The Marketleap Report
Vol. 1 - Issue #13 - June 25, 2001

"It will take over everything. All privacy will be gone. Large parts of the web and digital infrastructure of the economy will live in that cloud." Speaking to one of the computing giants, I trusted enough to know it was real.

Microsoft.Nation

The National Security Administration won't declare martial law. A foreign country hasn't infiltrated our deepest computer systems, watching the economy move through digital ether. 

Will Windows' XP operating system software steal our life, liberty and sense of freedom? 

It will control the desktop, speaking to any device and personal account with a name attached, enabling people to move seamlessly through the physi-digital world. Entering nirvana, the world and our new form will communicate seamlessly.

Windows XP, the new operating system from Microsoft, lays the foundation for humans to interact with a completely connected world. Microsoft will be able to transmit information everywhere using its new .NET software standards. 

Cell phones, personal digital assistants, computers, stereos and TVs will all contain pieces of the .NET code so that they can talk. Like cheap and unproven stealth technology, we will all show up on the radar. Spreading the .NET initiative among all flanks not only enables Microsoft to corner computing, it also provides constant awareness and location of all citizens. 

MS gives you a chance to opt out of using Passport the first five times you log on to your computer. However, if you want to use the advanced features found in XP, you'll have to have a Passport.

For example, you go online to check your bank account. Connecting to the web, Passport verifies and confirms you to travel through online areas controlled by .NET code. Passport stores personal and credit card information for easy transmission to friendly partners. Through voice and instant messaging, it also manages communication with you.

Now that Passport has approved your connection, you are free to travel to your bank under their watchful eye. Microsoft wants to ensure they understand how you are using their software and the web. What numbers did you just enter for your checking account? And your PIN? 

The Excel sheet you download with your checking account information can be backed up online to Microsoft servers. This way, if your computer crashes, you simply go back to Microsoft to retrieve everything previously stored on your machine. It's amazingly appealing on a primal level.

Microsoft says that it will not collect this information, but the capability exists to capture and transmit your whereabouts and activities. Why wouldn't Gates and Company use it?

Paranoia can be delusional, but Microsoft will be doing what every other company wishes it could: watching, learning and adapting to humans with technology. Within two quarters, one company potentially will have access to the mother load - every bit of information about anyone who uses a computer that runs their software. Currently, that translates to 85% - 90% of computer users.

As humans, we allow ourselves to be duped into just about anything if it appears to provide direct benefit. Windows XP offers improved ease of use, advanced messaging capabilities, CD recording, media software, and improved security that will appeal to most everyone who uses a computer.

The ability to track users sits invisibly within Windows XP. The capability to disable the tracking features exists under a mound of directions for uninstalling. Those two factors cover the activity taking place underneath -- in the XP code -- that monitors and broadcasts your life.

Marketing will be a targeted, direct force in that world. Microsoft evolves into the seller of information to all. Marketers learn about their users in ways they have never imagined. Lifestyles, purchasing, credit and location management ease the merge into a unified account that rests comfortably in a small, sometimes flickering screen on whichever device you are closest to. Advertisers insert themselves everywhere it makes sense. 

Your ability to define choices is limited to those sponsors that match your profile. Prepare to have your personal opinion disregarded, citizen. Individual selection isn't possible because it isn't profitable.

These same thoughts about XP have entered my mind before, but my morning conversation surpassed my worst fears. It was bigger and scarier than I originally imagined. Our conversation centered on the other computer behemoths opposing this movement. Crying foul in an all-out battle frenzy, the lords of hardware and software united to stamp out evil in the first corporate World War 1.0. 

Already, other technology producers whisper about how to counter Microsoft's influence or fall under its control. We'll see which true warriors emerge and who will turn and lie down.

Take solace in the human spirit. Remember the stunning conclusion to the movie Tron? A rag-tag group of programs spoils the corporate bastards who would control the world. Digital heroes named RAM, Flynn and Tron take them down. Random bits of code meant to disturb the system ultimately disrupt the master plan. 

Microsoft never found the value in security, instead expanding its install base by price point and partners. Security and exploits have always sat like an exposed cooling shaft on the Death Star. With XP, the supposed advances in security look like extensions of mistakes already committed with Microsoft NT and 2000. Can you trust a company with such disregard for consumer and business safety?

Existing online without Microsoft code anywhere near their computers, a small community of Netizens constantly distributes the knowledge to take down Windows. Computing, marketing, advertising, and interacting with the world should not be conducted under one corporation's watchful eye.

We should value personal freedom, liberties and self-trust more than a new operating system and everything it might bring together for our computers. Why not work a little harder to find efficiencies in the software we already have? There are plenty of opportunities. Consider alternatives, and take into account what you and future generations stand to lose if you don't. 

We founded this country on freedom for individuals and commerce, but it was never intended that one might rule over the other. As technology propels us forward, we can no longer allow a single company to push us in directions it anticipates we will desire. Instead, we must promote common regulation and competition so we feel safe in a world of new possibilities through technology.

In helping to overcome the mountain of knowledge in learning about alternative forms of computing and working online, the Marketleap Report will spend the next few issues addressing alternatives and options for moving forward in the networked world. 

We need your feedback as well. 

Do you mind giving up your privacy to a single company? Does it matter anymore, or is it an inevitable consequence of the convergence of society and technology? We want to know what you think: report@marketleap.com.