For example, using a local account and not a Microsoft account. I'm guessing that's where the author got his notion of "contact details, passwords, demographic data and credit card specifics".
Also, if you go to the Privacy settings, you can disable things like Cortana and other services.
But it's Google, so of course they get a pass in the media.
[1] If you turn off all the privacy invading options when setting up Windows 10 (choose "Customize" instead of "Express"), there is no more logging than Windows 7 does by default. Somehow that is never mentioned in these articles though.
A big part of the problem is the creeping-normalization of these practices, where bad behavior is excused simply because it is common. This is how "big lie" propaganda works, and the apparatchik can always be relied upon to find some excuse for why we should just ignore any problems.
I think the issue is really this: how many people complaining about these issues are using an Android or iOS device? How many are using OSX or search using Google? How many use Gmail?
So you say it's not justification? Actions speak louder than words. I've seen people posting about this on Facebook.
This doesn't excuse the behavior, but the reality is, the people complaining don't really care to change. They just want to pretend to be upset. Take the article this is linked to. The website on which it sits. The amount of tracking that occurs. The uproar is huge, no doubt. But I wonder how much of the uproar is sincere. And how much is just aiming for cheap internet points and likes.
It is never a good idea to project your own hypocrisy onto everybody else.
As for people caring to change - you're assuming people even understand that this is happening and what the consequences are. Even in the case where someone does understand, the common attitude that I've seen is feeling trapped without any non-spyware options. How many people "don't really care", and how many are unable to move because of vendor lock-in?
I didn't. I was speaking generally. I don't call you out specifically. In fact, I explicitly make mention that there are probably people who are sincere about this. What I wonder is how much of the uproar is from people that do use an Android or iOS device. That do use Gmail. That use Facebook or Google+. Or support companies that share data.
Simply put: next time, don't be so antagonistic. I wasn't projecting anything onto anyone else, including you. Rereading my comment, I can only assume that you misread what I wrote, and assumed I said things I did not.
It is however not easy at all to switch to free software right from the first day. You have to change quite a few workflows. I have a job and I cannot just spend a month to reinstall everything and to get used to free software alternatives. I switch to these alternatives slowly but constantly.
Simply put: "how many people complaining about these issues are using an Android or iOS device?" is irrelevant. What relevant is how many people know about it and will be happy to change it, but not necessarily for these high costs as I pay.
I have tried to get my friends and family interested in using private systems that I have set up like Apache Wave and Diaspora but there aren't many takers.
I'm not entirely against the idea of a cellphone, but they are rarely needed. In the past, I have used several traditional "dumb" cellphones. These days, I'm rarely that far from a POTS line. Even without the data-collection problems and cost differences, I prefer the quality of a waveguide to the intermittent reception problems of radio.
Wave is cool - I really wish it was more popular. I actually use XMPP+OTR for a lot of stuff, which used to be very interoperable. sigh
If I needed to be on-call, I would follow Dan Geer's lead and use a pager.
And if you can't find a paging service you like, trust, or can afford, you can always (assuming you have an amateur radio license and don't intend to run a business using it) set up your own:
http://www.n5dux.com/ham/files/pdf/Ham%20Radio%20Paging-Putt...
I never said it was, I was simply pointing out that this week it's Microsoft in the media crosshairs over practices that are not unique to them. Next week it may indeed be Google under the microscope, though they tend to be media darlings most of the time. My point is, this is nothing new so why are we acting like it is?
> A big part of the problem is the creeping-normalization of these practices
I agree 100% with this; see Gmail again as a great example of privacy erosion being pushed upon us a little bit at a time, until we don't notice or care anymore.
b) Judging from past experience I fear that some features will randomly "auto-enable" themselves when some future updates are installed.
The web server that comes with Windows 10 - IIS 10 is the first version of IIS to support HTTP/2.
Not that it matters - remember that you are using an OS that MS can unilaterally update at any time.