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I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

jonathan.porta.codes

201–210 of 596 posts

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#201
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Would you like to store a backup for your drive encryption password on Microsoft OneDrive? If you choose not to do so, and you forget your password, all of your data will be lost. [Yes/No]" You know when most people care about whether or not they can recover their data? It's not when someone asks them a Yes/No question, it's when they can't recover their data. And responding with "Well, remember 2 years ago when yo…

Then, don't make it a [Yes/No] question, make it an [Okay] with a barely noticeable "Change Advanced Settings" link; much like the dialog that the TFA complains about.

Why show the non-prompt? The users who don't want it can turn it off later, as is the case now.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#202
post #169
post #20

Windows is now essentially a personalized, cloud-based operating system with the primary interface as a personal assistant, so I expected to see all these things as defaults. The advanced features just couldn't work without it. I'm glad there's at least an opt-out, but I do think that Windows needs an OS-wide incognito mode, just a simple switch to record or not record data. I generally use that on my browser for whe…

"I expected to see all these as defaults". It would be fine if they were defaults if you actually saw them.

What are you talking about? From the article, the "get going fast" picture displays the settings you're agreeing to when using the express settings. It's one page of content. And clicking on "customize" gives you more detail.

I mean, I agree with the article that the layout is definitely pushing people who don't care to just pressing "agree", but if you care about privacy, it's not like it's hidden from you.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you complaining about having to wear a bag over your head whenever you go out to pick up your prescriptions or meet your mistress, citizen? It's a small, reasonable step to go off the record. What is the alternative?

Hyperbole much? You can still simply not log in to Chrome and/or Google Search. But if you want to be logged in by default, then you'll have to tell the browser when you occasionally don't, no?

Most people don't intend to log in to Google Search, as far as they're concerned they're logged in to their email account. This is why Google got in so much trouble in France and the EU over the past couple of years.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#207
post #26

All obtainable with a subpoena, I would imagine. No way.

MS is so aggressively international, I can imagine that they might cave to subpoenas from other governments. So now my home country plus at least the rest of the G8 can request my data.

Nope.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#208
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the US market, the way you frame the concern is the legal reality for Microsoft...parents who will blame Microsoft when information about their children passes online...are why there are no privacy guarantees in Microsoft's new policy. It's just too easy for a lawyer to convince a trier of fact that Microsoft "should have known".

Doesn't the US impose privacy guarantees on those storing data about the under-13s anyway?

I don't think Cisco's routers or Youtube's CDN or the typical iPad application have that capability. Stuff gets cached and logged automatically. Microsoft is a big target for lawsuits.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#209
post #195
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The advanced features just couldn't work without it." I don't know much about Windows 10, so I'm curious what features you are referring to that require heavy tracking like this.

We had speech recognition back in the 1990s on computers less powerful than a Raspberry Pi V1. We're talking 200-400mhz 32-bit Intel boxes. So yes, the cloud dependency is very dubious. If leveraging a lot of data allows for better speech recognition, why can't your computer access a remote speech recognition data set that stores and shares the results of its machine learning algorithms rather than uploading actual a…

You realize the 'personal assistant' functionality of today is slightly more complex than just speech recognition, right? Because, it is.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#210

I've never understood how people can truly believe that by checking (or unchecking) a checkbox their privacy will be fully protected. Especially since we're talking about a closed-source OS. I mean I cannot possibly verify what exactly goes on in the annals of the operating system and what happens to my data, where it is logged and where it is stored and how it is sent. So regardless of the settings, I always assume…

An OS which doesn't have any checkboxes at all could do this too. Do you trust an OS without any checkboxes?
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