It's too bad that microsoft continues to be villainized when companies like Facebook and Google have social networks and browsers respectively that have similar practices that users are even more unaware of when they use them. Computers these days have become thin clients for browsers (especially for the typical consumer). Except for the occasional open of Word or Excel, you're in your web browser browsing the web an…
So we should stop criticizing Microsoft, because Facebook, Apple and Google are not criticized enough? That's some pre-school logic.
Microsoft has watched Apple get away with this stuff for years and make billions off of it. Apple doesn't even offer an opt-out on most of it. Microsoft is at a massive competitive disadvantage by not leveraging the knowledge it has access to and offering those features that require this type of data collection. Microsoft is a publicly-held company, beholden to its shareholders and is thereby required to compete in the market against its rivals. As long as Apple is allowed to do it, it is therefore inevitable that everyone else will, too. Preschool logic? Sure, whatever you want to call it. It's life.