8 years ago
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Privacy Activists Aren't Happy with Windows 10
That’s an awful lot of data you’re requesting, Microsoft.A healthy 14 million devices are now running Windows 10, Microsoft’s latest operating system, which was released on July 29. That shouldn’t be too surprising: it was a free upgrade for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8, and reviews have been largely positive from both mainstream critics and PC enthusiasts. Privacy activists, however, are less impressed.
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People are going crazy about the so-called privacy concerns. They are upfront about what they are taking, and the even give you the option to opt out of all of them from the very beginning rather than going out and searching for them. Nobody at MS cares that you are torrenting your anime. Take off your tin foil hat.
I mean sure, I'm not saying give up all of your info. There were a few options I turned off because I felt no need to give it out freely in the same vain as I don't like people looking over my shoulder when I'm browsing harmless things on facebook or youtube. I'm just saying that MS isn't the new NSA. They are collecting info to improve their systems cause that makes them more money.
If windows 10 is what scares you about data collection, then you are in a big scare when you realize the countless amount of advertisers tracking your every move all over the web. Welcome to the modern web.
The simple fact that the OS ships with a built-in key logger is worrisome. Microsoft is an american company, if the NSA orders, they can simply send a patch, hidden in another update, to activate the keylogger regardles of your settings. There's also the possibility that a vulnerability could be exploited by criminals. A compromised buil-in key logger might not be detected by anti-malware solutuions, making everyone vulnerable to data theft.
This article is terrible. There's no "privacy" concerns that they list. However this comment sums up the actual concerns. I was super hyped for Windows 10. I adored it, now I feel a bit sick and unsure about the situation. It's basically 10x worse than the NSA spying, and now I'm not sure where to go from here.
To be honest... the idea of total privacy is continuing to erode. I hate to bring up an old trope, but I really think Minority Report had it right: the future world will track your daily habits and you'll get a customized experience based on your history.
I think Zuckerberg was the really the champion to get the ball rolling to get people to stop caring about keeping everything private. All that companies are missing now is a strong push for why you WANT it. They need to make tracking do something for you, to make your life noticeably more convenient / enjoyable. As more people stop caring and give in to the trend then eventually the debate will fall away.
Creepy..I'm glad I'm long gone.
Honestly, I don't mind. It's no worse than what Google's scraping off me, and it's pretty handy. I, for one, welcome our incredibly handy and of dubious privacy computer overlords.
Cortana is awesome.
Updated today, unchecked every single box. You get nothing Microsoft, nothing.
Kind of late to the party on this one, but honestly I don't find it to be a huge concern. The options are easy to turn off, and most of them seem to be either advertising-based (and as annoying as ads are, they do pay the bills for many content creators) or based on tweaking the Windows 10 experience for every user. I turned a good bit of mine off, including Cortana because I didn't see the point, but it doesn't seem to be as big a deal as people are making it out to be. Now, if Microsoft hid the options to turn them off, that'd be one thing, but when turning them off takes 5 minutes, it's not a huge concern.