DYUWOH

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

Then there’s activation. Massgrave, the group behind Microsoft Activation Scripts, notes that Windows setup sends hardware info to Microsoft and gets identifiers back, the same tokens later used for Store access and licensing: “It’s impossible to prevent Windows from getting a GDID without breaking activation and UWP app[s].” Anyone who lost a license after swapping a motherboard has already met a smaller version of this.

Here's the complaint filed to the court, the primary source for the case mentioned in the article. You can find mentions of GDID on page 30 of the document or 34 of the PDF.

I also made a PDF version!!

For comprehensive deets, tomshardware explains

JAWS 大白鯊

Roy Scheider got slapped 17 times to get this shot. Bruce has gotten a lot of the glory over the years, so I wanted, for a change, to celebrate the incredible characters and their small town New England drama that make this movie what it is.

It’s the 50th Anniversary of JAWS. In 1975 JAWS was the highest grossing movie of all time, and was released overseas in dozens of countries. But you won’t typically find Taiwan on that list, because in 1975 Taiwan was no longer recognized internationally.

But it was released in theaters there in 1975, known in Taiwan as 大白鯊. My Mom personally watched it during its release, and even remembers billboards of it. But because of the complicated history of Taiwan, it’s not well documented.

I wanted to fix that and give Taiwan the flowers it deserves, so I made a retro Taiwanese JAWS poster. All text is in Traditional Chinese, which is distinct to Taiwan, HK, and Macau. My mom is always asking, ‘How come you make all these posters in Japanese? Can’t you do a Chinese one for once?’ So this one is for my Mom.

I want to give a big shout out to Rob Jones for art directing this. Thank you to my Mom for helping me translate and format everything Taiwan-accurate. And of course, thanks to CODA for having me in their official JAWS 50th Anniversary art show.⁠

Homotherium latidens

A species of lion-sized scimitar toothed cats from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene. It possessed longer fangs than extant big cats but not as big as the ones Smilodon carried. A mummified cub shows that it would've had a dark brown coat.