There are 3 sides to the Win10 debate. There are those who:
1 – think it’s a problem.
2 – don’t think it’s a problem.
3 – don’t care.
Many folks think “telemetry” = “tracking”. You know, like “spin” = “lying”. Some folks think telemetry is innocuous. Often Win10 defenders will try to bring Google, or Apple, or some other entity into the argument. This is a false argument. The fact that others do something does not make that something OK. Because others steal it is OK to steal?
People are getting down right nasty about this (as people seem to do on the internet). It’s sad.
What got me thinking about this was seeing a Twitter post by Paul Thurrott where he… well… see for yourself. I was stunned. Disappointed too.
Name calling? (and nasty at that) Really? Over an opinion about an OS? Overreact much?
Tell me what you think.
Win10 Privacy………………..
I had a run-in with Gordon Kelly few weeks ago. He was telling me that by disabling telemetry in Win10, I will be invalidating the EULA agreement and could not receive the updates. I replied to him that I WAS GETTING UPDATES JUST THE SAME and that he was scaremongering. I can’t remember his reply but it was the dumbest thing I ever heard.
Paul Thurrott needs to step back and take a breath or two. It’s time for him to either apologize to all visitors of his web site or retire, and I don’t see him doing either one. Paul has not been objective for some time now and I have stop following him because of it. I’m sure Paul started out with good intentions (way back when) but he’s too full of himself now. By the way, I’m one of those people that think Windows 10 Privacy is a very big deal.
Yes, Windows spying on our every move IS a big deal. I would not be surprised of a class action law suit in the future.
That is some crazy stuff right there.
Isn’t forbes the one serving up malware? I hope I am wrong, I don’t visit the site, but read their ads are more than aggressive. They can blame advertisers, I am not buying that.
Forbes would not let me in with Ghostery on. So all right, I started allowing the ads and more keep coming. I gave up. Lots of malware for sure.
Thurrott attacks Kelly in a distasteful, stupid way. I don’t understand how someone of this renown, a professional, can lose himself that much.
The only good thing coming from that Twitter discussion is a link to Ed Bott’s article: http://www.zdnet.com/article/revealed-the-crucial-detail-that-windows-10-privacy-critics-are-missing/ I read it and chuckled after a few parts. And there is one thing I would like to ask you, connected a little bit to Bott’s article.
In your news you wrote about argument used by defenders of MS, about brining Apple, Google etc. to discussion and you presented very extreme interpretation of this argument: “If X is stealing, MS can also”. When you put it this way, it is of course false and ridiculous. But I don’t think this interpretation is the proper one or maybe I should say – I think most people using this argument are thinking in a very different way.
A lot of companies are using different types of telemetry and it looks like everyone was more or less okay with that. I don’t remember any storm when Apple developed Siri, Google was always treated with cautious because of ads but Google Now wasn’t attacked that much. Everyone agreed that these services need some kind of telemetry and it was okay for almost everyone. Now we have a case of MS which basically creates its own Siri (and names it Cortana), unifies operating systems on different platforms so it can work on one product for everyone and expands its own telemetry for the same reasons other companies do it. And suddenly volcano erupts and everyone is attacking MS saying that telemetry is just spying.
I could understand this public outrage if it was followed up by an attack at telemetry in general. But it doesn’t look like this is the case. It’s still more like “X does Y and it’s okay, MS does Y and it’s spying”. This is why I think people are using Google and Apple in discussions – because they don’t understand why the same thing done by different companies can be interpreted in completely different ways.
Of course, if you think all telemetry is spying, this whole discussion doesn’t really matter because the only thing important is how to prevent sending any data. And indeed all these arguments are being reduced to what you wrote.
So – how do you look at this problem? The problem of different interpretations of the same actions.
And of course – you are reading much more about this topic than I so I can just have too simplified view or not know about certain arguments used by people. But I would be glad to discuss it with you.
I can only speak for myself. IMHO bringing another entity into the argument is a nonstarter. In this example we are discussing Win10, not Google, etc.
This massive data collection is NEW to my DESKTOP. I never had to worry about my desktop operating system doing this and I would prefer it didn’t. I don’t believe Microsoft has any ulterior motives. I don’t believe Microsoft in general cares about my surfing habits and such. But it is spending time, CPU cycles, disk space, and network bandwidth on MY computer collecting, storing, and transmitting this info. (FWIW I do my web surfing from my openSUSE VM). I think that they think this data collection actually benefits me in the long run. I would prefer a way to completely opt out but that isn’t going to happen.
As to the Geek uprising against this data collection, I don’t understand why anyone is surprised. We spend a lot effort into trying to protect what little privacy we may think we have on the internet. Disk cleaners, ad blockers, noscript, tor, vpn’s are some examples of this.
One might be able to accept the MS argument that they are collecting our data to improve the OS. But, it is the way they are going about it by not informing the user of exactly what they are collecting. The second one is by forcefully installing their malicious software to force us to update to Win 10. I would call it GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY. And how MS using our PCs as servers to propagate the updates?
Except, it’s a valid discussion. (I wouldn’t really call it a ‘nonstarter’ nor an ‘argument.’
The fact is, companies just like Microsoft have done this as long as I can remember. Although you occassionally run into someone spouting off about privacy invasion and the like, it wasn’t until Windows 10 came into the game that people began paying attention to it.
If we are going to attack Microsoft for the privacy concerns of their newest OS, we also need to start pressuring these other companies as well.
If you want to be upset about invasion of privacy, Google should be the first company that you pressure. Between themselves and Facebook, your data is everywhere anyhow. That doesn’t make it alright at all – but it certainly means that our anger doesn’t just begin and end with Microsoft. (or Google, Apple, etc…)
As for what they are collecting: It’s right in their user agreement, which you sign before installing Windows 10. The real problem is that people do not read those things, and just assume trust on the corporation.
In regards to the ‘malware’ nag on previous Windows versions: You can uninstall it. It is easy to uninstall. You just have to look up a quick guide, dedicate five minutes of your time, and do it.
You would think Microsoft would allow people to opt out of all this data collection to stop all the bad publicity, but I guess you don’t have to worry about bad publicity when you are a monopoly. That being said, none of this has scared me away from using Windows 10 since I already had very little expectations of privacy online between the NSA, ISPs, websites, search engines, etc. It’s definitely not worth arguing about to me. I probably should care more, but as long as Windows 10 runs flawlessly on my machines, I’m happy to use it.
I flip-flopped between Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 before finally settling for 10 Pro. All I can say I like it thus far. Very few OS crashes (2 since Dec. 21) and and the latest Insider TH2 build is stable. So far, the best Windows yet considering it’s still a beta product. I agree, we can only do so much to protect our privacy. I run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, SUPERAntiSpyware Pro and AVG. It’s a good combo.
There is an interesting article on Cortana in NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/technology/personaltech/protecting-personal-information-from-virtual-assistants.html?mabReward=A6&moduleDetail=recommendations-0&action=click&contentCollection=Television®ion=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article
“Q. I was going to try Cortana, Microsoft’s version of Siri, but to use it, you have to allow Microsoft access to your location, your contacts, voice input, information from email and text messages, browser history, search history, calendar details “and other information.” Naturally, I declined. Why does Microsoft need so much personal information and what does Microsoft do with it?”
Good link!
Are any of you concerned that when you install your cellphone apps, many of them want all of your info? You don’t even have a choice of what you will allow them to steal from you. Is anyone out there doing security/privacy reviews of mobile apps? I cant’t find anything on Google.