Microsoft's Vista throws up data blunder fears

Windows Vista will improve search functionality on a PC by letting users tag files with metadata but those tags could cause unwanted and embarrassing information disclosure.

Gartner claims Microsoft is not paying enough attention to managing the descriptive information, or metadata, that users can add to files to make it easier to find and organise data on a PC, according to Gartner.

"This opens up the possibility of the inadvertent disclosure of this metadata to other users inside and outside of your organisation," Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald wrote in a research note published on Thursday.

However, much of the onus must be on users to be aware of the risks, though under the current configuration that will mean many avoid using the most relevant descriptive data.

For example, a user might use "good customers" and "bad customers" as keywords on contract files. If such a contract is sent to the customer with the keyword still attached, it could cause embarrassment or even loss of business, the analysts wrote.

Microsoft will provide a simple metadata removal tool with Windows Vista, but that's not good enough, according to Gartner. "If I rely on the user to remove metadata, a lot of that metadata is inevitably going to get through," Silver said in an interview. "It really needs to be automated."

Microsoft is concerned about user privacy and security, said Michael Burk, a product manager for Windows Vista. "Microsoft has listened to our customers and is implementing the usage of metadata throughout the system to give users breakthrough ways of managing and searching for their files while protecting user privacy," Burk said in a statement.

Joris Evers writes for CNET News.com