Steve said:
Interesting... that "comment" about privacy doesn't make any mention of
which state/country it's legally bound within.
hence, the connection still is unacceptable...
How do I turn it off ? Switch to Mac or Linux ?
Looks like it's just checking for update config files for itself, not really
sending any info back.
With XP Pro SP2, you can turn it off with group policy... see the bottom of
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/intmgmt/21_xpsch.mspx
I'm not sure about other versions/service packs
You can block it with a firewall, or put an entry in your
Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts file like this:
127.0.0.1 sa.windows.com
This will basically redirect requests for that server back to your own
system, causing them to fail. Whether this will break the functionality of
the Search Companion.... I don't know.
Or, you can choose not to use this feature of Windows if the functionality
upsets you. Google has a search tool with it's own privacy concerns
I'll agree that this thing does seem a little weird... generally Microsoft
likes to provide updates for Windows components through Windows
Update/Automatic Updates so I'm not sure why this app needs to do its own
thing.
