On 10/17/2015 7:07 AM, Mayayana wrote:
| The BS about spyware is just.....BS.

You can say that you think it's "BS" for people
to be concerned about privacy and security....
though it would be nice if you could be a bit
more articulate.

But you clearly haven't looked
into the actual facts, so you have no basis for
your opinion about there being a spyware aspect
to Win10. That's actually a surprisingly common
reaction: ostrich logic -- "I don't want to know
about it, because I don't want to make an effort,
therefore the problem is not there."

For anyone who cares about the actual facts,
in order to make their own *informed* opinion,
first there's the new privacy policy, which MS
changed with the release of Win10:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/priva...t/default.aspx

The non-business EULA says you agree to their
privacy policy. The privacy policy, in turn, says,
you will be spied on in numerous ways and not all
of them can be blocked. In other words, Microsoft
themselves are saying in plain language that Win10
is spyware, and that you must agree to that in order
to use Win10. It's part of the longstanding tradition
of writing mickey mouse licenses for software and
justifying it with the claim that you are not buying,
but licensing, the product.

Further, even the parts that can allegedly be
turned off may still be in surveillance mode after
being disabled. Anyone who wants to know the
basic issues can look at these links:

Why is ANY of this surprising? And, why is MS's *belated*
adoption of this such an issue of concern?

When you walk into a department store, cameras watch your
movement through the store -- where you stop, what you
look at, etc. If your phone is on, they can track its
motion. When you make your purchase (credit card!),
they know what your buying habits are (over time) -- what
time of day you shop, what products you buy at which time
of the month/year/etc.

Costco member? Do you think they just use that card to
"authorize" you to make a purchase? Of course they track the
sorts of purchases you make, etc.

Frequent a casino? They've characterized how much they can count
on you to *lose* before you'll depart. And, how frequently you'll
return for "another lesson". Likewise, the size of the incentive
that they need to coerce you back a bit earlier than you'd
otherwise like.

Drive a car? Chances are your license plates are routinely
scanned and the approximate location of your vehicle as well
as your typical travel activities recorded.

Visit a web site? "Welcome back!" E.g., cookies were originally
a hack to allow a site to *avoid* having to store data about your
visit on *their* server (we'll let the user pay for that storage
on *their* computer!). Anyone who thinks a site can't store
information about every visitor now ECONOMICALLY has their head
too far in the sand. Turn off cookies? Pfft! Who cares. You
can be identified by your browser footprint, IP address, etc.

Of course, google tracks your searches. And, reads your mail (if you
or the "other party" are serviced by google's mail servers)

[N.B. You needn't have a gmail.com address to be a victim!]

USPS routinely images the outsides of all first class mail. So,
to and from are typically known.

The more insidious aspects of MS's spying include their ability
to catalog audio and video (e.g., have YOUR voice "on file")

[Ever hear a machine speak *in* your voice? It's scary! "Wait!
I never said that!!"]

Facial recognition software tracks your presence in public places.

etc.

In virtually all of these cases, you have an option to NOT be tracked;
by simply not participating in the activity that is being tracked!
E.g., don't send USPS mail, don't shop in department stores, don't
do web searches, etc.

The same applies to MS/W10 -- don't *use* it! :