Scientology is almost every PC

Zurich, Switzerland
January 13, 2000
Tages-Anzeiger

Anyone installing Windows 2000 operating system in his computer is supporting a Scientology company

by Hugo Stamm, Zurich

A stir concerning the new Microsoft operating system, Windows 2000: The Diskeeper program which maintains the hard disk was developed by Executive Software, a California company belonging to high-ranking Scientologist Craig Jensen. Sect critics from Germany now warn that the software company could have access to the data on computers which have installed Windows 2000. And that would be many. Do we risk being watched over by Scientology in the dreadful manner envisioned by George Orwell?

That is theoretically possible, computer specialists state, but hardly practical. The so-called defragmentation program does actually have access to all data stored on disk. The way it would work is that the program could be set up so that it sent a copy of the data to another computer over the internet without being detected. The technical magazine "c't" has found no peculiarities in the program, however the possibility that the operating system component could secretly gather computer users' data cannot be completely ruled out.

Executive Software vehemently protests against such suspicions. And Microsoft states that it has found nothing conspicuous about the program in question. A Microsoft spokesman, in any case, recommended that skeptics buy a competitive product. That is easier said than done, because, factually speaking, Microsoft has a monopoly on the market. So the advice to remove the Diskeeper program is basically more helpful. That, however, is said to be a complicated task.

Leading Business

Ursula Caberta, Scientology specialist of the Hamburg agency, describes Executive Software as one of the leading businesses of WISE, the Scientology business association. This is allegedly "Scientology's crucial arm for infiltrating and secretly gathering data on businesses."

Agencies of individual German states, political parties and the Catholic Church who require a security clause in their contracts have problems with the Diskeeper program. These clauses state that no business may be done with companies or organizations which cooperate with Scientology or are managed according to Scientology methods. The institutions do not yet know how they are going to solve the dilemma. Just the concept, however, of paying license fees to a company which is closely associated with Scientology is painful.