Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Alleged Spyware in Another Class Action Lawsuit

Another lawsuit has been filed, in U.S. District Court in Seattle, against Microsoft over Windows Genuine Advantage, alleging that the anti-piracy tool is spyware.

It was filed on behalf of two Washington state businesses and three Seattle-area residents. It seeks class-action status like the earlier lawsuit.

The latest complaint questions the tool’s accuracy in determining whether a copy of Windows is genuine or not:

“Users of licensed Windows software have been erroneously subjected to popup displays warning (once per hour after 14 days) that WGA considers Windows to be non-licensed. Thereafter, these users are denied certain important software updates.”

Last week, the company issued a final version of the WGA tool that it says no longer conducts daily check-ins. The tool also has a modified license agreement that spells out in greater detail what WGA is and what it does.

As with the first lawsuit, the new complaint also gets into Microsoft’s method of delivering the WGA tool as part of its Automatic Updates system, which is more commonly used for distributing security patches. In addition to seeking unspecified monetary damages, the suit asks the court to require Microsoft to cooperate with antivirus and anti-spyware companies to help them create tools to remove WGA, and offer its own tool for doing the same thing. via link.

BTW: You can easily remove WGA Notification tool.