Soli🦋

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!!

Today I was terminated from my job as a Health Assistant at a low income health clinic and refused my full paycheck upon dismissal, offered yesterday only an incomplete paycheck for my paid leave. This union-busting, retaliatory dismissal comes on the heels of us demanding an end to the Call Center move for the clinics! I was the only union steward of color at the Old Town Clinic and the only Health Assistant union steward. I had no escalatory disciplinary history and was abruptly terminated for private discussions with union members I counseled against our employer.

I was refused a steward at my initial hearing and had to fight bitterly to be allowed a rep at all.

Who I am: A mother, a Salvadoran refugee, a long-term resident of Portland, a queer woman married to a trans woman, a union steward (the only steward of color at the clinic), an elected member of my union local’s executive board, an organizer, the last standing connection between our local and the Labor Committee to Defend Immigrants since my wife (and author of our local’s anti-deportation resolution to be considered at our union’s international convention in August) was terminated in March for antiracism and is awaiting to hear back if the union will take her case towards arbitration or not. She has struggled to find openings even for low wage entry level work. Now are both unemployed while raising an infant baby during the worst economic downturn we’ve ever seen.

We both worked to provide services to the homeless but our organization is committing to waves of mass layoffs at the exact moment homelessness and adult+childhood poverty are at an all time historic high. Now we face the prospect of homelessness ourselves.

If you want your healthcare managed by AI and call centers, look away. If you hate union-busting and want to know who is speaking to you about your private health information, share and sign.

Please share, even if you are not in Portland. If you care about immigrants, if you care about mothers, if you care about workers rights, if you care about boots on the ground stopping AI and ending racism in the workplace, please sign and bring attention to this and let people know what we need.

Portland and our homeless, houseless, and impoverished communities deserve real healthcare, not robotic, dissociated garbage. My family will be homeless and other workers will be next.

If you want to donate to our struggle, we are at:

$writeswrongs on Cash App and Venmo

Let this employer know their retaliatory actions against a union steward of color is not acceptable to the public!

Olivia represented an employee and person of color who was retaliated against in a recorded meeting the employee had requested. The meeting was supposed to address racist comments about Asians including mocking accents made by a coworker of that employee. Instead HR retaliated against him for making the reports and attempted to violate his union rights by transforming that meeting he had called into an investigation of him for discriminating against his coworker by calling them racist but without any prior notice of an investigatory meeting. It was by chance he had a steward present. From Olivia’s statement she added to the petition:

Fic Commenters: If you ever want to make a comment going on depth about a part of a fic that stood out to you, but think “does the author really want to read all this?” The answer is YES! YES WE DO WANT TO READ ALL THAT!!!!