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comp.lang.c++

Re: Telemetry in "hello world" MS C++ 2015

Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet

6/11/2016 9:31:00 AM

On 11.06.2016 02:40, Rick C. Hodgin wrote:
> Melzzzzz wrote:
>> https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/06/10/1350245/visual-studio-2015-c-compiler-secretly-inserts-telemetry-code-int...
>
> Why is it in there? What's it doing? Internet activity? Or just
> local info for app analysis at runtime? One of VS2015's features
> is an app analysis ability. Is that what this is?

It's probably sold in internally as a means for customer support.

But such nefarious opt-out obscure functionality is multi-purpose.

Microsoft has a long history of doing things like this. In the 16-bit
Windows days (early 1990s) there was the simple xor-encrypted and
self-modifying obscure code that checked which version of DOS Windows
was running in, known as the AARD code after it was discovered. It was
present but not enabled in the final release of Windows 3.1, much like
the code in question now seems to be present but not yet enabled. The
AARD code produced a cryptic and intentionally misleading error message
if Windows was running on DR DOS or some other vendor's DOS instead of
MS-DOS. The intention is known because of internal memos uncovered
during later anti-thrust litigation, where, quoting ¹the Wikipedia
article about it, â??Microsoft Senior Vice President Brad Silverberg later
sent another memo, stating: "What the [user] is supposed to do is feel
uncomfortable, and when he has bugs, suspect that the problem is DR-DOS
and then go out to buy MS-DOS."�.


Cheers!,

- Alf

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...