This isn’t the pre-Win11 hardware license identifier that we already knew about. This is the “Microsoft Account identifier” that Win11 forces an association with for every install and activation of a Windows 11 hardware license. Presumably that identifier also exists in earlier versions of Windows when using Microsoft Store, or Office, or Sign In With Microsoft Account — but those were things one could opt out of. If the prior hardware license system could be so trivially linked to people, then Microsoft would be behaving like Oracle and issuing pay-or-else demands to millions of end users worldwide; they have not. The news here to me is that Windows 11 has now been proven publicly to correct that oversight, and can begin targeting specific individuals both for law enforcement and for corporate profits.