Hi All, I thought I'd post a copy of this document here, for all to see and discuss. Let's discuss it. Let's come to terms with what we can't change, and share our ideas on what we can do to avoid problems in our own personal lives. And please. Keep the hate to a minimum. :MJ
What I expect is that everyone who is planning to use w10 should read this closely. And if one cannot agree with one or more points of it, then one should be honest to oneself and to refuse the installation. That's all I expect. I do not argue about personal reasons (I respect any opinion), everybody can have his own....be honest and act conform, do not say..well I am not happy with it, but I am installing w10 anyway. To me personally it is a no-go what M$ claims. I have no problem to refuse w10, besides of that I don't need it. I am tech enough to use alternatives. I do not trust Microsoft, they are not transparent with their statements and they hide what they actually are collecting. I expect that they inform the consumer clearly what exactly is stored and when it is stored. Services at background which are transmitting data encrypted, why should I trust such a company which has obviously something to keep secret?
What scares me is that the information that Microsoft collects, Should be and normally only is available to law enforcement personnel, to aid in the investigation of a crime. That's liken to giving up your Miranda rights. For those not familiar with the Miranda warning, it's the right to remain silent. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_warning How can a corporation claim these rights over citizens of the US and other places in the World, and expect people not to scream about their practices? That's scary to me, and should be frightening to everyone in the US, as well as everybody else in the world. I have the right to privacy. And they need to respect that. :MJ
it seems today no matter what you do buy something from sears, new egg, fry's or use a search engine every body is collecting info about you any more. cameras in stores on street corners , google Microsoft the government , banks medical group's, all collecting more and more info , you can try to control what they collect but after a while they get it someway. them collecting info does it help you ? or does it harm you ? is the information gathered used to control you ? in this day and age big brother is watching you closely !
That's an important question, the answer to which is one of the hottest law topics in the USA today. Can civil liberties be usurped by corporations? If we allow them to, yes. They can. A little bit of info can be used to track your shopping habits and make it easier to provide certain types of products or services. But even that information can be abused. And if that falls into the wrong hands, it can be used against you, possibly to aid in the commission of a crime against you. With a certain amount of unease, we accept data collection from law Enforcement and our respective governments for the sake of liability and protection under the law. But IMO Corporations should -NEVER- be allowed to have that kind of power. :MJ
It’s about trust and transparency. Therefore a proper communication is essential. Nobody can deny the IT age. We are networked we can share info, we have possibilities due to this tech. We need to learn how to use it with responsibility. This applies to any new tech and humankind has always struggled with negative effects. The actual reason why we have negative effects is not (never) the tech itself, it are the humans who are identified with a wrong imagination of themselves. “I want” is the keyword. When I want to achieve that somebody trusts me then I need to communicate what I want, for what I want it and I have to be honest….my partner needs to understand my reasons and vice versa. It is no problem that an online store stores my address and my bank data. I have chosen the store for some reasons and I come back when I am satisfied with the shop. They also can send to me some advertisement. Completely different is an OS. It is the basic platform where anything is running on it….also Microsoft is not a partner of myself. I bought their OS and good bye. An OS needs to be extra trustworthy, because without an OS nothing is possible. What is most fatal is that any mainstream OS comes from the US…
If you are interested in the full text of the Privacy Agreement you can find it here: Spoiler https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/ Be sure to click the "Expand All" at the top right hand corner of the page
The thing is....who actually owns the data? Can I still control what is happening with my data after I have decided to leave / delete my account? I have no Facebook account, no twitter and no google plus.. From a trustworthy shop I expect that for instance... At windows 10 I do not even have the possibility to have a look at the data in clear text!!! If they want some info about me they have to show me what and I have to decide if I submit or not. That is the way to go.
@Yen: As the current US law is written, once data is in a publicly accessible place, nobody owns it. Which means that anyone (including, but not limited to Law Enforcement / Government) can take it, and possibly use it against you.Many criminals have been spied on and caught simply by Police / Govt people rummaging through their trash. If the Police do not have to defeat any security measures (locks, gates) They do not need a search warrant. And if the Janitor doesn't know the law, Police could easily coerce this person into violating your rights by allowing them to snoop through your trash. So where does that leave John Q. Citizen with regards to personal data and the Internet. In the case of Windows, and possibly other Operating Systems, The EULA and Privacy statement you agreed to lets them do whatever they want with your data. You agreed to Indemnify and hold Microsoft (Or numerous other hardware vendors) harmless with respect to what you allow them to capture. If you didn't, you would not be able to install the OS, or use the product or service. And if they collect and harvest the data, they can sell it to third-party affiliates, who, for all we know, have not been adequately vetted to deal with sensitive personal data. Nobody is perfect. Even the banks have had sensitive financial data stolen. As far as being able to clean up and remove your personal data from sites like Facebook, most times, it's impossible. There's no US or international law requiring them to go through their system backups to purge your data. And yes. Logs are not clear. Oftentimes they're compressed and coded to allow fast transfer to the data harvesting servers. The amount of data sent to these servers is staggering. Another question: How does data mining and telemetry affect the performance of the OS? :MJ
No issues on the legal side if you have nothing to hide. One point I find interesting here, is if you are for example a developer and worked for a competitor or an area Microsoft are not yet involved in ... could your confidential source code be compromised. Or other secure systems, suppose you hold confidential information? Under local country laws storing confidential information on a system with a clause like that could hold you breach of privacy laws or other legal requirements such as PCI compliance. It would be interesting to flood Microsoft with information requests under your local laws to find out what they have collected from you. Would certainly put a strain on the relevant department.
@Threat: The original EULAs were designed to protect the Intellectual property rights of the developers of the software. Which, as a Retired Developer, I fully recognize the need for and understand. However: You bring up a good point with regards to your own personal intellectual property (or the property of someone else, placed in your care). In the case of some development scenarios, Just mentioning your design concept in public can undermine your project, possibly allowing someone with more resources than you to beat you to the market. And what if your business livelihood depends on the how well you respect privacy of your clients data. Some countries recognize this, and have passed laws designed to protect the customer. But in the US, the law is on the side of the business. This needs to change. Personally, I'd like to see Microsoft and cellular providers dragged before a Congressional committee and be forced to justify the need for our personal data. Perhaps it would make Congress consider enacting legislation to protect citizens. :MJ
Some good statements were made here and this thread contains vital information, but to avoid redundancy, I close it and suggest to further discuss here: http://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/63733-PLEASE-READ-Microsoft-and-Privacy