81–90 of 201 posts
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Of course not, you're turning off most of the features of the Operating System. Normal people don't want to disable their OS.
"Features" that never existed on previous Windows versions anyway, so they could care less.
I wish the steps were this straightforward for my android phone.
1. Install an AOSP ROM without the proprietary Google Apps or Google Play Services.
2. Install the F-Droid market to download whatever programs you like.
3. Enjoy using an Android phone without the anti-privacy Google tracking.
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Of course not, you're turning off most of the features of the Operating System. Normal people don't want to disable their OS.
"Features" that never existed on previous Windows versions anyway, so they could care less.
I can't help but feel like some of this is fear mongering. There are some good features in there that are being disabled for the sake of "privacy" like sharing of Windows updates with other computers to speed up downloads. And how do we expect things like Windows Defender or Microsoft's handwriting and voice recognition to improve if we refuse to share back any anonymized information with Microsoft?
> like sharing of Windows updates with other computers to speed up downloads American internet speeds suck enough without Microsoft grabbing some for itself. > Windows Defender They seemed to be able to improve their services before. In fact, I think that's what a Security Researchers job is. MS has several of them. > handwriting and voice recognition Neither of which apply to my desktop, so why do I have to give the…
Before what? These are no new features.
In my opinion, if those privacy issues bother you, the first step should be an overview of non-Microsoft operating systems.
http://9to5google.com/2013/11/11/google-tracking-your-store-...
If you disable it, Google Now stops working.
Or with Chromebooks, where everything is forced to be stored in Google's cloud with very paltry storage like 32GB and 64GB even in high end Pixels.
I somehow don't see the outrage on HN about things like physical store visits being tracked by default on Android devices.
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Pretty much, no, really. This is why I consider an ad-blocker part of any standard security suite.
I keep going back and forth about installing one for my parents, after having had to deal with a couple of full screen "ads" that mimicked Windows having a security crisis. I say "ads" because while the thing was a obvious (to me) scam, it came while browsing Facebook of all places. As such, the only way i could see it happen was via the Facebook advertisement system.
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Cortana is not an essential part of the OS. Malware databases can exist locally. You're just making excuses for MS's anti-privacy architecture.
Lots of apple, and google features are not essential part of the system. Shall we turn siri off by default? "Malware databases can exist locally" - You still have to download, and upload definitions. This is what windows defender does. People still complain about that. It's not that I'm not concerned about privacy. It's the hypocritical nature of people. It only becomes a big issue when Microsoft does it. Anyone else…
In one case, you download the whole database.
In the other case, you essentially tell the company "hey, I’m visiting website with hash 12345, is that bad?".
This can be abused. Google could with it create a database of everyone who visit, say, pornhub.com, for example, by logging everyone who visits a page with the same hash as pornhub.com
Same with file-based malware databases:
You tell it "I have the file with hash 12345, is it bad?" And, if Google - or the NSA, CIA, FBI, whatever – want to get a list of everyone who has that file, they just ask the database provider to log everyone who checks that hash against the database, then go to the ISP to get the real name of the owner of that IP, and then SWAT the person.
This is very much a possible risk.
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I keep going back and forth about installing one for my parents, after having had to deal with a couple of full screen "ads" that mimicked Windows having a security crisis. I say "ads" because while the thing was a obvious (to me) scam, it came while browsing Facebook of all places. As such, the only way i could see it happen was via the Facebook advertisement system.
Why do you go "back" on it? The internet is a better, safer, faster experience without ads.
Or just use a Mac. Or Ubuntu. ...sorry, it had to be said :)
>Mac Which sends search queries via “Spotlight Suggestions” and “Bing Web Searches” by default? >Or Ubuntu Which sends all your search queries to Canonical by default (via the shopping lens)?
The Ubuntu thing is opt-in, not opt-out in recent versions.
Both are simple changes and not nearly the same scope as W10's abuses.
In my opinion, if those privacy issues bother you, the first step should be an overview of non-Microsoft operating systems.
and the alternatives are? osX invented all this. MS is just catching up. and apple don't even allow you to disable things. android? chrome alone sends more info than whole windows 10+edge. now, you could say Linux. but sadly your grand mother has no publicly available product she can buy with that OS.
Most of these settings are all in the same place, right where you set up the OS.
In my opinion, none of them have to be off. I understand why they're being collected, and I don't mind that information being collected, and I like the things like the predictions as features.
But I do appreciate that they can be turned off. Another OS might just add those things but not make them something you could opt out of at all.
I mean, even Ubuntu went and sent all of your search data to Amazon by default for a while without any simple way to opt out of it, which to me is worse than Microsoft itself collecting Cortana data with the ability to turn the option off at install time.
But the thing about allowing people to choose to turn those features off (or even on) means that they're aware that they're there, while other people can just slip them in as a tiny line somewhere in the privacy policy and not allow you to configure those settings at all.
