Two lawsuits were filed last week against Microsoft, claiming that its anti-piracy initiative Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is in violation of consumer protection laws in California and Washington, according to MacCentral. Released last July, WGA connects with Microsoftis servers and delivers data about the hardware and software on specific computers, with the goal of alerting the company to possible piracy.
The lawsuits allege that WGA is the equivalent of spyware and that Microsoft slipped it into a security patch update without informing users. The plaintiffs are asking Microsoft to delete the data collected by WGA and tell users how to remove it from their computers, in addition to unspecific monetary damages.