More Wintel serial number woes; problem extends to Mac Office 98

The front page of my local paper carried an AP story reporting that Microsoft admits that Windows 98 "generates a unique serial number that partly is planted within electronic documents and could be used to trace the authors' identities." Further, these numbers may be collected by Microsoft even when users explicitly request that they do not want them disclosed. Microsoft is investigating and they promise to "fix" this. This comes on the heels of the revelation that Intel's new Pentium III has a serial number that may also be transmitted when communicating online, thereby allowing the user's hardware to be identified. Internet News also covers the story, noting that it was first reported in the Sunday New York Times.

Update: Chris Lawson notes that the term PID_GUID followed by a group of numbers appears even in blank Word 98 documents for the Mac! On his Mac, Chris found that: "The last six groups of numbers are my Mac address. And, because of similarities in the numbers, I have a sneaking suspicion that the first four are in some way related to my Microsoft Office serial number or CD Key Code."

To see this yourself, save a blank Word document, open it in a program such as BBEdit and search for the phrase "PID_GUID." It will be followed by a series of numbers in brackets. That's the serial number information.

MacInTouch similarly notes that serial numbers appear in Office documents - including those from Office 98 for the Mac. Microsoft has a page on the subject of GUIDs.