“We are just custodians of that data,” said Nadella. Yes today they are custodians, tomorrow they will sell it highest bidder. They can change their privacy statement whenever they want, can't they?
Are you "just custodians of someone's data" if you actively examine it and analyze it and exploit it for your own benefit? These companies don't actually have to sell/share the data outright in order to make a killing off it. An example I sometimes think about are cases where financial firms were found to be exploiting their clients' data. By that I mean datamining their clients' holdings, watch lists, buying/selling activity and price points, securities research, etc to gain a market advantage and even trade against their clients. Plus in some cases selling metadata generated from the datamining/analysis to other firms who engage in similar practices. Were they "just custodians of that data"?
I hope that "custodians" means they are Data Controllers under the meaning of the Data Protection Act. I bet they say not.
Cortana scares the hell out of me. In the last 2 days I went to my Son's home and replaced a DOA sata. At that time I blew away their Windows system and replaced everything with Linux. I did a personal private install with great disk prep before the install. Spent a few hours getting the disk ready by pre-partitioning, noise filling, etc..... before installing. They finally listened to my encouragement to stop using a system with things like Cortana. As a side note my daughter-in-law called me this morning to say the computer is fast and slick. She loves linux, but I did a custom install knowing the mission they needed. Windows is so invasive and "heavy"!!
Yeah, but Windows sometimes is the only alternative. I use Word/Excel 10+ years, I play games, I have several bank applications for my enterprise that only run on Windows etc. At the same time, I made the possbile to avoid tracking in my Windows 10 AE machine. O&O ShutUp10 with all settings disabled make Windows 10 far more private. More even than a default Windows 7, maybe. Windows 10 have is far more secure and efficient than any other Windows version for me.
Older versions of Word Excel work fine on Wine. If you are married to the latest versions, than yeah you're hosed. In terms of games, I just dont understand why everyone places more value on artificial escape than on real world issues like the corporate invasion of privacy for profit. There are plenty of games (now) on Linux- even AAA ones. Unless we have the principle to deny odious corporations like Microsoft market share, they will keep going down this path ever more aggressively. Not trying to condescend btw- each person has their own right to do as they wish. If data mining isnt an issue to a person, then its fine to keep using Windows 10. IF however we agree that privacy and the prevention of data-mining is important, we cannot hope to create change without punishing them for the practice. Assuming changing settings on Windows 10 even does anything... The code isnt open, and given all the crap we've seen from corps and governments lately, I wouldnt be surprised if those sliders dont do what they say they do, or if much more data is collected than they admit to collecting. Fair enough.
[1] WTF? Artificial escape? Almost anything can be a way to "escape": music, movies, literature, sports, work and even stay in forums with conspiracy theories. So each one gives importance they want for their enjoyment of an art form. Many games are very well represented historically (which creates interactive ways to view History - Assassin's Creed for example - it is not avaible on Linux) and can assist with many things (such as psychomotor coordination, creative/fast thinking etc)... [2] Yep, but I don't think that governments are collecting data from every Windows user through Microsoft. They may be doing it for targeted users. But that is a assumption too. But yeah, the code inst open, so your and mine point of views are nothing more than speculation.
Ive played my share of games, so dont take offense to this. Just recently I leveled up a character on Diablo 3... running on Wine. I have plenty of D2 characters too, have played a bunch of other PC games in the past (all but one on Wine), and have owned a PS2 in the past. Im not implying that games are stupid- just that they should be seen for what they are. Sure, some games have an accurate historical base, but many many games do not (the vast majority of popular ones actually). Games should be seen as enjoyment, and prioritized as such. Privacy is more than enjoyment- it is a right enshrined in the 4th amendment (and many other governmental doctrines of the world), and it is the birthplace of innovation. Say youre starving to death in a desert and you come upon a resort in the middle of nowhere. You walk in and there's a bunch of game consoles against the walls, and a massive 50 person table crammed with food in the middle. Which do you prioritize as most important? The food of course. Of course privacy is not as base as the immediate necessity of food, but in terms of social and technological development, it is very important indeed. Privacy affords one with a safe place free of judgment where ideas can be formed, often with faulty or incorrect versions throughout the development of the idea. The death of privacy- or further encroachments on privacy- destroys or threatens this sanctuary. And so, the protection of privacy seems to me more like the food, while the game consoles are still entertainment. I like entertainment, but we as a society need privacy. We as a society need to challenge (effectively) corporations and governments that threaten such privacy. It isnt just whether they are- its that we dont know if they are. Sure as street cameras reduce crime in areas where they are placed, they also reduce other instances of non-criminal behavior. People act and think different when they are being watched or think they are being watched; Windows 10 spying (or corporate spying, or governmental spying) becoming some accepted precedent is a troubling case to be sure. There is also the danger of how data collected- that you cant avoid being collected- might be used against you in the future. This too has an effect on what youre willing to write, search for, contemplate, or in the case of Cortana even say out loud! In your own home!! True. That's not good enough- to ensure 4th amendment rights, we SHOULD have more than speculation, especially as these entities continually show a desire for usurping our rights in the pursuit of profit. **EDIT** Im not suggesting everything needs to be open-source (though that would certainly be the best)- just that we need some kind of third-party with direct access to the code that can verify what it does or doesnt do. If it does infringe on privacy, we need to be able to KNOW... The third-party could sign a non-disclosure agreement for the code itself, while still allowing a generalized statement of the codes function in relation to privacy.
I might be paranoid, but that is why I've disabled the microphones in my laptops, and I've got electrical tape over the cameras too.
Amazingly I havent disconnected my microphone yet. I am on a hardened Linux install and have it disabled via my UEFI however... I think I'm safe from anyone but a state level actor at least in terms of the microphone...
Well, I agree with you. Privacy is more important than any form of enjoyment. I would not use Windows only for games. Maybe, I would have a Windows partition (that never know any of my passwords) only for games and a Linux partition with all my data encrypted. The problem is that I don't use Windows only for that. Linux can do almost anything that Windows can. But in a harder, most problematic and counter productive way. I have tried several Linux distros this year: Korora don't worked. Mint 18 don't even install here. Qubes OS have several problems with my hardware. Ubuntu 14.04.4 was restrict to 1280*1024 (or another low resolution that I don't remember). Many distributions don't install on RAID, so I could not test. And, every distribution was really boring to setup with equivalent Windows programs, and some of that programs was not good enough. I want to be able to use my PC with some peace, and I really tried to make this happens with Linux, but I can't. Maybe I am lazy, maybe I am stupid, but I was not able to do that. And you can be sure that I have tried SEVERAL days doing this. The same goes with my smartphone. I have to use Whatsapp with my clients (how to use Whatsapp in a non-google Android system? - I use Telegram to chat with my family and friends), I use my smartphone GPS (Waze -- And there is no serious GPS alternative open-source) all the time to visit them - And I really need the money that come from them. I'm able to do all this on Linux or another open-source plataform? If I do not want to spend days learning and adapting myself to a completely new system that in the end will give me a system not as efficient or as productive as my current I simply have no choice.
I want to stay outside of any "argument" here but I do want to learn something. I have personally found that the latest LibreOffice can do everything Office 2013ish can do. I remember about 5 years ago when some Office doc's I brought home wouldn't perform correctly on my Linux setup (I don't want to resort to Wine). Now however I can do anything between my currently updated Linux Office stuff and those from M$ office. Where are you having difficulties with using LibreOffice/LibreWriter and M$ Office documents. I don't experience anything. ps - of course I have changed the default setting to always use the latest M$ format when I save and write files. This way the interchangeability is seamless --------------------------------------------------------------------- > at least for me!
As his said, is possibly to even use Office 2007 with Wine, and I use Office 2016 but I could use Office 2007 with no problems. I tried LibreOffice with my Mint 17.2 and I could do almost everything, only having some problems with some pictures with legends. But as I said, my problem, besides Office was with a lot of bugs with my screen resolution (lack of drivers I think), other bugs even with system updates, some distros did not install and lack of some very important bank apps support, enjoyment softwares that has not any equivalent option (dBpoweramp, Foobar2000 (there is no other player so customizable) Spotify etc; and Viivo and Veracrypt system encryptation (I like my other HDs be automatic mounted on boot).
Thanks. I didn't think it was too much with the "Office" aspect. It took me time to overpower some of the other obstacles you cited. I do have Windows VM's, which I rarely use, to address that odd circumstance it MUST be Windows. I can fully understand why Linux is not going to work for some users. I am just glad it works for me. Cheers!!
Great that you understand! Linux is getting better, and I really hope someday I will use only it! Sorry for my poor english...
