Windows 10 Rant

Microsoft Spying on Windows 10 Users

Ever since Windows 10 came out in July of 2015, as people started to dig through its files, some concerning features has been found from the depths of this operating system. Yet Microsoft has been insisting that these are merely there to improve your Windows 10 experience. And it’s being theorized, that Windows 10 was initially made free for all Windows Vista-8.1 users due to these very features. So as Windows 10 slowly but surely becomes the new ‘dominating’ operating system of the world, Microsoft will have full control on its users’ data. Yes my friends, though they were very discreet about it at first, Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 10 collects your personal data for the improvement of “Windows experience”.

In Blair Hanley Frank’s interview for the PC World magazine Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore said the following. "And in the case of knowing that our system that we've created is crashing, or is having serious performance problems, we view that as so helpful to the ecosystem, and so not an issue of personal privacy, that today, we collect that data so that we make that experience better for everyone."

An ex Microsoft Employee Jerry Berg, going under the name ‘Barnacules’ on YouTube, addressed this issue in one of his videos. In this video he showed how to forcefully block these features, read through the Windows 10 terms of service, and explained what Microsoft implied with some of the statements in it. For instance, when installing Windows 10 manually, the user has to select “customize settings” and deselect the rather alarming settings that get automatically enabled if you use the “express installation”. The funny thing is that you cannot access this option if you update your system through the pop up notification or the “upgrade Windows” icon in the Windows taskbar. One of the settings here reads “[Windows can] Personalize your speech, typing, and inking input by sending contacts and calendar details, along with other associated input data to Microsoft.” Even a non tech geek should be able to figure out that this means you’ll allow them to export, surveil and/or control your contacts, calendar, and other data on your computer as well as what you type on your keyboard. And this is just one of the many features that they’ll try to slip through without you knowing about it. In fact, later on in the video, Barnacules shows how you have to use the Windows’ hidden ‘registry editors’ and Command Prompt to prevent so called forced Windows updates, block certain Microsoft servers’ access to your computer (for prevention of other data collection), etc.

At first Microsoft advertised its new flagship operating system as free for limited time on internet and news, however, as they weren’t convinced that enough people would in fact update their computers to Windows 10 they started to ‘throw’ obnoxious update remainders whenever a person would boot up they’re computer. This was still somewhat acceptable as you’d have to ‘OK’ the installation. But Microsoft didn’t seem satisfied with this and started to forcefully upgrade Windows users’ PCs’ to Windows 10 against their will. According to Woody Leonhard’s article on InfoWorld, he had found numerous posts on Reddit about how their computers had been upgraded, the earliest posts being from March 11 2016. "Saw this message box that said something like 'Your update is ready! Restarting and installing in 13 minutes.' If I made myself a meal or watched TV, I would have had Windows 10. Oh, and the best part is how they hid the Decline button in the More Info button,” (original poster not credited in the article).

Now, I’ve had my own personal experiences of using Windows 10. I originally updated my PC from Windows 8.1 to 10 as DirectX 12, an essential game engine for the future games, would only be available for it. And though I generally have nothing to hide from Microsoft, I still like my personal privacy. As such, as I found out about this, I immediately blocked these data collection features. Half a year ago, a new significant update that evidently boosted your PCs operating speed and gaming experience was released. So I decided to re-enable Windows updates to get it. After updating, however, I noticed that all the time I spent on blocking these various features was for nothing as they all had been re-enabled after this update. I find it ridiculous to what extent Microsoft goes just to collect people’s personal information/data. However, this is merely my opinion. In the end, it really is up to you to decide if these issues are significant to you and worth the cost of getting that brand new operating system.

 PC World article: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2997213/privacy/microsoft-doesnt-see-windows-10s-mandatory-data-collection-as-a-privacy-risk.html#tk.rss_windows

InfoWorld article: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3043526/microsoft-windows/microsoft-upgraded-users-to-windows-10-without-their-ok.html

Jerry Berg's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1kGMCfb2xw