The reason this software exists is fundamentally about a lack of trust. We don't trust Microsoft with the level of data that Windows 10 collects. That is a perfectly reasonable position to have. However if that is your opinion, it seems frankly bizarre to trust these nameless developers who have zero accountability for this software. Microsoft is at least accountable to the law, the stock market, and their customers. There is hundreds of billions on the line if they screw you over. If Barnacle screws you over, the only thing on the line is their copy of Ultra Street Fighter IV.
When it comes to privacy/security tools, it makes sense to make it open source, since they usually are given an insane amount of privileges to modify your machine.
In that order. We are last. In fact I'm not even a customer anymore, I haven't paid for an update to Windows since Windows 8 was released.
There's no reason for this program to not be open-source - especially if it all it does is tweak the registry and apply GPO settings.
For decades, the Windows community thrived with mods and such, all without source code.
If you have an unobfuscated .NET binary you pretty much have the source, and it will be honestly what it says it does.
Шt amazes me that people blame WPD for closedsource, but they themselves use shutup10 :facepalm:
In fact they are already doing this, most probably breaking the GDPR.
You highly underestimate the skill of the community, and how it only takes one person to find out and spread the news if something is amiss. Source isn't needed, and doesn't tell the whole story anyway. (See: Ken Thompson Hack.)
the multinational corporation that could lose hundreds of billions of dollars if they inappropriately abuse my privacy
The corporation which has lawyers and knows exactly how to spin their spyware to carefully evade such laws?
Windows 10 would clearly be considered spyware 10 or even 5 years ago. Yet somehow Microsoft has convinced the general public that it isn't, and we are supposed to still trust them?
Edit: downloaded it to take a look. Appears to be written in easily-reversible .NET and not even obfuscated, so go ahead and analyse it yourself if you don't trust it. (If it was obfuscated, that would make my suspicion jump.)
Edit2: looks like people still think I'm wrong - go look at the binary yourself instead of blindly downvoting just because you don't want to do the thinking yourself. The more power you let them have, the more they will abuse it.
Even among those who know, only a fraction would be bothered enough to take action.
That Windows users have chosen to accept Windows becoming spyware
The developers of this, and others, are clearly fighting against it.
Compared to just about every SaaS product?