I work for the Univ. of Southern California from my home 1000 miles
away.  The university is still evaluating Win XP, and I've put off buying a
new Win XP PC pending their active support and their providing software for
this new operating system.

Meanwhile, the department I work for uses Win 2000 on the new pc's it buys.

Having said that, Win XP has been getting very fine reviews in the tech
community, except, of course, from those who hate Microsoft.  It is built
on the Win NT/Win 2000 engine and thus should give you the stability you've
come to expect from its predecessors.

I do not believe that Microsoft can invade you pc without your
permission.  Many of its products have security bugs, but these usually
have patches available.  It is also a good idea to ensure that all your
desktops have up-to-date virus protection and firewalls (the latter if
necessary).  A strong desktop is the best protection.

Win XP does have a feature, whereby, in case of a crash, you're invited to
send data to Microsoft, but you can refuse to do so.

I'm anxious to use Win XP but will not do so until it's supported by the
university.

At 09:47 AM 04/22/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>HELP!
>
>The IT manager for my department is very concerning with WinXP and the
>current HIPPA regulations and the planned upgrades to these regulations.
>
>The new license agreement with Microsoft allows them to "sneak in" your
>machine when you are on the web. This obviously opens all doors for
>patient confidentiality to be thrown out of the window!! (This are all
>words from my IT manager.)
>
>Is there anyone out there who has dealt or plans to deal with this
>problem? Is this a problem? Are we breaking HIPPA rules if we deploy this
>software? Has anyone from the federal government tried to address this?
>
>Thanks,
>Celia
>
>Celia U. Gravely
>Assistant Director for
>   Research and Academic Affairs
>University of Florida, Pathology Department
>P.O. Box 100275
>Gainesville, FL 32610-0275
>352.265.7977 (voice)
>352.265.7978 (fax)
>http://www.pathology.ufl.edu/

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