Office XP privacy issues

Office XP, the latest iteration in Microsoft's office productivity line, has the potential to send private data to Microsoft as part of its error handling routines.

Office XP, the latest iteration in Microsoft's office productivity line, has the potential to send private data to Microsoft as part of its error handling routines.

When Office XP crashes, part of its error handling routine is to send a core dump of your box's memory in an error report. If you happen to be working on a sensitive document at BSOD time, part or all of said doc's contents may be sent to Microsoft.

According to this rather old CIAC advisory (thanks inquirer), the issue also applies to Windows XP and all future Microsoft products containing this error report 'feature'.

As a slightly related side note, you can check out some NSA security recommendation guidelines here. They've been floating around for a while, but it's always useful to remind people about security issues and how to deal with them.