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With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

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Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#151

Post by [deleted] »

plantocorp wrote: post #135
0xmohit wrote: post #2

Some highlights: Microsoft installed an app in users’ system trays advertising the free upgrade to Windows 10. Not satisfied, the company eventually made Windows 10 a recommended update so users receiving critical security updates were now also downloading an entirely new operating system onto their machines without their knowledge. This is essentially equivalent to saying: You've been running whatever version of Win…

As a Microsoft employee, this W10 force upgrade things is the single thing that pisses me off the most by far... It goes against everything that we are trying to promote/change. Sometimes I'm really wondering if we work for the same company (I'm not in the Windows division). I feel like all the effort we put in investing in open source, being more open, and just generally a more empathic company is totally destroyed…

[deleted]

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#152

Post by falcolas »

kyberias wrote: post #139
sunnyps wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They changed this behavior after huge public outcry. It used to install the update too. Microsoft was even ordered to pay $10k in a civil suit[1] because of this. [1] http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/27/12046738/microsoft-pays-10...

I don't believe this. That article nor the article it links did not state that Windows forced the install at any point. Rather the Washington Times article states that: "The company denies wrongdoing, and a spokeswoman said Microsoft halted its appeal to avoid the expense of further litigation." And: "Microsoft says it offers users a choice to update, not a requirement. People have to acknowledge a dialogue box befor…

An anecdata point for the "did force" - what it did to me was schedule the upgrade for a specific time, and the dialog let me know that's when it was scheduled. You had to change the scheduled time to "do not upgrade" to avoid the upgrade; simply closing the dialog left the scheduled update in place.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#153

Post by mitm2mitm »

plantocorp wrote: post #135
0xmohit wrote: post #2

Some highlights: Microsoft installed an app in users’ system trays advertising the free upgrade to Windows 10. Not satisfied, the company eventually made Windows 10 a recommended update so users receiving critical security updates were now also downloading an entirely new operating system onto their machines without their knowledge. This is essentially equivalent to saying: You've been running whatever version of Win…

As a Microsoft employee, this W10 force upgrade things is the single thing that pisses me off the most by far... It goes against everything that we are trying to promote/change. Sometimes I'm really wondering if we work for the same company (I'm not in the Windows division). I feel like all the effort we put in investing in open source, being more open, and just generally a more empathic company is totally destroyed…

http://i.giphy.com/3o7TKy8FveNIcy8t6U.gif

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#154

Post by ProAm »

wvenable wrote: post #24
jakebasile wrote: post #17

I upgraded willingly so the deceptive upgrade practices, while deplorable, didn't really affect me. What does affect me is that Microsoft refuses to let me control my computer. - If you turn off Windows Defender Real Time Protection it explicitly tells you "You can turn this off, but if it's off for a while we'll turn it back on". It turns itself on upon next reboot, it seems. - You can't turn off Windows Update. It…

> You can't remove worthless apps like Microsoft Groove and OneDrive integration. You can, it's just not super-easy. I've done both. Groove was pretty easy but OneDrive took a few steps. I almost have file explorer configured in a good way for me -- it actually seems much more flexible than previous versions even if half that flexibility is only available in regedit.

Can you disable Cortana? Last I heard you can't

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#155

Post by ramchip »

graycat wrote: post #119
y4mi wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

G stands for giga, exactly 1000 units. the general understanding is 1024, but this would technically be a Gibi- (abbreviated to GiB or Gib) the small b stands for bit, which is an eighth of a byte. a big B stands for byte. So a GB is exactly 1000 bytes, or 8000 bit

> G stands for giga, exactly 1000 units. Actually that is the meaning of K, as in Kb or KB. Giga is not for "1000 units" but for 1 bilion "units" or, for the power of 2 approximation 2^30 = 1,073,741,824. I was just trying to be nice to the person who wrote the post I responded to. It seemed to me that their post needed to distinguish between Gb, gigabit, and GB, gigabyte. Not strictly, of course, because in principl…

> It seemed to me that their post needed to distinguish between Gb, gigabit, and GB, gigabyte.

I disagree: the post makes perfect sense either way.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#156

Post by jalami »

ominous wrote: post #132
jalami wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL, but it looks like when you agree to the Microsoft TOS you waive your right to bring a Class Action suit against Microsoft >Class action lawsuits, class-wide arbitrations, private attorney-general actions, and any other proceeding where someone acts in a representative capacity aren’t allowed. Nor is combining individual proceedings without the consent of all parties. I believe that's why companies are taking M…

If you read this, you agree to give me 2L of blood every 88 hours, as well as a lock of your firstborn's hair. I agreed to nothing.

SCOTUS seems to disagree with you[0][1]. I try to read or at least skim what I agree to. Some companies have an opt-out of their binding arbitration (eg. Ting), which I try to make use of, but most don't allow you to opt out of the class action waiver.

If you don't like the terms, email them and tell the company why you won't sign up. I rarely get a response, but someone on their staff knows there's at least some push back.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Mobility_LLC_v._Concepc...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIRECTV,_Inc._v._Imburgia

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#157

Post by l3m0ndr0p »

Based on my opinion, the reason MS is doing this is to implement "Implied Consent." The information MS is collecting is being used by MS and also by the US Government. MS hands this information over, or at least has it readily available. There's no other purpose for this information to be sent back to a company, other than to build a profile of the user which can be used for anything and everything.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#158

Post by randiantech »

Honest question here: Why tech community is so hard with Windows mandatory updates, and kind of flexible with other companies? Maybe its just me, but the ratio of posts and articles blaming Microsoft for this practice seems to be disproportional. I mean, my Mac asked me 875 times about accepting something about iTunes. No matter how many times i click on decline, it keeps appearing there all the time. Same thing with Chrome: It got silently updated (just figured it with last update that brought Material Design to the interface). If avoiding updates to a system is kind of a user right, then it would be fair to have an option to stop updates in cloud based systems as well (IE: My email service).

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#159

Post by mitm2mitm »

SquareWheel wrote: post #142
blakeyrat wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What good would that do? Everybody thinks they're a pro. They'd just turn it on the instant they heard of it.

I wouldn't mind if there were some convoluted steps to enable it. Something akin to turning on Android's "developer mode".

I think requiring the user to boot a Linux live CD and do some voodoo would be enough. Computer would have to self destruct if you failed the steps tho.

"Do not turn off your computer, 5, 4.."

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#160

Post by nol13 »

mitm2mitm wrote: post #126
quantos wrote: post #64

This is the reason why i moved to linux. The path this "new" microsoft have choosen, if they continue to do this, they will certainly lose their market share on PCs in near future and I hope when users will start caring about their rights and privacy, they will move to other OSes.

Let's be real, "they" won't. A select few might change to a mac, maybe a chromebook, and that's it. Developers are a case apart.

And I'm just one small developer, but I won't be investing my time in .NET and hosting on Azure.
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