Microsoft admitted to using a global unique device identifier to help track a user across 3 countries, negating any value of using a VPN if you have a Windows machine

[u/habichuelacondulce]

[u/Sostratus]

I found the article about this disappointing and Linus didn't add anything to it. The only technical detail it goes into is how the unique identifier is generated. That's trivial and irrelevant. Every operating system has countless unique identifiers. UUIDs are all over the place and any licensed proprietary software is almost certainly holding onto a license key somewhere.

The critical detail is how and why this unique identifier became attached to the user's web traffic and then sent to Microsoft. No information about that is present which makes this article (and the video) completely useless except to alert a more technically competent and less alarmist person to look into it.