Windows 10 Might Be Free, But Your Privacy Is Priceless

originally posted by: TheChrome
I'm not worried about privacy, it's more a matter of all the programs that won't run on an upgraded system. Windows 10 might be free, but the updates on all the other programs I have are not. On a PC, it's always good to have a dual hard drive system anyway, one with Windows and the other with Linux.

Does that slow the machine down?
I won't be going to Windows 10; but I have PC games that require the Windows platform. I'm thinking of simply keeping Windows 7 and using Linux for the Internet side of things.

originally posted by: interupt42
Never said to. However, like I said in my previous post the article makes it sound that without windows 10 you have privacy which is not the case.

I didn't read it that way, but if it did imply privacy is binary on or off of course that's false. There's a continuum of various levels of privacy, and windows 10 does indeed seem to be sliding further along that continuum toward lack of privacy than their previous operating systems. Reading the terms of use it sounds like maybe they are exiting the business of selling operating systems and entering the business of collecting all the data they can about you and selling that instead. So, I guess there's no free lunch, and no free Windows 10, from that perspective. You're still putting money in Microsoft's pocket, just in a different way.

Linux is better, but even with linux, you still don't have privacy. Tor, maybe more but when I try to use that I get a lot of sites blocked by cloudflare which I guess doesn't like tor exit nodes.

The only way I know of to get privacy is to disconnect your PC from the internet, which should work pretty well regardless of operating system, as long as you keep it disconnected.

Many people have a smart phone and give away more privacy with that than with Windows 10, so you'd have to live without that too, if you want some privacy.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

The only way I know of to get privacy is to disconnect your PC from the internet, which should work pretty well regardless of operating system, as long as you keep it disconnected.

In reality that is no longer necessarily true if you become A high enough target and you don't take extra physical measures to isolate the computer from any type of emissions or away from other devices you might own that are connected.

Linux is better, but even with linux, you still don't have privacy. Tor, maybe more but when I try to use that I get a lot of sites blocked by cloudflare which I guess doesn't like tor exit nodes.

IMO Linux is better as well, but like you said you still don't have privacy. Also TOR is not really as anonymous as some people think. The entry and exit nodes can be compromised encrypted or not. They recently discovered a method to capture data without having to decrypt by using algorithms and patterns on a compromised entry node.

Its only going to get worse, windows 10 is not the only one to comprise privacy nor the first that is or will be doing things like this.

I upgraded last night.

Instead of the express install I used custom and turned all that crap off.

So far I like the new OS, still playing with it. For me it took about an hour.

I figure what they want to know about me they already do.

We are all F#d anyway, might as well have new toys to enjoy.

a reply to: newsaddict

The entitlement people feel these days is staggering.

You don't have to use Windows if you don't want to. Feel free to create your own OS.

I understand wanting complete privacy, I really do. I think privacy is very important for the most part. However, the people who speak out the loudest against privacy invasion often have the most to hide.

I would be more worried about hackers stealing your identity than I would be the government possibly keeping tabs on your epic social media life.

originally posted by: Dark Ghost
While I value privacy and freedom highly, I get the feeling this is nothing more than a mud-slinging article.

"Haters gonna hate..."

whether hes slinging mud or not the fact of the matter is you would know how ridiculous there blatant data mining is. If you didn't bother to read the custom installation they want all your data for "improving" the OS and to even use Cortana apparently it asks to have full rights to your browser data. literally dozens of layered automatic rights to your data if you didn't bother to look. If your not bothered by it then why don't you rebuild your bathroom with only glass and be ok with it?

Im a male in my twenties i dont need cortana or microsoft knowing what my porn habits are lol.

originally posted by: SlowNail
I'm not up to date anymore. What happened to Windows 9? Have I completed missed something?

Windows 8.1 was basically windows 9.

Back on topic, it's been quite sometimes that privacy was being either abandonned or viollated. So i don't really care with that, windows 10 is an amazing sistem.

oes that slow the machine down?
I won't be going to Windows 10; but I have PC games that require the Windows platform. I'm thinking of simply keeping Windows 7 and using Linux for the Internet side of things.

Windows 10 actually boosts your PC performance. You just need to make a clean install. Direct X12 will increase a lot your PC performance.

I haven't read that much about it but well, the Wi-Fi sense I am finding kind of concerning. the default setting is enabled... and you have to name you assign to you wi-fi system to disable it. and well, it will allow you to share you wifi with all your friends and contacts, on facebook, outlook express and god know where else.

www.forbes.com...

I am far from being a computer wiz and well, I know there's alot of people out there who are even less so. I remember when we first got a computer there was a certain pair of keys you could hit to cause the harddrive to reformat...
I always worried about accidentally hitting them.
I am feeling the same way about this, how easy will it be for people to inadvertantly share their wifi to all their friends and contacts...and well, let the hacking begin I guess...

I have now installed Windows 10 and it runs well. Fast and stable.

While the whole changeover took longer than expected, I am happy with the change (although the new browser Edge is a disappointment, as is the layout of the new start menu - but Classic Shell fixes that.)

Just a note: one of the initial setup questions will ask if you want to do "express" or "custom" privacy settings. Choose CUSTOM and make sure you read every option carefully. This should alleviate most of the fears in regards to privacy concerns.

Judging by the fact that I have been involved in its development for years... I can honestly just say, that whole post is downright bull#, everything that is said is geared towards alarming all these idiots that believe in crazy conspiracy theories, if you are concerned about the mic then don't connect it, furthermore do you really think Microsoft would attempt to record every conversation? Do you realize that there are 7 billion people uttering 40 billion words a day? Average, and you would need at least 200kb of storage space for every 10 seconds of one conversation (at very low quality) you are talking about filling up billions of hard drives of useless data every day

In no #ing Dream World you could possibly take on such an endeavor, in a week the entire state of Texas would be buried in hard drives, buy why stop there right, see if it would even make sense for the government to sift through the entire sea of crap data to find something they can use? Do you realize how many super computers you need to simply index all of it? How about all the power you will need to perform a search of such massive database, are you #ing diluted?

Google is the only company that basically moons the investigative world and they pride themselves on being this way, if they could capture every key stroke and every call or conversation then they would have already built the us enterprise, because that's how far fetched all this empirical nonsense is, fine, don't use win 10, the rest of us will enjoy the first of Microsoft products which happen to be good

I wouldn't worry about it. If they wnat you, they'll get you. On the other hand, what I would worry about is whether it'll be fun and productive. Metro taught me Microsoft can't be trusted to make something I'll like. If they can do it one time, they'll probably do it again. It automatically made me more interested in Linux, from a user interface standpoint. Since there're so many distributions, Linux offers a lot of choice. The only downside to linux is it can be cryptic. Lots of console commands sometimes. And those are the worst. Even in Ubuntu there's a lot of that. Linux is demented about some things, compulsive in others.

I know you could mostly fix the problems with downloads in Windows 8. But honestly I lost a lot of faith in Microsoft and business in general. I'm not a fan of the mobile-friendly OS changes which're popular now. Everything is either too big or too fickle. Buttons don't look like buttons. Weird gestures and interface tricks. Makes it unusable to me. Maybe part of the problems is I own no mobiles. I use a desktop with mouse. No widescreen. In fact, I really do not like the new monitors. Why're they so poppular?

On a broader level, things just change too fast for me. And there's always bugs with the new stuff. It feels soulless and frustrating. The answer then is to take a different road or remove new stuff by replacing with old.

A lot of you people who say just get with the times and stop resisting change, you'll eventually understand. Microsoft or somebody will eventually release a new version or upgrade and you won't like it. Then you'll understand. But I hope you never experience it.

It's interesting that all of these companies and organizations and governments all seem to be getting a distinctly authoritarian/Orwellian vibe at/around the same time and we're really supposed to believe it's entirely coincidental.

Yeah. Obviously, I'm a crazy conspiracy theorist because I think it's odd that W10 should appear at nearly exactly the same time as we've been hearing all kinds of stuff about the government's desire to spy on everyone who breathes. Obviously, people who have wet dreams about "Total Information Awareness" would not use the world's most common operating system to accomplish their goals! That's just paranoid thinking right there!

originally posted by: asmall89
Well what operating system should people use that's secure? Besides Linux.

Google, Apple, Microsoft, are all in bed with the government now a days. Its sad yes and in many circumstances is an infringement on 4th Ammendment rights. But oh well let's keep voting for the big government folk and corporate sellouts.

You can get most of the good stuff, without the BS with Windows Server 2016...its the commercial server version of Windows 10 and is missing most of the crap...