Windows 10 - First Impressions

[jaclaz]

I wonder whether Brad Sams (1) doesn't remember what he wrote back then, or (2) doesn't care.

Well, this is assuming that:

1) he thinks what he writes

AND

2) he actually writes himself those pearls of wisdom.

 

jaclaz

[NoelC]

I think it's funny that people regard what's said by the shills and pundits as worth reading.  For other than entertainment value, I mean.

 

I'm not being critical of any of you fine folks, mind you, but never - ever - forget that they're paid to write BS copy to suit some business goals.  How anyone manages to land a job like that is beyond me, but a few lucky ones clearly do.  The rest of us must do honest work.

 

They're trying to influence you - don't let them!  Never forget the words of Watto:

 

"No, they won't-a. What? You think you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hand around like that? I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don't work on me."

 

-Noel

[Formfiller]

Nice find, Formfiller!

 

I wonder whether Brad Sams (1) doesn't remember what he wrote back then, or (2) doesn't care.

 

--JorgeA

 

Speaking about remembrance-issues.. remember this?

 

 

Well, scroogled.com is no longer active and for a good reason. Here's the Windows 10 EULA:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/default.aspx

We collect data about your interests and favorites, such as the teams you follow in a sports app, the stocks you track in a finance app, or the favorite cities you add to a weather app. In addition to those you explicitly provide, your interests and favorites may also be inferred or derived from other data we collect.

 

We collect data about you such as your age, gender, country and preferred language.

 

We collect passwords, password hints, and similar security information used for authentication and account access.

 

We collect data about how you interact with our services. This includes data, such as the features you use, the items you purchase, the web pages you visit, and the search terms you enter. This also includes data about your device, including IP address, device identifiers, regional and language settings, and data about the network, operating system, browser or other software you use to connect to the services. And it also includes data about the performance of the services and any problems you experience with them.

 

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:

1.comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies;

2.protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone;

3.operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks; or

4.protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services - however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer's private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement.

 

We collect data about your contacts and relationships if you use a Microsoft service to manage contacts, or to communicate or interact with other people or organizations.

We collect content of your files and communications when necessary to provide you with the services you use. This includes: the content of your documents, photos, music or video you upload to a Microsoft service such as OneDrive. It also includes the content of your communications sent or received using Microsoft services, such as the:

•subject line and body of an email,

•text or other content of an instant message,

•audio and video recording of a video message, and

•audio recording and transcript of a voice message you receive or a text message you dictate.

Microsoft collects and uses data about your speech, inking (handwriting), and typing on Windows devices to help improve and personalize our ability to correctly recognize your input.

For example, to provide personalized speech recognition, we collect your voice input, as well your name and nickname, your recent calendar events and the names of the people in your appointments, and information about your contacts including names and nicknames.

 

This additional data enables us to better recognize people and events when you dictate messages or documents

 

 

Talk about getting Microsofted! And that's just an small excerpt, it goes on and on in that way.

 

I miss the time when phone home or a serial number in Pentium 3 chips generated outcries.

Sometimes the outcries were a bit ridiculous ("Vista DRM") but I would rather have that atmosphere than what we have now.

Just by installing a darn OS you're basically granting MS a subscription to all of your life. That's just not sane anymore. And it's not just words and what-ifs, the infrastructure to collect all this data is built-in into the OS.

[NoelC]

Now imagine Microsoft was just trying to throw a monkey-wrench in Google's business works while at the same time they themselves were trying catch up and outdo Google at the same game.  Kind of sickening to think that's the level of twisted manipulation we can expect in the "big corporations getting in our lives" game, isn't it?

 

It's equally disappointing to think that a grand majority of the public can't even begin to understand what we're talking about here.  How many apologists have you heard say, "they would never do that."

 

-Noel

Edited July 29, 2015 by NoelC

[Tripredacus]

Here's the Windows 10 EULA:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/default.aspx

We collect data about your interests and favorites, such as the teams you follow in a sports app, the stocks you track in a finance app, or the favorite cities you add to a weather app. In addition to those you explicitly provide, your interests and favorites may also be inferred or derived from other data we collect.

 

We collect data about you such as your age, gender, country and preferred language.

 

We collect passwords, password hints, and similar security information used for authentication and account access.

 

We collect data about how you interact with our services. This includes data, such as the features you use, the items you purchase, the web pages you visit, and the search terms you enter. This also includes data about your device, including IP address, device identifiers, regional and language settings, and data about the network, operating system, browser or other software you use to connect to the services. And it also includes data about the performance of the services and any problems you experience with them.

 

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:

1.comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies;

2.protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone;

3.operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks; or

4.protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services - however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer's private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement.

 

We collect data about your contacts and relationships if you use a Microsoft service to manage contacts, or to communicate or interact with other people or organizations.

We collect content of your files and communications when necessary to provide you with the services you use. This includes: the content of your documents, photos, music or video you upload to a Microsoft service such as OneDrive. It also includes the content of your communications sent or received using Microsoft services, such as the:

•subject line and body of an email,

•text or other content of an instant message,

•audio and video recording of a video message, and

•audio recording and transcript of a voice message you receive or a text message you dictate.

Microsoft collects and uses data about your speech, inking (handwriting), and typing on Windows devices to help improve and personalize our ability to correctly recognize your input.

For example, to provide personalized speech recognition, we collect your voice input, as well your name and nickname, your recent calendar events and the names of the people in your appointments, and information about your contacts including names and nicknames.

 

This additional data enables us to better recognize people and events when you dictate messages or documents

[JorgeA]

Day 1, and the articles to improve Windows 10 are already coming out:

 

How to disable Bing Search from Windows 10's Start menu

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

OTOH...

 

The Windows 10 upgrade is already giving some users headaches

 

While many have installed and upgraded to Windows 10 successfully, there are plenty of Windows users who are having a less than stellar experience with the Windows 10 upgrade. As we churn out piece after piece on new features, apps and software updates as well as ‘How to’s”, our comment sections are quickly filling up with struggling Windows users.

 

Complaints and issues range from odd update code errors and missing driver support to users attempting to avoid automatic updates...

 

--JorgeA

[Formfiller]

 

 

 

 

Maybe we can bring your guy to the edge of the galaxy with this additional Windows 10 fuel:

 

Advertising. Many of our services are supported by advertising. We use the data we collect to help select the ads Microsoft delivers - whether on our own services or on services offered by third parties. The ads we select may be based on your current location, search query, or the content you are viewing. Other ads are targeted based on your likely interests or other information that we learn about you over time using demographic data, search queries, interests and favorites, usage data, and location data - which we refer to as "interest-based advertising"

 

Data Sharing.In some cases, we share with advertisers reports about the data we have collected on their sites or ads. We may also share data directly with service providers to permit them to provide services on our behalf or to partner with us in selecting and serving ads for our advertising partners. For instance, Microsoft uses a service provider to match your Microsoft cookie ID and account data with data an advertiser may have about you (such as your recent purchases from them). This is done so the advertiser can reach you with an ad it thinks may be relevant to you.

 

Usage and connectivity data. Microsoft regularly collects basic information about your Windows device including usage data, app compatibility data, and network and connectivity information. This data is transmitted to Microsoft and stored with one or more unique identifiers that can help us recognize an individual user on an individual device and understand the device's service issues and use patterns. The data we collect includes:

• The software (including drivers and firmware supplied by device manufacturers), installed on the device.

• App use data for apps that run on Windows (including Microsoft and third party apps), such as how frequently and for how long you use apps, which app features you use most often, how often you use Windows Help and Support, which services you use to sign into apps, and how many folders you typically create on your desktop.

• Network and connection data, such as the device's IP address, number of network connections in use, and data about the networks you connect to, such as mobile networks, Bluetooth, and identifiers (BSSID and SSID), connection requirements and speed of Wi-Fi networks you connect to.

• Other hardware devices connected to the device.

Some diagnostic data is vital to the operation of Windows and cannot be turned off if you use Windows.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Formfiller

[Kelsenellenelvian]

I wonder what dhjohns has to say about this

[loblo]

Since there was no specifics about what they do with the biometric identification  data generated by Windows Hello, I googled  it and found out they claim they only harvest Windows Hello usage data but then I wonder why this data is sent encrypted as it is not sensitive... What are the odds they actually can and will harvest people's biometric identification  data, hiding it with encryption?

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/windows-hello-privacy-faq

[loblo]

 

 

[Tripredacus]

Well at least MS is being upfront about it... I wonder if this would protect them against lawsuit when something will invariably go wrong.

[Formfiller]

Well at least MS is being upfront about it...

 

Well, yes, but this whole thing reached almost perverted dimensions. They outright state that you give them limitless access to anything you do on your PC, and that they may create a digital clone of you on their servers by gathering as much personal data as possible by installing Windows 10 and this isn't considered as that freaky anymore.

 

But actually, it's frigging crazy. I just cannot accept this as normal anymore. It's as if I would "declare" that when I enter a supermarket, the supermarket agrees to be robbed by me and I can steal from any person inside the supermarket as well if I wish, with no legal repurcussions. The supermarket accepts this licensing terms the moment I enter the market. And my excuse would be "the supermarket should have read my licensing agreement when I entered! It's 30 pages long and in my bag!".

 

Windows 10 ads appear automatically on all Windows 7 and 8.1 machines, unless they are actively blocked, and they don't make the user aware of the grave data mining Windows 10 does. It's actually not that customers seek out to get Windows 10 - Windows 10 comes to them! My supermarket example is not that far off.

 

Of course, Facebook and Google are thirsty for data as well, but it's easy to avoid them: don't post much on facebook and purge the browser after a google session and they don't have much to track. But Windows 10 is facebook on your own computer, active all the time. That's far more serious.

 

I am so sick of it what happened to computing.

[loblo]

 

Of course, Facebook and Google are thirsty for data as well, but it's easy to avoid them: don't post much on facebook and purge the browser after a google session and they don't have much to track. But Windows 10 is facebook on your own computer, active all the time. 

 

 

Just FYI, you don't need to post on Facebook, or even go on their site for them to harvest data about your browsing if you don't block, with something like Ghostery, their beacons that are embedded in 90% of web pages out there. Same goes for Google, you can clear your cache as often as you want, they'll still log all you visit if you don't block their scripts that are also on 90% of web pages out there.

[NoelC]

To block extraneous / privacy intruding stuff from loading with web pages, look into using the MVPS hosts file.

 

-Noel