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Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

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Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#121

Post by wslh »

acqq wrote: post #3

This is a financial disaster waiting to happen. Microsoft is oblivious if it is not doing something to divorce itself from the NSA. Apple, on the other hand, could have come out smelling like a rose, but following the death of Steve Jobs, who apparently refused to play ball with the NSA, it stupidly jumped on board to join the PRISM club. According to the Prism slides, it really looks so: "Dates when Prism collection…

Seems like "Think Different" was more real than "Don't be Evil". Even with all the Apple's closed ecosystem.

This reminds everyone to look at different angles when we criticize people/companies and understand that, even now, an individual makes a lot of difference.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#123

Post by rmk2 »

JohnLBevan wrote: post #115

When a company does what's asked of it by a government and people are upset with the company something's seriously wrong. A company's main priority is typically to make money within the bounds of the law. A government's should be to improve the quality of life and uphold the moral values of its citizens. I have a feeling had Apple been first on board rather than last the journalist would argue that Microsoft were evi…

Be that as it may, I cannot change your government. I can, however, stop relying on any of the companies who are complicit in spying on me.

The problem here is the divide between national government and international corporations, where the corporations' actions influence far more people than the direct actions of the national government.

I cannot exert any influence over a government that isn't mine, but I can decide which companies I support and entrust with my data and business. Your dichotomy of government vs company is therefore not correct. I can (and should) be upset about both.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#124

Post by fauigerzigerk »

rfctr wrote: post #119
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't mistake a former KGB guy's taunting for a principled stance. Here's how Putin deals with whistleblowers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko_poisoning

You certainly have a court decision or at least an official accusation to support your claim? Just asking.

You might find some of what you're looking for on the wikipedia page I linked to. But courts are only very rarely the place where accusations against heads of states are examined, especially when it comes to superpowers.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#125

Post by blots »

rasur wrote: post #18
mtgx wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of Putin a little bit. Even if you think some leader is an asshole, sometimes you need an asshole to stand up to an even bigger bully. I just imagine someone like former president Medvedev (and with no Putin in sight) would've offered Snowden to US government on a silver platter, just like France, Spain, Portugal and Italy tried to do (fortunately unsuccessfully). I remember I was very much against Pu…

Not germane to this topic, but I'm sure there are quite a few GLBT people that might have an opinion on just how much of an asshole Putin is.

It's not exactly him. In my experience most Russians are homophobic to the core, unless they know some LBGT personally.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#126

Post by tls »

69_years_and wrote: post #79

I don't think native MS apps running on a local machine are a risk, I imagine (with a little nieviety) that if MS apps/OS were phoning home on a regular basis with the content of ones documents - someone would have noticed and raised a flag (or did I miss it). Nor is exchange BCC a copy to the NSA - again someone would have noticed. Cloud services excluded. PS. It's *buntu that spins my propeller. PPS. I'd be interes…

https://twitpic.com/d279tx/full

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#127

Post by laumars »

flexie wrote: post #120
acqq wrote: post #3

This is a financial disaster waiting to happen. Microsoft is oblivious if it is not doing something to divorce itself from the NSA. Apple, on the other hand, could have come out smelling like a rose, but following the death of Steve Jobs, who apparently refused to play ball with the NSA, it stupidly jumped on board to join the PRISM club. According to the Prism slides, it really looks so: "Dates when Prism collection…

What amazes me is that among those corporations with revenues in the tens of billions of dollars, not one of them challenged the constitutionality of the decision in court. Not one, not once. Not that it would be necessary in an obvious case like this, but each one of Microsoft/Skype, Google/Youtube, Apple and Facebook could easily have hired the nation's best and brightest one thousand lawyers at $1,000 an hour, ful…

For all we know, some of them may have challenged it but they cannot make those details public because they're not even allowed to admit the NSA requested such information to begin with.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#128

Post by phaemon »

Intermernet wrote: post #53
twentyfourseven wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's boycott the hell out of Microsoft. They gleefully sold out their users to the NSA.

As long as you also "boycott the hell" out of: Yahoo Google Facebook PalTalk YouTube Skype AOL Apple Who have also been mentioned as complicit in this whole scandal. Just to be fair :-) By the way, I actually agree with you and have been slowly switching all my home stuff to linux and trying to get away from Google Dependence (although I type this in Chrome on a Win 8 laptop... damn work computer)

If you think a company has behaved badly, why are you under any obligation to be fair to them?

It might be extremely difficult to boycott every company involved, so why not choose one to make an example of? The idea that you must boycott all or none appears irrational.

Re: Why We Can No Longer Trust Microsoft

#130

Post by sillysaurus »

flexie wrote: post #120
acqq wrote: post #3

This is a financial disaster waiting to happen. Microsoft is oblivious if it is not doing something to divorce itself from the NSA. Apple, on the other hand, could have come out smelling like a rose, but following the death of Steve Jobs, who apparently refused to play ball with the NSA, it stupidly jumped on board to join the PRISM club. According to the Prism slides, it really looks so: "Dates when Prism collection…

What amazes me is that among those corporations with revenues in the tens of billions of dollars, not one of them challenged the constitutionality of the decision in court. Not one, not once. Not that it would be necessary in an obvious case like this, but each one of Microsoft/Skype, Google/Youtube, Apple and Facebook could easily have hired the nation's best and brightest one thousand lawyers at $1,000 an hour, ful…

Not in the wildest scenario would the US government have jailed the leaders of Apple, Google or Microsoft.

That may be naive. Most people have skeletons in their closets. The government would use these to pressure those leaders to acquiesce. I suspect the most dangerous skeletons are ones which seem harmless to you, but cast in the proper light they can be used as a justification for punishment. E.g. Something which seems harmless now can retroactively be used to claim you were doing insider trading. Few people would step up to defend you, even if the charges are baseless, because recently it's been fashionable to hate capitalists, and trading stocks is the epitome of capitalism. So it'd be very much "obey us or we will litigate you into bending your knee anyway."

Jobs was immune because he was the CEO equivalent of a rockstar. To try to pull baseless charges against him would outrage the public. Yet I'd imagine the public would get grim satisfaction out of seeing Ballmer punished, even if the charges were baseless, because most people don't like him. It's shallow, but it seems true.

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