EVERY e-mail and attachment EVER sent or received on your computer.
It goes without saying that this is a serious security breach on your system, never mind what the spooks can find on your computer by using the not-so-secret-anymore embedded *cough*NSA*cough* key in Windows.
For those who can read Dutch go here:
http://www.netkwesties.nl/editie19/artikel1.html
The English article on which they base their story/inquiry is here:
http://fuckmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml
Two programs that apparently DO clean up whatever Microsoft chooses to store away without your knowledge are here:
http://www.anonymizer.com/washer40/washer40_desc.shtml
http://www.aandrc.com/purgeie/
Summary of the English article found on the URL mentioned above:
There are folders on your computer that Microsoft has tried hard to keep secret. Within these folders you will find two major things: Microsoft Internet Explorer has been logging all of the sites you have ever visited -- even after you've cleared your cache, and Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express has been logging all of your e-mail correspondence -- even after you've erased them from your trash bin. (This also includes all incoming and outgoing e-mail attachments.) And believe me, that's not even the half of it.
When I say these files are hidden well, I really mean it. If you don't have any knowledge of DOS, then don't plan on finding these files on your own. I say this because some of these files/folders won't be displayed in Windows Explorer at all -- only DOS. (Even after you have enabled Windows Explorer to "view all files.") And to top it off, the only way to find them in DOS is if you knew the exact location of them. Basically, what I'm saying is if you didn't know the files existed, then the chances of you running across them is slim to slimmer.
To give you an example of how sneaky this is, there are some hidden folders that may contain your name, address, phone, all the sites you've visited, every single e-mail you've sent/received, every attachment you've ever sent/ received, everything you've searched for in a search engine, every filename you've downloaded, names of documents containing "sensitive" information, copies of all your cookies, full readable e-mail from your hotmail account, your PGP keys, and more.
Funny that Microsoft would make no mention of this on microsoft.com.
-- The Cyberculture, Identity and Gender Resources ==> http://fragment.nl/resources/
-- Cyberculture@zacha.org http://www.zacha.org/mailman/listinfo/cyberculture http://www.cyberculture.zacha.org/
Jeremy Hunsinger http://www.cddc.vt.edu Instructor of Political Science Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Webmaster/Manager CDDC 526 Major Williams Hall 0130 http://www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy --my homepage Virginia Tech (yes i partially updated it) Blacksburg, VA 24061 (540)-231-7614 icq 5535471