SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Microsoft claims seven out of ten Windows 10 users are happy with Redmond gulping loads of telemetry from their computers – which isn't that astounding when you realize it's a default option.
In other words, 30 per cent of people have found the switch to turn it off, and the rest haven't, don't realize it's there, or are genuinely OK with the data collection.
Ever since Windows 10 was released, folks have been complaining the operating system is far too grabby and that it allows Redmond to collect huge volumes of intelligence on its users. In April the software giant responded by simplifying the collection.
There's basically two levels in Windows 10 from the Creators Update onwards: basic and full – the full setting includes everything in the basic level plus a load more. Full is the default for Win 10 Home and Pro, otherwise there's basic. Windows 10 Enterprise and Education have full and basic, plus an extra level called security, which transmits a little less about your system than basic.
Essentially, if you're on Home or Pro, you can't tell your OS to not phone home. And, sure, this information – from lists of hardware and apps installed to pen gestures – is useful to Microsoft employees debugging code that's running in the field. But we're all adults here, and some folks would like the option to not have any information leaving their systems.
"... and we welcome your feedback in helping us make [Creators] the best Windows ever," [Marissa] Rogers concluded.
(Score: 2) by julian on Friday August 11 2017, @06:14PM
I wish this were true. In the medical field, MS has a top to bottom lockdown on the entire industry. The backend server that runs your EMR/Practice Management system is Windows Server. All the workstations need Windows (usually Windows 7 today, but Win10 is creeping in) to run proprietary medical software and Office. Even the medical imaging machines from Zeiss, which you think would use an embedded OS, are running a full version of Windows--and need a network connection.
MS owns the medical industry because they can pay the big bucks to have their software certified as being compliant, and they're a giant corporation that can be held accountable if something goes wrong. Red Hat might be the only alternative in the Linux world but they're not very interested in medical, although they do a lot of business with the DoD which offers similar challenges.