Windows Messenger Under Fire

Windows spamming attracts FTC’s notice
Last modified: November 5, 2003, 10:05 PM PST
By Reuters

U.S. regulators on Wednesday voiced concerns about a feature in Microsoft Windows that could subject Windows users to unwanted pop-up ads.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it had scheduled a press conference for Thursday “to address consumer concerns” about a little-used feature of Windows called the Windows Messenger service.

The FTC cited problems with “widespread exploitation” of the Messenger service. The Windows feature is unrelated to popular instant messaging software. It’s designed instead to allow computer network administrators to send messages to others on their network.

The agency declined to elaborate, but Messenger has been the subject of security concerns because purveyors of unsolicited e-mail, or spam, discovered they could use it to send messages to personal computers that are connected to the Internet. The messages are especially confusing because they look as if they’ve been generated by the operating system itself. Most PC users, too, have no idea why the ads are appearing or how to prevent them from showing up.

Complaints last month about the abuse of Messenger prompted Microsoft to advise computer users on how to shut off the feature as a way of blocking the ads.

Microsoft said it would issue a software update in the first half of next year that would shut off Messenger, spokesman Sean Sundwall said. Future versions of Windows will be shipped with the feature turned off by default, he said.

Microsoft won’t be part of the FTC’s Thursday press conference, Sundwall said.

“Certainly we applaud the FTC for its ongoing efforts to educate consumers and also to drive policies that help ensure that consumers have a safer, more secure computing experience,” Sundwall said.

Complaints about Messenger spam also have prompted the largest U.S. Internet service provider, Time Warner unit America Online, to take steps to turn off the feature on its subscribers’ computers.

“It was delivered through a back door,” AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. “It was incredibly confusing for users and incredibly annoying as well.”

Last year Microsoft settled complaints from the FTC about another, unrelated matter, agreeing to submit to government oversight of its online identity service in order to settle charges that it misled consumers about security and privacy standards.

The identity service, called Passport, aims to make online shopping easier by storing passwords and credit-card numbers. FTC officials said they found that Microsoft did not adequately protect users’ personal information, and that the service tracked users’ Web-browsing habits without their knowledge.