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from the trying-to-get-the-scoop-on-what-they-scoop-up dept.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has accused Microsoft of disregarding user choice and privacy with Windows 10. In a scathing editorial, EFF employee Amul Kalia calls on Microsoft to "come clean with its user community" over a growing number of Windows 10 privacy concerns. "Windows 10 sends an unprecedented amount of usage data back to Microsoft," explains Kalia, noting that enabling Cortana increases the amount of data passed to Microsoft. Privacy advocates have argued that Windows 10 sends back location, text input, voice input, touch input, websites you visit, and other telemetry data to Microsoft.
"While users can disable some of these settings, it is not a guarantee that your computer will stop talking to Microsoft's servers," says Kalia. "A significant issue is the telemetry data the company receives." Microsoft has previously insisted it anonymizes telemetry data, but the EFF is concerned the company hasn't explained exactly how it does this. "Microsoft also won't say how long this data is retained, instead providing only general timeframes."
While telemetry data is clearly a concern, the EFF focuses on Microsoft's confusing link between this data and security patches. "Microsoft has tried to explain this lack of choice by saying that Windows Update won't function properly on copies of the operating system with telemetry reporting turned to its lowest level," claims Kalia. "Microsoft is claiming that giving ordinary users more privacy by letting them turn telemetry reporting down to its lowest level would risk their security since they would no longer get security updates."
The story then proceeds to blast Microsoft's Windows 10 upgrade tactics, as well.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Tuesday August 23 2016, @04:38AM
The EFF, Soylent, Slashdot, and anyone else who wants can, and do, blast away at MS and their tricks with Win 10.
It all has the same effect: NOTHING WILL CHANGE
Until someone with some real teeth that is willing to tear a few strips out of them it will be business as usual for MS. They will continue to do what they want and effectively ignore any criticism from anyone.
Sadly I can't think of any organization or government body that can/will actually do anything.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday August 23 2016, @04:52AM
Maybe not... but we can sure put the word out as to what they are doing.
Businesses keep tabs on the general public with credit scoring. Other businesses use these scores to help them decide whether or not to honor the word of a prospective customer. They like to know whether a man is a man of his word, or a cheap lying bastard full of tricktalk.
Sites like these are our "credit score" with businesses, and they help us decide whether or not to take a business seriously, or if they just spew businesstalk - with anything they say being taken with a large dose of caveat emptor.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @04:54AM
Dick Bathroom-Stall Man has been calling Microsoft the Great Satan for decades. Putting the word out doesn't do fucking shit, moron.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday August 23 2016, @05:49AM
I beg to differ with you.
Thanks to Stallman and people like him, there are a sizable number of us who are aware as to how these traps work.
That's not to say there are still not a helluva lot of people who blindly go where they are led. At least being warned about how the trick works keeps the surprises being planned from being pulled over some of us.
We may have to go along with this mess, reluctantly, but forewarned, leery and having our exit strategies in order.
If you knew the pilot was drunk but there was no way to get there but plane, you know to pack a parachute. There is nothing much we can do for the hordes who think blind obedience is a virtue. The tagline I have used here for years neatly sums up my take on the whole thing. I cannot prove most of the stuff I am told. Nor can anyone else.
A lot of life is like a magic show, and those who are aware of how the trick works are a bit better prepared to make wiser choices.
Otherwise, we are apt to suffer the same fate as the moth flying right into the fire...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 23 2016, @03:55PM
Gotta agree. Stallman is a wierd old bastard, but he gets partial credit for my attitude towards Windows. If we're honest, then most of us would have to admit as much.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 23 2016, @05:47AM
If Google put the word "Linux" in front of the word Android, or even behind it, common people would actually realize that maybe that Linux Thingy isn't just for nerds.
If Google added a "would you like to also have Linux to sync the same apps on your PC" function that automatically installs a beginner-friendly distro (or just plain runs as a live CD) when an Android phone is plugged into a PC , they could hurt MS.
I can't think of anyone else. Even the Mac cultists haven't completely converted.
Not holding my breath.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @06:24AM
Google was right to omit the word Linux, because nobody would use Android if they knew smelly unkempt nerds made it. It's just like Mac users want to be reminded that a flaming gay man made the Unix they use every day.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday August 23 2016, @11:08AM
Had to switch to LibreOffice at work about a year ago. Office 2013 was literally eating tens of pages at a time from some of the documents I maintain for seemingly random reasons. Other times I'd send somebody on 2010 a document, and while I could see everything, they'd say they were missing a page here or there. Absolutely unacceptable.
I had some trepidation switching since the last time I tried to use FLOSS to interact with M$ it just didn't go so well. However, everything went very smoothly. I will admit, I'm weird and I liked the ribon. I also miss WordArt. But having a program that doesn't delete my shit is a tad more important.
People have laughed at me when they find out I use LibreOffice. Yes, laughed at me. I'd explain why I switched, but it didn't make a difference. I'm using the weirdo dweeb office suite that only misogynerds use. Apparently the cool kids are just fine with the documents being mangled, because Office is what everyone uses. Only kale-eating dweebs use something else.
I'll be interested to see how much M$ can ratchet up the pain for using their products before the “cool kids” finally pull their heads out of their asses, if for no other reason than they're getting fired and missing opportunities because of M$'s shitty, unreliable… shit.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday August 23 2016, @01:51PM
The only issue i've had with swapping out the MS office suite for LibreOffice is you can't open .msg emails anymore (missing outlook). I sometimes receive attachments that are email files and those email files have their own attached email files : ( There are several decent open source readers though, thankfully.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday August 23 2016, @03:06PM
Office 2013 was literally eating tens of pages at a time from some of the documents I maintain for seemingly random reasons. Other times I'd send somebody on 2010 a document, and while I could see everything, they'd say they were missing a page here or there. Absolutely unacceptable.
There is a reason the software is called "Word", and not "Text". You were using it far beyond spec, so what did you expect? ;-)
People have laughed at me when they find out I use LibreOffice. Yes, laughed at me. I'd explain why I switched, but it didn't make a difference. I'm using the weirdo dweeb office suite that only misogynerds use. Apparently the cool kids are just fine with the documents being mangled, because Office is what everyone uses. Only kale-eating dweebs use something else.
Depending on the use-case, I would probably also sneer at the decision. At least for really long texts, LibreOffice is not even coming close to the comfort of LaTeX. In university I wrote most of my homeworks with LaTeX, including my final thesis, and had far less headache than most of my co-students.
But the point is, most people are too semi-lazy to want to learn about advantages / disadvantages of the different tools. Semi-lazy, because in the long run they put a lot more effort than they would have to otherwise, so it doesn't really qualify as "lazy". To convince those, one has to be entertaining/witty. Ridiculing MS Office is much more efficient than bringing good arguments. Laughing at nerds is cool, to diss software is cool, to show real interest usually isn't.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday August 23 2016, @05:41PM
One of the big strengths of LaTeX imho is how snugly it will fit in a version control system (git for me for now until something better comes along). I've never written anything worth publishing, but somewhere in the deep dark bowels of my home directory, there's a stash of half-realized fiction will full revision history including a few branches to nowhere. I've heard success stories about collaborative writing as well.
Those documents I maintain probably would work better in LaTeX, but other people who are deathly afraid of backslashes do occasionally need to use them for read-write purposes, and there's always “what if our wizard gets hit by a bus?” (I'm sure there's a Harry Potter joke there somewhere.) My co-workers are not the sharpest tools in the shed. I have my reasons for staying where I am (probably one of the highest paid non-executive person in the company), but I'm almost wanting to move to fast food or lawn care or something so that my co-workers will be more educated and intelligent. :/
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday August 23 2016, @08:45PM
But the point is, most people are too semi-lazy to want to learn about advantages / disadvantages of the different tools. Semi-lazy, because in the long run they put a lot more effort than they would have to otherwise, so it doesn't really qualify as "lazy".
I don't know if laziness is the actual problem. There tends to be a deep seated fear in some people about learning anything new, even if it only takes a few minutes to learn it. I used to joke with my co-workers about how I would happily spend an hour learning a way to save five minutes every month, while they resisted spending five minutes learning to save an hour every month. Now of course I have to confess that the learning part for me was more enjoyable than the actual work, but I really did greatly increase the efficiency of my work performance.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 23 2016, @04:00PM
What about all those modern features, I hear you ask. Well, from what we've seen over the years, 99% of users of MS Word indent using multiple spaces, and from that I conclude that almost every feature since about 1993 has in reality been unnecessary.
I'm happy to say that we also have actual smart clients who are happy receiving diffs of their .tex files.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday August 23 2016, @11:26PM
I have had an acquaintance explain that he wanted to type-set a book with MS-word.
He thought I was pushing some kind of agenda when I said he really does not want to do that. Even changing the print driver changes the layout (old version of Word).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @06:05AM
It all has the same effect: NOTHING WILL CHANGE
There's plenty of evidence that Microsoft listens more to their userbase than the Desktop Linux bunch.
Evidence: what they did after the complaints about Vista, and their back-pedalling on Metro UI. Azure also works with Linux now. They don't listen completely (not possible anyway since users have different wants and needs) and they have their own agenda to push.
But it's a lot more compared to the Desktop Linux developers "WONTFIX" or "That's the way it's supposed to work" or "learn to like systemd you luddite!" or "Go Fork (it) yourself!".
If enough of the users complain or even stick to Windows 7 (many Enterprise users are), Microsoft will _have_ to change tack.
Unfortunately it is very likely most users don't know and many who know don't care. They cared about Vista and Metro UI because it genuinely got in the way of their work. But assuming Win 10 gets installed and works (sometimes it doesn't work), lots of users don't know or care that it spies on them.
The other thing I see that might scare Microsoft is action by Governments, it may well be under some laws (Computer Crimes laws?) what Microsoft did could have been illegal. After all if you or I "upgraded" thousands of other people's computers to Windows 10 because they clicked the "wrong" thing on our sneaky dialog box (like close for instance), we might risk going to prison.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @07:11AM
That back-pedalling didn't last long. The Windows version that was supposed to bring back a usable UI (Windows 9) was cancelled, and instead we got even more Metro with Windows 10.
Take for example Windows Update, in Windows 8 it exists both in Control Panel and the useless (on a PC) touch UI formerly known as Metro, but in Windows 10 it was removed from control panel.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 23 2016, @04:06PM
"a usable UI (Windows 9)"
You lost me there. I had a version of Win 1.something, 2.something, and then 3.11. I thought I was really doing something great when I "upgraded" to Win 98 SE. It was really great, in comparison to the previous Windows that I had available.
But, what was so good about Win 9x in comparison to Windows XP? I don't recall anything about the UI that was superior to W2K, XP, or Win7.
More importantly, the more I learned about security, the more I detested Win 9.x, including Windows ME.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25 2016, @08:58PM
Yep, you're lost.
He wrote: "Windows 9" meaning the version after 8.1, not "Windows 9x" which is an abbreviation that lumps Windows 95, 98 and 98 SE together.
The previous AC seems to be under the impression that after Windows 8.1, MS reverted the UI back to Windows 7 (or similar) and it was to be called Windows 9. Myself, I've not seen anything to indicate this to be true, I presume he got confused about early Windows 10 rumours.
(Score: 1) by stretch611 on Tuesday August 23 2016, @10:17AM
This is not completely true.
How long was ubuntu the largest distribution? With all there decisions that the community did not like, they slowly lost market share. Now Mint is the most sought after distribution and the use Mate and Cinnamon instead of Gnome/KDE. (ofc, you can always choose your own...) And just checking Distrowatch now, 1) Mint; 2) Debian; 3) Ubuntu
They may not listen to complaints... but they will listen when they lose mind-share.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @06:39PM
Regular Ubuntu lost me when they added Unity. I have to install Ubuntu Gnome (to avoid Unity) then add gnome-flashback to get a traditional desktop. I've looked at other flavors but always go back to gnome-flashback. Too bad there isn't an Ubuntu flavor that only has flashback and not that other crap that looks like Windows Metro. As far as Windows 10, I only have that for the Steam games that aren't ported to Linux yet. Everything else gets booted into Ubuntu.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @06:10AM
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday August 23 2016, @08:39AM
Microsoft stealing data and using it inappropriately is the last thing a law firm has to worry about. Literally. Lawyers wrote the eula and you think they will get caught in it? If a law firm is inconvenienced due to some underhanded loophole, you bet Obama will himself bomb redmond.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 23 2016, @06:12AM
NOTHING WILL CHANGE
Maybe. Maybe not. Microsoft has made me to be an enemy that will not ever be pacified. They screwed me over in ways you cannot possible imagine! WordPerfect? DoubleSpace? DrDos? Now I, and millions like me, will do whatever we can to bring down the beast. Yes, individually we are insignificant, but Micro$erf has severely underestimated the market cost of pissing off all the nerds on the planet. Even Hairyfeet joins our ranks these days! We talk to our clients, our family, our friends, and where once they thought we might be deranged, now, at the end, they see the true power of the dark side, >> and they pick up Gill Bates and throw him down the energy conduit thingy, like they should have when Qui Gon Jinn found the little bugger on Tatooine! Seriously, people! Things will change, this is the year of the Linux desktop! I am liking Maui, but can't get the login to work. Seems it is using systemd-login. Opps. Bastards. Windows bastards. Like, give me a frigging database that has to load before I log in? What the Fruitloops is that? Who is this Lennart guy, and why is he handing with Milo the gay alt-right Republican?