Microsoft’s Windows 10 is a privacy nightmare

[2012Coleman]

I see the current Windows 10 topic, but I spotted this article and thought I'd post a link to it. I would suggest anyone running W10, or contemplating installing it read it.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 is a privacy nightmare

[AsheGuy]

2012Coleman wrote:
I'm not a MS basher by any means, but does the fact that I don't want targeted advertising on my PC, or my bandwidth being used as a peer to peer network to download updates, applications I install accessing my personal info, or don't want to create a universal logon mean that I'm misguided?

Like many things, they can be a two edged sword.

Microsoft is moving into the world that Apple, Facebook and Google have been in for quite a while and who were eating Microsoft's lunch. That is, a single login for all things in each company's domain and collecting more information about you. This additional information is very helpful to the user in many apps on smart phones and tablets (and increasingly on PCs), but it can also be used in a way not beneficial to the user. So it's a dilemma.

I don't like advertising particularly, but in many domains it is now avoidable (think DVRs, website ad blocking, watching a movie on Netflix vs on a TV broadcast channel, etc.). But it is the basis of the American way unfortunately. I find billboards every few hundred yards of a highway blocking out beautiful views much more annoying. And Facebook is the world leader, probably, in this world of knowledge about their users and look at how many users they have. Microsoft is so far a piker in comparison.

So each has to choose their own course depending on how they view the pros and cons.

[2012Coleman]

I'm not a MS basher by any means, but does the fact that I don't want targeted advertising on my PC, or my bandwidth being used as a peer to peer network to download updates, applications I install accessing my personal info, or don't want to create a universal logon mean that I'm misguided?

I like Microsoft - in fact I make my living from it, but I refuse to drink their koolaid. Ignorance is bliss as they say.

[mlts22]

All and all, the best OS out of the bunch is Windows Server 2016, which is still offered as a preview.

It isn't as user friendly as W10. In fact, there is no way to install a GUI initally, but it is added on as a feature. However, its built in backup program is quite good, and it works just fine as a desktop OS, although some programs like Mozy will refuse to work with it unless you plunk down 5-10 times as much for the "enterprise" version.

It isn't cheap, and it isn't a "beginner" OS (you have to manually create your user account yourself), but if you use hardware that you plan to keep for a long while, it might be worth getting. Same features as W10, lot fewer headaches.

As an added bonus, it comes with a built in AV utility.

[Colo_Native]

joebedford wrote:

Colo Native wrote:
I had windows 8.1. 7 was better than 8.1 but anything is better than 10

I agree - 10 is better.

I did not say 10 is better I said anything is better than 10

[Colo_Native]

MNtundraRet wrote:

Colo Native wrote:
I downloaded it and within 24 hours got rid of it.

Maybe you can answer a question for me. Did you have Windows 7 before the download? If so did you loose your Microsoft Word and Excel?

I have the free-be versions with ads, and can't see getting stuck paying a fee each year to handle using net-worth spreadsheets and Word documents needed by a retired person.

I can deal with the bugs in Windows 7, and will stick with it until "Drop-dead" date instead of paying more to Microsoft for programs supplied with the computers in the past.

No I had windows 8.1 did not keep 10 long enough to find all the problems

[joebedford]

Colo Native wrote:
I had windows 8.1. 7 was better than 8.1 but anything is better than 10

I agree - 10 is better.

[ReadyToGo]

GNU has an agenda?
What an understatement. Tell everyone how bad an OS is and tnen push their own.

[Colo_Native]

MNtundraRet wrote:

Colo Native wrote:
I downloaded it and within 24 hours got rid of it.

Maybe you can answer a question for me. Did you have Windows 7 before the download? If so did you loose your Microsoft Word and Excel?

I have the free-be versions with ads, and can't see getting stuck paying a fee each year to handle using net-worth spreadsheets and Word documents needed by a retired person.

I can deal with the bugs in Windows 7, and will stick with it until "Drop-dead" date instead of paying more to Microsoft for programs supplied with the computers in the past.

I had windows 8.1. 7 was better than 8.1 but anything is better than 10

[burlmart]

8.1 Van wrote:
Linux fanboys love to say Microsoft is evil and I remember them saying 15 years ago that Linux will kill Windows but today Linux has the same 1% OS market share as it did back then. Why don't you people that think Windows sucks go run Linux ?

you've made a logical error. distrust/disdain for M$ on the part of open source linux enthusiasts is not windows vs ubuntu, and you know it.

i am waiting for a MS "FANBOY" to step up and give a detailed defense of what MS is trying to get away with by offering free W10 in exchange for unprecedented/unspecified loss of user privacy.

so, 8.1 Van, how about bringing the challenge back to you?

ball's in your court. detailed defense, please.

[road-runner]

8.1 Van wrote:
Why don't you people that think Windows sucks go run Linux ?

I do. I have dual boot because I use a couple of apps that run only on windows.

[8_1_Van]

Linux fanboys love to say Microsoft is evil and I remember them saying 15 years ago that Linux will kill Windows but today Linux has the same 1% OS market share as it did back then. Why don't you people that think Windows sucks go run Linux ?

[bwanshoom]

road-runner wrote:
Here's the current gnu take on windows, some specific to win 10:

Microsoft's Software is Malware

I realize gnu has an agenda. What's important is that the truth, whatever it is, be revealed asap. For me the biggest red flag is the aggressive distribution of free copies. Doesn't sound like the Microsoft I've known in the past.

I'm not sure the ravings of Stallman add anything to the quest for the truth. He's pretty much in the tinfoil hat category.

[road-runner]

Here's the current gnu take on windows, some specific to win 10:

Microsoft's Software is Malware

I realize gnu has an agenda. What's important is that the truth, whatever it is, be revealed asap. For me the biggest red flag is the aggressive distribution of free copies. Doesn't sound like the Microsoft I've known in the past.

[burlmart]

3oaks wrote:

burlmart wrote:
'hope springs eternal.'

i've been all glowing about how MS was gonna redeem itself after reaming them on how they used all sorts of scare tactics and half truths to force us off XP.

I see i was in a hopeful fog of naivete. its all M$, and that's that.

abusing our trust in a major US corporation and nonchalantly recommending people to do the 'express install,' which unbeknownst to 90% of them allows MS unprecedented access to their privacy is dirty business, and completely nullifies any trust that users have placed in this greedy corporation.

i don't know what i was thinking that they were good guys

But are they doing anything illegal? If not, oh well, it's all about choices. You choose!

they likely have great lawyers - the kind that can write a contract tat even they, themselves, find hard to understand. and you are right that we are free to walk. i am sensing that there is a privace cost to running this free OS which

1} most non IT savvy people are going to feel unhappy about once they find it out, and

2) will change the tunes of the hi tech writers who are now glossing over the privacy sea-change posed by w10. they may be glowing about their W10 beta experience w/ MS now, but lets see what thty're saying a yr from now