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France: Windows 10 Collects 'Excessive Personal Data', Issues Microsoft With Formal Warning (betanews.com)
France's National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) has ordered Microsoft to "stop collecting excessive data and tracking browsing by users without consent," adding that Microsoft must comply with the French Data Protection Act within next three months. BetaNews reports: In addition to this, the chair of CNIL has notified Microsoft that it needs to take "satisfactory measures to ensure the security and confidentiality of user data." The notice comes after numerous complaints about Windows 10, and a series of investigations by French authorities which revealed a number of failings on Microsoft's part. Microsoft is accused of not only gathering excessive data about users, but also irrelevant data. The CNIL points to Windows 10's telemetry service which gathers information about the apps users have installed and how long each is used for. The complaint is that "these data are not necessary for the operation of the service."
france will become silent and declare ms is a strategic partner in fighting terrorism. Until then, it intrudes privacy.
Anyway, everybody who wants to protect their data should use linux.
re: point 2. I know dell sells Linux laptops, I know some 3rd party ODM resellers sell linux laptops. But go to a brick and mortar and find me one. Go to dell.com and find them without diving really really deep into their website. Go to lenovo.com or acer.com and find me one at all. They ARE hard to find. MS encourages that practice.
But ok, I do have a comment: how come nobody in the EU is looking into the criminal activities of how Microsoft shoved Windows 10 down people's throats?
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Is someone whose computer suddenly upgraded to Windows 10 going to read the EULA bit-by-bit, especially when eyes glaze over at daunting EULA's so easily that they have given up their first born technically? No, their computer isn't working and they need to get in NOW, so they click OK.
Plus even if it uninstalls, it's never going to be the same again. Windows 10 probably tore out who knows what doing the unwanted upgrade.
And let's never mind the fact that Windows 10 is being dumped on just about every Intel computer out there, and your choices are pretty much either ridiculously expensive, draconian, or very difficult for an end-user to use. That's like being given arsenic, and being told that if you don't like it, you're free to choose cyanide or stab yourself and get gangrene over a few weeks, when you really don't particularly want to poison yourself at all.
Plus the fact that the OS is a specially privileged piece of software. It's like security cameras on the street versus one in your bathroom that you can't remove.
I'm no fan of Google's. They're pulling all kinds of horrid shit. But Microsoft is on a new level. And it really doesn't matter if people dogpile Microsoft more than Google. The fact that Google does terrible things but gets less flack does not excuse Microsoft in the least, and that is a crappy argument. Plus Google is better known for its search engine, so it gets flack there, whereas Microsoft is best known for Windows, so most of its flack goes there, accordingly.
Bottom line is that Microsoft is on the forefront of the movement that wants to own the device you paid for and everything you do with it, not unlike most phone manufacturers as well as tractor manufacturers
Th problem is you'll start caring when they knock you out.
Maybe they won't, but some people prefer to avoid the risk.
Something I have notices is that people don't have "anything to hide" until someone takes something they, in fact, do have to hide, such as the document they were working on, their credit card numbers, or their kids' school.
People who think all the privacy pundits want is to be able to cover up their crime and porn are in for an extremely nasty surprise someday - and possibly sooner than they think, especially with the way that so much on the Internet is attempting to pull off thought policing these days.
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