Microsoft announced that they will be putting a black box into the next version on Windows. They said that it will act like the black box on aircrafts.
"The tool will build on the existing Watson error-reporting tool in Windows but will provide Microsoft with much deeper information, including what programs were running at the time of the error and even the contents of documents that were being created. Businesses will also choose whether they want their own technology managers to receive such data when an employee's machine crashes."
The customer has the option to send the data or not. They also said that the customer will also have the option to edit the data to remove e-mail content and other personal information before sending it. The data that is sent will be anonymous. The details aren't finalized yet, so this could all change.
"Our stance on this is that the user is in control," Sullivan said. "In the consumer environment, you will be presented with a dialog that clearly gives you the choice whether to share the information and then also provides exactly what the detail is so you can parse character by character what's being sent."
IT managers can set the options to keep track over everything, including if they were running a messenger program and that they said that they were going to get a new job. The black box will read and keep in memory everything that is going on before and during the crash.
They are doing this so when a error occurs, the customer can send the report and Microsoft can fix the problem and release a patch before more people get the same problem.
Do you think this is a good or bad idea? Do you think this will really help fix the problems with Windows? Is this breakig our privacy?