Andre Yoskowitz
3 Mar 2007 12:03
Earlier this week, Michael Alan Crooker filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in the Massachusetts Supreme Court claiming that Microsoft falsely advertised that its product, Internet Explorer would keep his information and browsing habits secure.
In 2004, the FBI raided Crooker's home based on reports and evidence that he had bomb-making materials. Federal agents did find "laboratory devices, apparent IEDs, fermenting castor beans, chemicals and chemical equipment appropriate for the processing of castor beans into ricin, and what appeared to be ricin and ricin precursors in various stages of development, indicating that Crooker was successfully manufacturing ricin."
After finding all these materials, the FBI then confiscated Mr. Crooker's computer. The FBI broke through his Compaq DriveLock security layer encryption mechanism and found a vast array of file including homemade sex videos and and cached hardcore pornography. The embarrassment of this led Mr. Crooker to start the lawsuit.
He claims that he set Internet Explorer to automatically delete his browsing history every 5 days but that the browser failed to do so. In his words "Any day beyond those parameters is supposed to be permanently deleted and is not supposed to be recoverable." Mr Crooker seems to have a valid claim, but the larger problem appears to be that Circuit City, the retailer he purchased his computer from specifically told him that Windows XP, Internet Explorer and the DriveLock would completely keep his information secure.
Mr. Crooker is seeking $200,000 USD in damages from Microsoft and claims to have settled out of court with Circuit City and Hewlett-Packard, the computer brand.
Source:
Arstechnica