Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Zap

The first time since I've had windows in all these years. Window Defender popped up and advised me it found some malware. And was taking care of it. Could windows 10 bring the good fortune of actually a Windows defender that actually defends. I hope so.

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Windows 10s privacy settings are invasive and vague.

According to Zach Epstein of BGR News, all of Windows 10’s features that could be considered invasions of privacy are enabled by default. Signing in with your Microsoft email account means Windows is reading your emails, contacts and calendar data. The new Edge browser serves you personalized ads. Solitaire now comes with ads. Using Cortana – the voice-driven assistant that represents Redmond’s answer to Apple’s Siri – reportedly “plays fast and loose with your data.”

“I am pretty surprised by the far-reaching data collection that Microsoft seems to want,” web developer Jonathan Porta wrote on his blog. “I am even more surprised by the fact that the settings all default to incredibly intrusive. I am certain that most individuals will just accept the defaults and have no idea how much information they are giving away.”

As examples, Porta cited Microsoft having access to contacts, calendar details, and “other associated input data” such as “typing and inking” by default. The operating system also wants access to user locations and location history, both of which could be provided not just to Microsoft, but to its “trusted partners.”

“Who are the trusted partners? By whom are they trusted? I am certainly not the one doing any trusting right now,” Porta wrote, describing the default privacy options as “vague and bordering on scary.”

Alec Meer of the ‘Rock, Paper, Shotgun’ blog pointed out this passage in Microsoft’s 12,000-word, 45-page terms of use agreement:

“We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to.”

While most people are used to ads as the price of accessing free content, writes Meer, Microsoft is not making it clear enough that they are “gathering and storing vast amounts of data on your computing habits,” not just browser data.

Opting out of all these default settings requires navigating 13 different screens and a separate website, the bloggers have found.

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Documents leaked to the press by whistleblower Edward Snowden showed Microsoft was one of the technology companies the NSA siphoned web user data from during its PRISM campaign. The campaign saw the NSA siphon data from many tech firms including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo and Apple. The NSA used special secret court orders to force the companies to give them the data.

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ORIGINAL: Aurelian

I turned it all off.

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Honestly, unless you are fearful that your searches for kiddie porn, bondage, or diaper fetish might be revealed... what are you putting out there that is of such concern?

I mean, virtually everything about our public lives is being gathered by someone. How do you avoid it? Grocery store loyalty card? Do you have one of those to get a discount? Now your grocer knows exactly what you are eating... whoa... can't have that now. They might start sending us discount coupons for ground beef after they see that you buy 10 pounds a month. Or maybe I will be blackmailed over my "vegetarian" personna when I actually buy a sack of frozen chicken breasts every few months to make chicken stew or the occasional package of hamburger patties (my weakness is for Cheeseburgers once in a while).

I don't particularly like all the data gathering, but it's a fact of life... everywhere. You buy something with a credit card and there is a record somewhere... your spending habits are aggregated and sold for targeted advertising. The day will come when in like the movie "Minority Report" scanners will identify us as we shop and offer buying recommendations on screens as we walk past. The cat is out of the bag... we no longer have any privacy. Not upgrading your O/S is a futile protest.

I haven't checked yet, but someone posted that Microsoft was going to flip all those invasive settings to "OFF" by default in that big update that just came out a few days ago in response to people's complaints. The only one that really concerned me was the one I posted about whereby you allowed Microsoft to technically use your computer and bandwidth to "serve up" software upgrades to other people's computers instead of using Microsoft's network. That was, indeed, creepy as Hell. I went in and manually turned that one off, not that anyone had accused MS of actually using Win 10 machines as their own "Botnet" to distribute updates. Remembering, of course, that the old "Napster" did just that... allowed you to pull music off someone else's computer hard drive in the background.

I had a rough upgrade, but everything is working pretty well now. I installed "Classic Shell" last night and got all my games and applications back onto the Start Menu. Things like my now invisible Office 2007 after the upgrade was really annoying... especially when accompanied by all the pressure to buy Office 365 or whatever they are calling that subscription service.

Anyway, I have no regrets now.

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Not upgrading your O/S is a futile protest.

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ORIGINAL: KISSMEUFOOL!

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Honestly, unless you are fearful that your searches for kiddie porn, bondage, or diaper fetish might be revealed... what are you putting out there that is of such concern?

I mean, virtually everything about our public lives is being gathered by someone. How do you avoid it? Grocery store loyalty card? Do you have one of those to get a discount? Now your grocer knows exactly what you are eating... whoa... can't have that now. They might start sending us discount coupons for ground beef after they see that you buy 10 pounds a month. Or maybe I will be blackmailed over my "vegetarian" personna when I actually buy a sack of frozen chicken breasts every few months to make chicken stew or the occasional package of hamburger patties (my weakness is for Cheeseburgers once in a while).

I don't particularly like all the data gathering, but it's a fact of life... everywhere. You buy something with a credit card and there is a record somewhere... your spending habits are aggregated and sold for targeted advertising. The day will come when in like the movie "Minority Report" scanners will identify us as we shop and offer buying recommendations on screens as we walk past. The cat is out of the bag... we no longer have any privacy. Not upgrading your O/S is a futile protest.

I haven't checked yet, but someone posted that Microsoft was going to flip all those invasive settings to "OFF" by default in that big update that just came out a few days ago in response to people's complaints. The only one that really concerned me was the one I posted about whereby you allowed Microsoft to technically use your computer and bandwidth to "serve up" software upgrades to other people's computers instead of using Microsoft's network. That was, indeed, creepy as Hell. I went in and manually turned that one off, not that anyone had accused MS of actually using Win 10 machines as their own "Botnet" to distribute updates. Remembering, of course, that the old "Napster" did just that... allowed you to pull music off someone else's computer hard drive in the background.

I had a rough upgrade, but everything is working pretty well now. I installed "Classic Shell" last night and got all my games and applications back onto the Start Menu. Things like my now invisible Office 2007 after the upgrade was really annoying... especially when accompanied by all the pressure to buy Office 365 or whatever they are calling that subscription service.

Anyway, I have no regrets now.

I do so enjoy Rhonda's candid observations.

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Not upgrading your O/S is a futile protest.

(Silly girl. Ive been using WinXP for 13 years & Linux for 18 years. My 1982 Totyota Tercel is still running just fine too! No need to change a thing.)