[dba-Tech] The price of free Windows 10

[John W. Colby]

You know that makes a good point.  What does MS intend to do with 
Government?  I would guess no government in the world would install this.

I have been reading article after article trying to get a handle on 
exactly this issue and it appears that it is EXTREMELY difficult to 
disable all of the spying, and in fact may simply not be possible. And 
if you do then many of the "features" get disabled as well.  I would 
have no problem if the OS collected this data and STORED (AND PROCESSED) 
IT LOCALLY, but shipping it lock stock and barrel to the cloud is a show 
stopper for me.  And sharing it with anyone that MS pleases means that I 
will simply NEVER go there.

What were they thinking?

In fact for the first time in my life I am considering just wholesale 
move to Linux for the future.  The absolute, explicit and acknowledged 
collection of every single thing you do is something I personally am 
just not willing to do.  The y went from c wholesale crappy interface to 
a wholesale crappy data collection policy.  This is just another bomb in 
my estimation.

John W. Colby

On 8/6/2015 12:01 PM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
> There is a price for a free Windows 10 and whether you feel it is a price you are willing to pay is up to you.
>
> As noted Windows 10 is less a desktop and more a Cloud based application, that is very connected via the internet and to the Mothership. For those with ample bandwidth its main design is not a problem. This leads to the other main issue of privacy. The policy is that Microsoft give no promise of any privacy to personal data, whether usage, where ever you may search, all applications you use, who you associate with, any interests you may have, provide no security as they manage your SSH and other encryption keys. Your information and content is basically theirs to do with as they please; third party vendors or government agencies. Also extensive validation is enforced on all data and applications to see whether programs are properly registered, proper certification on all communication and DRM to prevent unauthorized redistribution of digital media and restrict the ways consumers can copy content. So when it is said that Windows 10 is free, the answer is yes and no.
>
> http://www.rt.com/usa/311304-new-windows-privacy-issues
>
> There are many articles on the subject. The above is just one of hundreds of links. I do not say that you should not use Windows 10 but I would suggest you use it on a computer separate the rest of the network and/or deploy it via a virtual machine. So as long as you use Windows10, everywhere you go, everything you do, all transactions you make, every one you associate with, every program up run, any data you have is being monitored and no tin-hat is going to help you. (It is hardly the OS you would launch within a secure business environment.) The one good thing is that Microsoft made no pretence of your personal privacy so you know where you stand.
>
> Jim
>
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