Windows 10 Privacy: Overblown panic

[precip9]

The crux of this thread is:

1. The W10 Microsoft Privacy Agreement requires the user to relinquish his rights to privacy. It employs the phrase "good faith", which means that Microsoft will do this for the benefit of the user. Or, at least, no harm will come to the user.
2. Since it is a legal document, some of us treat this very seriously.
3. There are those who feel protected by the phrase "good faith", who feel that the new Privacy Agreement is no threat to them.

To date, Microsoft has not infringed on the privacy of users in any meaningful way. Such lapses as have occurred were technical and accidental. But is it a good idea to substitute the "good character" of a corporation for legal protection? I think not. People are human, people err, corporations deviate from the law. A good corporation can become a bad one. A Privacy Agreement that actually protects privacy is a deterrent. It is not an absolute deterrent, but the old Privacy Agreement draws a line in the sand. The new line, if it exists at all, is very fuzzy.

The increased penetration of the Cloud into the PC with Windows 10, the user OS that continues to be the target of so many hacks, adds to vulnerability partly because of what Microsoft calls "attack surface." In order for a PC to interact with the Web, it presents an active "surface" to the web. These are like pipes inside the hull of a submarine that carry seawater at pressure. They are very intricate, and very difficult to protect. Attack surface is what makes a hack attack possible. Without it, a PC could not interact with the Web, but would be perfectly safe from Web attacks.

Ironically, the EMET (Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit) group at Microsoft recognizes this, and offers the EMET tool, which allows the administrator to precisely control the surface presented to the Web, disabling parts that are not in use and present risk of hacking. But the more the internals of Windows are tied to the Cloud, the more attack surface it presents. In the recent past, numerous Cloud entities have been hacked. The preference by some of us for desktop systems that are relatively private, and connected only briefly and by choice to the Cloud, is due to a fear that is well grounded in recent history.

The other way the Cloud adds to vulnerability in Windows 10 is via server-side attacks. Even if everyone at Microsoft behaves in good faith, their databases, which would include anything they decide to upload in "good faith", winds up in the hands of the successful hacker. Recent history of large database hacks makes this a real concern.

Examining my personal point-of-view, the above concerns may not be connected with political attitudes. I am concerned about these issues to the extent I will not touch Windows 10. Yet I am not a libertarian, and I support the use of the police powers of the Federal Government, and the necessity of such institutions as the NSA, in the fight against terrorism. It's a tradeoff: to enjoy civil liberties, you have to be alive.

No such tradeoff occurs with rejecting Windows 10. You can be alive and have lots of fun without it.

[Cigarguy]

Well said precip9.

Unfortunately, most people don't care about privacy until something bad happens to them, some people need others to tell them what to do, others believes that MS can do no wrong, lastly there's some of us who prefer some control and take responsibility for our own computing experience.

[Temetka]

It is within your rights, and within the bounds of etiquette, to say that I am wrong. But what you do "instead" is really offensive.

I don't like your debating tactics. I don't think you play fair. You pose questions that require acceptance of a premise that is itself debatable. Now you state that you're suspecting that I realize something, but don't want to admit it. This is an ad hominem tactic, directed at the person instead of the issue.

You're a nasty person. You play dirty. I don't like you.

Pot to kettle.

Pot calling kettle.

Hello?

[coolcat37]

Rofl @ the title of this topic.

Check this out: http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... microsoft/

[precip9]

Ridicule is overtaken by events.

[Kilkenny]

Rofl @ the title of this topic.

Check this out: http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... microsoft/

"But you can just turn it off!" they said.

[ajkula66]

Getting better by the moment...

http://www.sevenforums.com/security-new ... ost3129525

[Temetka]

That's awesome.

The ArsTechnica article that is a few posts up is an excellent read.

I do have to say however that as much as I really like Windows 10, I am still going to do the bulk of my computing in Linux. My Note4 already "spys" on me enough. I don't need my computer doing it either. Which reminds me, I need to put a piece of tape over my webcam.

[precip9]

Getting better by the moment...

http://www.sevenforums.com/security-new ... ost3129525

Mon dieu! 1984 has arrived!

[coolcat37]

Getting better by the moment...

http://www.sevenforums.com/security-new ... ost3129525

Mon dieu! 1984 has arrived!

Ho-how, if this, is true, then my friends, we indeed have been teleported to a 1984 reality.
May Gordon Freeman help us

[coolcat37]

It keeps on getting better and better:

http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... s-patches/

Hooray for 'enhancements' like this?...