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Ask Slashdot: Can You Disable Windows 10's Privacy-Invading Features?

Posted by timothy on from the don't-just-handicap-'em dept.

An anonymous reader writes: I really want to upgrade to Windows 10, but have begun seeing stories come out about the new Terms and how they affect your privacy. It looks like the default Windows 10 system puts copies of your data out on the "cloud", gives your passwords out, and targets advertising to you. The main reason I am looking to upgrade is that Bitlocker is not available on Windows 7 Pro, but is on Windows 10 Pro, and Microsoft no longer offers Anytime Upgrades to Windows 7 Ultimate. However, I don't want to give away my privacy for security. The other option is to wait until October to see what the Windows 10 Enterprise version offers, but it may not be available through retail. Are the privacy minded Slashdot readers not going with Windows 10?

For reference, I am referring to these articles. (Not to mention claims that it steals your bandwidth.) Have a question for Slashdot's readers? Take a look at other recent questions first to see if someone else has had a similar question. And if not, ask away! The more details and context you include, the more likely your question will be selected.

9 of 492 comments (clear)

  1. Win10 is worse than Win8 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Windows 10 is fast becoming the worst OS MS has produced, Adware built in, telemetry (new USA word for spyware) sucks in your private data to vortex.data.microsoft.net (not a typo) , its clear Microsoft didnt listen to a damm thing customers were saying and have gone from gatekeepers to poachers, advertising is a disease amongst USA tech companies with a shit business model

    things i dont want:
    Adverts
    Spyware
    TIFKAM (metro, aka MediaCenter with a new skin)
    activeX gadgets^^H "modern apps"
    Bing (shit search engine)
    Cortana (that spying bitch)
    any kind of "store"
    Xbox anything
    Forced WindowsUpdates

    things i do want:
    A proper start menu
    Anti-trust investigations
    Removal of all phone home code
    Removal of Metro
    Removal of the "app store"
    Ability to stop updates

    i certainly wont be recommending it to anyone, let alone pay them a penny for Solitaire, corporate certainly wont stand for this spying bullshit so small companies who dont buy into the licensing game are S.O.L

    Nadella needs to realise if he wants to know where we live, now we need to know where he lives, what porn does he like ?, what stock mergers have they coming up ?, what car he drives ?, dont make us tell everybody.

    1. Re: Win10 is worse than Win8 by Cley+Faye · · Score: 3, Interesting

      At this point, it depends of your definition of "bad". Vista and Me were bad for technical reasons. 10 seems to be bad by design.

    2. Re:Win10 is worse than Win8 by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, but Windows isn't free unless you're a member of their beta testing program. Windows 10 is a "free" upgrade, but that means you don't have to pay an additional fee for the update from your current version, not that you don't have to buy Windows to begin with.

      True, but you're missing the viewpoint of Joe Consumer.

      Windows didn't cost anything, it came with the computer, much like a radio and wheels came with his car.

      This is more like a car dealership offering a free upgraded radio or free tires 2 years after you purchase the car. You had to buy the car in the first place, but most people see such offers as "free" since they already bought the car.

      If you buy a new car, it also comes with a radio and tires. No, they aren't really free, but the consumer sees them as just part of it. How much the car marker paid for them is not the concern of Joe Consumer.

      How much Dell paid for Windows is ALSO not the concern of Joe Consumer.

      Frankly, I expect that sooner or later, Windows will become free for home/consumer use, it will have a small licence cost for businesses, and manufactures will have a small "preinstall' cost to put it on new machines.

      This would all but remove any incentive from consumers to ever look at anything else.

      I don't want any functionality that was present in Windows 7 to be ad-burdened in 10, even if it is just Freecell.

      Fair enough, I can respect that. However, I think you've already lost that battle, if you care that much, stay on Windows 7 until 2020, then you have to decide what to do at that point.

      Maybe you'll go to Linux, maybe Mac, maybe you already have... but the vast majority of people just don't care.

      My wife plays a social media version of Scrabble on her phone with her friends. There are ads on the bottom of the screen, you can pay like $5 to remove them forever. I asked her if she wanted me to do that and she said, "why, I just ignore them, that seems a waste of money".

      She is a Jane Consumer, not a techie (she is a doctor by profession). She just wants it to work, how much each part cost, what each part does, etc. she couldn't care less about.

  2. Re:RTFA? by i.r.id10t · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Even those options that seem like they are off but can only *really* be turned off in the Enterprise version?

    --
    Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
  3. Privacy in danger by golgotha007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why does it seem like manufacturers feel that they automatically have a right to your usage data after you buy their product?

    Car manufacturers are already making big plans on creating new revenue streams with all the usage data they are collecting on our vehicles. Now, MS is taking the same approach (at least Windows 10 is free). What's to stop other vendors from doing the same? How about that new electric razor you bought; do you really want all your usage information to be sent back to the manufacturer, when you shaved, how you shaved, where you shaved? As more and more products are shipped with internet capability, manufacturers feel that they have a right to collect usage information weather you like it or not.

    I'm not liking where this is going...

  4. my experience by slashmydots · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Here's the short version. On the starting screens I turned off all but one of the "features" after hitting custom. It still is nagging me constantly about the cloud and smart screen.

  5. Re:RTFA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ok, than I'm going to tell you some anecdote. Last Friday I was in the local computer shop to buy a new SSD to replace my broken HD. The technicians there were upgrading several computers to Windows 10 for customer of theirs, and they were complaining about the fact that they could not continue with the installation without a Microsoft ID, so they created one on behalf of their customers and wrote down the details. They also just installed the Windows computers with default settings. Now, the guys are professionals. These are the technicians that the innocent computer user goes to for all their computer problems and questions. They were the technicians of people who are computer savvy enough to know that you need to have an up to date anti-virus and up-to date Windows and know that there was a -free- new version of Windows. But these people are not computer savvy enough to know how to upgrade.

    The computer technicians knew kind of how to update to the latest Windows, and probably also know how to install new hardware, drivers and software. They probably are able to clean Windows installation that are infested with some kind of malware. But they are not the expert that know all IT inside out. The majority of the computer users and technicians are within this subset of computer users. They can do stuff with PC's, but have no idea what happens behind the scene.
     
    It doesn't matter how easy it is to avoid the privacy problems of Windows 10, the vast majority of computer users is victim of this new behavior. The new behavior is that it's optional to not be tracked... and that you need to be computer savvy and literate enough to know what to turn on or off. And literacy is becoming more and more a problem with the average person. Do you really think that the average person understands what is in those length license agreements. Do you even think they bother to read it?
     
    And what if you were such a computer technician yourself. Would you read the EULA and than conclude you don't want to agree with it and tell your boss that you want something else than Windows because of privacy issues? Good luck with that...

  6. Is apt-get also an "app store"? by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    things i do want:
    [...]
    Removal of all phone home code

    For that, you're probably going to have to switch to GNU/Linux. Phone home code was introduced in Windows XP.

    Removal of the "app store"

    Do package repositories on GNU/Linux distributions count as an "app store" to you?

  7. Not again! by thegarbz · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I guess it should have been obvious where this was going...

    Yeah it should have been obvious where it was going.

    We wanted location aware search results, but don't want to send our location to 3rd parties.
    We fast accurate learning speech recognition that is context aware, but we don't want to share our speech.
    We easy access to share information but we don't want share buttons.
    We want handwriting recognition that understands we have polish friends we don't want to autocorrect their funny names, but we refuse to allow it access to the contact list.

    We want it all, we want it now, and we don't want to give anything in return.

    Windows 10 users are now the product instead of the customer.

    A meme repeated ad infinitum by people who don't understand that some people trade things other than money for tangible benefits.