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Post by [-44-] Pendragon on Aug 17, 2015 9:25:13 GMT
If this is not scaremongering and has any element of truth to it I would have to go back to Linux myself. MS has always tracked your stuff. Just as every company does but some of this strikes me as being real hinky.
Warning I'm about to go Full tinfoil hat here and you know you should never go Full tinfoil hat...
Right now around the world there are several meeting going on in secret. These super secret meeting are to put in place a series of "trade agreements" that fundamentally change the relationship between countries, countries and companies and even the relationship between countries, the people and those companies. There are many fingers in this pie. One of the groups in this are the media rights holders. They will dictate to national governments to curb the copy culture (piracy). We can expect legal action with prison sentences. Copyright infringement will be a criminal case (currently not the case in most of the world). So thats the governments of the world pulled into line by the corporations.
So back on topic of WTF Microsoft is up to with WinX. Well companies will also be made to tow the new line as well. What if MS is getting ready for this "brave new world" giving themselves the right to read all of privat files on your computer! Disable any software they don't like the look of! Disable any hardware they don't like the look of!
With MS looking at your files, discovering movie that does not have just the right type of DRM embedded, dobs you in to the police and you get your door kicked in for watching something that hasn't come from an approved "store"!
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Post by [-44-] pip on Aug 17, 2015 16:39:47 GMT
It's called TTIP Pen'. Biggest stitch up ever. The NHS is going down the toilet when this comes in as it will be actually illegal - illegal mind - for governments to favour the NHS over American health care blood sucker providers. These companies will start suing governments for billions of taxpayers money in compensation for not being offered contracts. This is what you get when you let market forces rule countries. This is REALLY serious shit. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32116587
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Post by [-44-] Pendragon on Aug 17, 2015 17:02:45 GMT
Agreed, the TTIP and these other "trade" agreements around the world will change almost everything.
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Post by [-44-] pip on Aug 17, 2015 18:47:25 GMT
And before you lot do your usual - no this is NOT pip being paranoid.
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Post by [-44-] Pendragon on Aug 23, 2015 22:00:32 GMT
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Post by [-44-] MaryPoppins on Nov 2, 2015 20:08:36 GMT
So how concerned should users be about Windows 10’s default data collection policies? I would say very. By default Windows 10 Home is allowed to control your bandwidth usage, install any software it wants whenever it wants (without providing detailed information on what these updates do), display ads in the Start Menu (currently it has been limited to app advertisements), send your hardware details and any changes you make to Microsoft and even log your browser history and keystrokes which the Windows End User Licence Agreement (EULA) states you allow Microsoft to use for analysis. link
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Post by [-44-] Pendragon on Nov 2, 2015 21:13:05 GMT
Most if not all of these "features" have been back ported to Windows 7 and 8.1
They are following the model of mobile Operating systems. Basically as a PC user if you want to have any type of control over your hardware you need to be running Desktop Linux. I guess it's the way of the world these days. There are laws "for our protection" that have institutionalised snooping. Privacy is dead gentlemen, our tinfoil hats were not enough to protect us. Our only defence is to blend into the background, fly under the radar. Don't be a sheep but wear a wool coat and learn how to bleat. The nail that stands proud is hammered in first.
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Post by [-44-] Pendragon on Nov 3, 2015 10:57:53 GMT
As a computer user that spends time split between the two ecosystems. A boot in each camp, Windows and desktop Linux I'm really conflicted.
Part of me loves the big title games I can play on Windows like Battlefield. Also deeply concerned with the direction Microsoft has taken. Add into the mix things like the Snowden revelations, TTIP and snoopers charter the whole situation smell bad.
Before Windows 10 was released I spent some time just running Desktop Linux with no Windows. Windows 10 looked real exciting and the geek in me wanted to play with the shiny new toy. At the time I came up with a game plan. Jump with both feet into the Microsoft ecosystem If it didn't work out I could always return to desktop Linux.
I run Windows 10 with all of the bells and whistles. Use the MS online services like Office 365, OneDrive use apps from the store, the whole shebang. Heck even installing the MS apps on my Android phone (Outlook is the best mail app I have seen on Android)
All in all it's a great experience. The full Office desktop programs are a little jarring. In particular Outlook, Why it can't properly integrated with Google services when the Windows App versions do I will never understand. The outstanding program of the bunch is OneNote, my most used Office program. OneDrive is also cool and has some advantages over Google Drive and Dropbox.
Then there is this spying thing... See I'm conflicted. Great user experience Vs freedom??? Convenience Vs Control???
When I read one of these sites where an MS executive freely admits that we can not turn any of the shit off. It has me reaching for my Linux install media, ready to wipe this Microsoft shit right out of my life. Then I think of the years of Sunday evenings playing Windows games with you guys. What to do, what to do, I'm sitting on a knife edge here...
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Post by [-44-] Ghostie on Nov 3, 2015 13:03:42 GMT
Okay so whats new ever since I entered this world I work in "data" is god we use it in the energy company I work for and also any of the external 3rd party companies that work for us, everyone sblack personed at George Orwell.
Never mind data collection in the uk which is stuffing better than a fat lasses shoe, on my recent trip to Germany we did not se "ANYcameras on motorways, street corners and not even in the city centres, you travel more then 100 mtrs in the uk and you have at least 2 cameras watching you.
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Post by [-44-] Pendragon on Nov 3, 2015 14:09:45 GMT
When my sister returned to live on the UK having spent 20 years in the US she asked me what was up with all of these cameras everywhere. Her point was why wasn't there a big outcry by the British people when they first started to go up. I guess the government and mass media are really good at manipulating our opinions. Inch by inch our freedoms have been willingly given up. Now we are the point where we couldn't back out of this if we tried. If you try to talk to anyone about this type of thing you are thought of as some tinfoil hat nutter. Heck we tease pip about this type of thing.
I think he has a point however I feel like it's a bit like walking up a crowded down escalator. You are fighting against the flow being knocked back not only by the movement of the escalator but also the mass of people blindly being transported to a place they wouldn't like if they knew where they were going. A bit like boiling the frog, a handful of us can tell that the water is getting hotter but the mass of other frogs in the pot are making it impossible to jump out.
My dilema is how much hotter can the water get before I jump out because right now that water is nice and comfortable but I can see that it is getting hotter. Do I follow with the masses or jump out now while the going is good?
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Post by [-44-] MaryPoppins on Nov 3, 2015 20:45:14 GMT
I doubt that by running a Linux system protects you. Once the commands, files and shit leave your pc and enter the tinternet something is gathering that data. The only question is, is what you are doing worth the attention of the authorities. The answer for the average user is probably not. As cynical as it sounds the more terrorism there is the less the authorities are interested in joe normal public borrowing a song or a film. It is strange though Pen that you appear to be making yourself paranoid by using all those intergraded services which probably make it easier to keep tracks on an individual. I must admit I find it a little unnerving that all my gadgets want to talk to each other, I don't let them, I don't use any cloud accounts or systems. I back up to local hdds, I buying very little on line and do the majority of my transactions during the month in cash. I am probably acting like one of those suspicious characters big brother is looking for.
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Post by [-44-] Pendragon on Nov 3, 2015 22:22:33 GMT
Good points, but you have to agree that there is a big difference between the government recording my every move once my data leaves my network, and having the OS track my every move and then transmit that to Microsoft. It's better not to have any keyloggers installed on your computer than have one embedded in the OS by Microsoft. For years we computer users have learnt to get rid of spyware, and MS preload the OS with the damn stuff.
Even if we take MS at their word, that they have no evil intentions. There are going to be people and organisations around the world working intercepting that shit. The UK government, the US but also the Chinese not to mention the Russian mob. The Chinese intelligence agencies see no difference between "regular" espionage and commercial espionage. Selling or giving trade secrets to chinese firms is normal over there.
MS has promised their corporate customers that all of this shit will be missing from the version of Windows sold to them, but damn.
That brings up another point, MS last year laid off all of their test and quality control staff for Windows. We are the Beta testers now. This is why they need so much telemetry. This is something copied from Linux desktop model.
The difference is that on Linux if you want to run the cutting edge software before it's been tested you can but you know that you are. There are distros devoted to this and if you want to dance on the edge you can run Arch, things break from time to time but you get the new shiny. I wouldn't put that on my Mum's computer. She would be running something like Ubuntu LTS that has a much more robust testing program where breakages hardly ever happen. If you are running a business where stability is paramount you run Redhat. The NASA Laptops on the ISS are running Debian because they can not afford to have any issues in orbit, Debian is rock solid stable.
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Post by [-44-] MaryPoppins on Nov 4, 2015 21:04:26 GMT
How much of our and other peoples concerns are based on the illegal and 'grey' activities they do. if all someone does is social media, shopping and Skype they would care who sees what. It would be like watching eastenders or someother shit soap, boring, pointless and soul destroying. Taking the downloading out from my situation if Teresa May wants to see what porn sites I go to she only has to ask, it would be a lot cheaper than putting a bill through parliament.
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