There were significant concerns raised when Microsoft introduced the
Registration Wizard which collected name, adr, .. as well as hardware and
software information discovered by automated query on your PC. The wizard is not
supposed to transmit your hardware / software data without your permission. But
more importantly, the personal information you entered is still there in the
registry for snoops and hackers to collect. Browse through the Windows NT
registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\User
Information
and see whats stored there. I saw my name, address, phone
number, email address, and zip code. This is not needed for the operating system
to function. The Regisration Wizard should have cleared the data. It
didn’t. Anything you don’t want collected by the next security exposure, I
suggest you remove. Just remove the data from the keys. For example, on my PC,
Default Last Name had a value of Maples. I cleared the key. Win98 and
NT2000 both have this exposure. Whether you have one of these operating systems
or not, check the above key.
