By
Nydia Tungsten
Edited
by Brandi Tungsten
When I first heard Windows
10 was in the works, I was skeptical. We all knew that Windows would
skip an OS version with quality for example, Win 98 was okay and then
NT was a flop, XP was a good one then Vista. I have Windows 7 and I
skipped 8 for just this reason. That
is a personal opinion I share with quite a few other folks and we all
thought okay, 10 should be the good one, then I heard they would be
giving it away for free.....
Okay....these are the
people that wanted to charge me $100 for a new copy of Vista because
I reinstalled it so many times, the same ones that did that with my
copy of MS Word. Then, when I bought it electronically and had to
download it again, it said there was no record of me buying it.
Now
out of the goodness of their hearts, they are going to give away
their latest OS. Okay, I smell something fishy, so I looked and
looked and was lulled into a false sense of hope. Then, last night,
my friend, Lomgren, posted something in our family group chat about
Microsoft's new privacy agreement and what they are helping
themselves too in the process. I read that article then went looking
for more, and dear Goddess, a scary thought popped into my head as I
looked at article after article. Let me show you a bit of what I had
found.
“Microsoft
has grabbed some very broad powers to collect things you do, say and
create while using its software. Your data won’t be staying on your
computer, that much is for sure. Sign into Windows with your
Microsoft account and the operating system immediately syncs settings
and data to the company’s servers. That includes your browser
history, favorites and the websites you currently have open as well
as saved app, website and mobile hotspot passwords and Wi-Fi network
names and passwords. You can
deactivate
that by hopping into settings, but I’d argue that it should be
opt-in rather than on by default. Many users won’t get round to
turning it off, even though they would probably want to. ”
I
read that and was shocked why would it need to send my passwords and
history to the company? But then it got worse...
To
enable Cortana to provide personalized experiences and relevant
suggestions, Microsoft collects and uses various types of data, such
as your device location, data from your calendar, the apps you use,
data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts
and how often you interact with them on your device.
Cortana
also learns about you by collecting data about how you use your
device and other Microsoft services, such as your music, alarm
settings, whether the lock screen is on, what you view and purchase,
your browse and Bing search history, and more.”
Lots
of things can live in those two words “and more.” Also note that
because Cortana analyzes speech data, Microsoft collects “your
voice input, as well as your name and nickname, your recent calendar
events and the names of people in your appointments, and information
about your contacts including names and nicknames.”
Realistically,
Cortana can’t work in the semi-magical way it does without being
able to gobble up all that information. But it’s worth being aware
of just how wide-ranging its access to your and your
friends’/contacts’ data is.”
Now
I was more than a bit nervous when I read that then thought about it,
yes for a virtual assistant to work it would need that info, but
again it should stay on your system NOT the Microsoft servers.
Advertisers will know exactly who you are:
"Windows
10 generates a unique advertising ID for each user on each device.
That can be used by developers and ad networks to profile you. Again,
you can turn this off in settings, but you need to know where to
look.”
With
that one it looked like Microsoft is in league with the spammers. I
mean really? A custom ID for every one of us that don't know about
this so advertisers can track us online more than they already do,
and this would defeat any anti-spyware you already have because it
would be authorized by the OS itself. But even with all of this
mounting evidence of Microsoft digging their fingers into our PRIVATE
systems, came this next piece, dear Goddess......
Microsoft
can disclose your data when it feels like it
This
is the part you should be most concerned about: Microsoft’s new
privacy policy assigns it very loose when it comes to when it will or
won’t access and disclose your personal data:
“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 protect our customers or
enforce the terms governing the use of the services.”
Good
Faith? Just who's good faith are they talking about? And why should
we give them the back door when even the NSA doesn't have one …..yet?
So, they would be able to peruse your system and look for things THEY
think might be wrong is some way or another. They can even look at
any networks you are connected to and the other systems there, so
even if you are not on your home network you give them rights to look
at others systems, not just your own.So,
here is my horrifying thought, we all know the music and
entertainment industry has been pushing bill after bill after bill at
Congress, as well as pushing the ISP's around trying to get access
like this. What if they now have Microsoft in their pocket and paid
them off to create an OS that would track us for them and give it
away for free so EVERYONE could have one, so EVERYONE could be
tracked, and EVERYONE would be under their thumb?
So
it turns out the old adage is most likely true, if it looks to good
to be true, it probably is. As for me, Windows 10 will not be
touching my networks nor will I share my network with anyone that has
a Windows 10 system anywhere that they interact with.
Am
I being paranoid? Maybe.... but I now say this tongue in cheek:
“Just
because I AM paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT out to get me”
So,
be careful out there on the World Wide Web. It CAN be a dark place,
and a lot of things can be hidden from us. That said, below are a few
of the sources I have read about this. I urge each and everyone of
you to look into these deeply before you get Windows 10.
Nydia Tungsten
