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Windows 10, Privacy, and the Hole in the Sky

3 points by sudioStudio64 ↗ HN
The privacy concerns. The letter from the Mozilla guy. I'm not even saying that they aren't valid. The vitriol and high-horse moralizing. How is that productive HN style discourse? None of it's constructive. How can we talk about these issues in a way that doesn't blow them out of proportion and actually exchange some information?

7 comments

[ 365 ms ] story [ 292 ms ] thread
mattkrea
I'm not sure how this is blowing them out of proportion. The 'Express' configuration that nearly every user will run with sends virtually everything you do to Microsoft. Please explain how that is not a serious privacy concern.
sudioStudio64
That's not really accurate. Maybe we can reach out to someone at MS and they can explain exactly what is being sent. It certainly isn't virtually everything that you do...it's something, it's not accurate to say its everything.

MS people frequent this site. Maybe one of them could get some detail on the subject?

mattkrea
It is keystrokes, app you use, browsing and search history, speech, encryption keys.. That's a concerning amount of information.

This is where I strongly prefer the Apple way of signing in with a normal account and -- if you choose -- linking it to an iCloud account. This is very different from the Windows style where MS accounts take over your local login.

sudioStudio64
I just don't think that's an accurate picture. They aren't recording your voice and storing it somewhere. Browsing and search history are collected by other platforms for predictive browse ahead and autocomplete, and it's a useful feature. App usage is collected for diagnostic purposes.

You don't have to use a MS account. You can use a local account. 10 is different from windows 8 in that regard. You can take Cortana off the taskbar. Use a different browser in incognito mode all the time. Store your encryption keys in a TPM, smartcard, or Active Directory. There are actually lots of options. You have to actually look into it though.

mattkrea
Right. The problem is that 99% of users are going to be using these defaults--not that you or I can't figure out how to disable it.
sudioStudio64
So, a second ago it was that you can't use a local account...but you can, so now it's..."The defaults are bad and people are dumb."

Literally all of the people who install it or buy a PC with it installed have the choice of making that decision or purchase.

And you're right, they won't change the defaults and that's not a travesty of some kind. It actually really doesn't matter to most people. Not because they don't understand it. They do, and they want to use it for one reason or another. People in our technical circles overestimate the importance of this stuff by some fairly crazy amounts.

mattkrea
Since I can't reply to your reply I'm going to post here.

These problems are not mutually exclusive. They are all serious problems.

And you seriously think most people know what that stuff means?

"Oh! Gee thanks Microsoft. Record everything I type in the operating system to make your autocorrect better" or whatever the hell they do with it.

They absolutely do not then realize that when they named a file "my-pot.jpg" and then search for "pot" in Cortana (which is stored by the way.. even for local searches) that information could be used against them in the future.