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Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

blog.mozilla.org

51–60 of 311 posts

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#51
post #27

[deleted]

Well then, Netscape would exist. Which was pretty neat.

It certainly was, for a while. But not for some time before it was sold to AOL and then died....

Mozilla has been a much better influence on the web, I think.

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#52
post #29

It's absurd that you have to press on a button called 'Customize' (which is really scary sounding for non-experts) to get any privacy in Windows 10. If users are brave enough to press this button they get a list of nondescript options that barely explain what kind of data is sent to Microsoft. Microsoft should show always show all the privacy options to users and they should explain the pros and cons for each setting…

To be fair if your attacker is the NSA you're fucked no matter what MS does. Most people need better security to protect them from the US companies slurping all their data.

If the NSA is a targeted attacker, then yes, the James Mickens "Mossad / Not Mossad Duality" applies. To paraphrase, "either your attacker is or is not the Mossad. If your attacker is not the Mossad, you can use strong passwords and avoid shady websites and you should be okay. If your attacker is the Mossad, there's nothing you can do and you are definitely going to die".

However, the average citizen is not a target of the NSA. They can tap all sorts of public infrastructure and record it, etc. But much of my activity is spread out over many networks, and is encrypted in ways that may still not be super-convenient for the NSA to constantly crack. The problem with these privacy settings is they're causing WAY more stuff to go over infrastructure easily targeted by the NSA than before.

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#53

Mozilla hasn't made me very happy lately with their "choice" tactics. Resetting people's default search engine to Yahoo of all things on update was very opaque. Also the AMO signing fiasco, Pocket and Hello. Feels like an "It's only okay when we do it" kind of thing.

Changing search engine for existing users was a very unfortunate bug, which got fixed (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1041571#answer-6...). Of course, changing the default for new users is nothing to be ashamed of.

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#54

It's absurd that you have to press on a button called 'Customize' (which is really scary sounding for non-experts) to get any privacy in Windows 10. If users are brave enough to press this button they get a list of nondescript options that barely explain what kind of data is sent to Microsoft. Microsoft should show always show all the privacy options to users and they should explain the pros and cons for each setting…

I seriously doubt that even when people are protected by US law against the NSA, it doesn't have a significant effect on the NSA's behaviour. Because they're a government agency, they can pull the 'terrorism' / 'national security' / 'children' card pretty easily, and any serious challenge can be tied up in court for a long time while they continue doing what they're doing.

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#55
post #27

[deleted]

Well then, Netscape would exist. Which was pretty neat.

yeah, perhaps I worded that I bit strangely. I was just commenting on how Microsoft's monopolistic behavior caused Netscape to open-source and eventually get bought out by AOL, thus forming Mozilla through the open-source release.

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#56
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not some random guy but another CEO.

Who used HIS full name in the signature. At the very least he should have use MS CEO's full name.

I confess that I use this same pattern frequently for work emails outside the company. Inside the company, I only sign with my given name.

[GivenName],

[Body]

[Closing],

[FullName]

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#57

Mozilla hasn't made me very happy lately with their "choice" tactics. Resetting people's default search engine to Yahoo of all things on update was very opaque. Also the AMO signing fiasco, Pocket and Hello. Feels like an "It's only okay when we do it" kind of thing.

I agree. And I extend that sentiment to their approach to Web Standards a few years ago too, like WebSQL [0] and NaCl [1], Dart [2]. That felt like NIH [3] or some other non-collaborative or ultra-competitive motivation on their part. Not a place of "speak for the Web". IMO, the choice of IndexedDB over WebSQL set the Web back 20 years.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_SQL_Database

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Native_Client

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_(programming_language)

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#58
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not some random guy but another CEO.

Who used HIS full name in the signature. At the very least he should have use MS CEO's full name.

Usually people use their full name in signatures. Still don't see what the issue is.

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#59

Is the anti-trust monitoring still ongoing at Microsoft? This seems like something they'd be interested in.

No, the oversight seems to have ceased in 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor....

Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control

#60
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I upgraded my default changed from Chrome to Edge. When I clicked on my first URL, also in an email, it did not give me any choices which was kinda frustrating. Opening Chrome also didn't give me the whole "Chrome is not your default; do you want it to be?" dialog.

Go to settings. There is an entire section to set all your default apps.

Oh I'm aware as that's where I had to change it (chrome didn't give me a "make default" button which makes me wonder if that's not possible in Windows 10).
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