The EFF calls out Microsoft for disregarding user choice and privacy in Windows 10

[Batu69]

Despite the offer for a free upgrade to Windows 10 ending almost three weeks ago, the animosity against Microsoft's operating system rages on. This time, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called out the company for its aggressive upgrade tactics and privacy concerns.

 

 

The EFF breaks up its article into two parts, the first dealing with the upgrade tactics. It calls out the obvious with references to the Get Windows 10 app, the switch to Windows 10 being a recommended update, and of course, when Microsoft changed the Get Windows 10 app so that closing it confirmed the upgrade.

 

It's at this point that a reader would wonder what the point of the EFF's article is. If it's to serve as a warning to potential Windows 10 users, none of that section is relevant at all, given that all of those aggressive tactics are in the rear-view mirror. If it's a call-to-action for Microsoft, that doesn't make it more pertinent. The entire section of the article comes across as a means of setting the reader up for the next section: privacy concerns.

 

This is where the EFF gets a bit conspiratorial, starting off by saying the following:

The trouble with Windows 10 doesn’t end with forcing users to download the operating system. By default, Windows 10 sends an unprecedented amount of usage data back to Microsoft, and the company claims most of it is to “personalize” the software by feeding it to the OS assistant called Cortana. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of data sent back: location data, text input, voice input, touch input, webpages you visit, and telemetry data regarding your general usage of your computer, including which programs you run and for how long.

Surely, most of the data being sent back cannot be surprising, given Cortana's functionality. Anyone who has used services such as Cortana or Google Now know that they simply wouldn't be able to function without vast amounts of data about the user, and if you're not interested in that, you always have the option to turn it off.

 

The EFF does note that users can opt out of most of these data collection methods, but the organization takes issue with Microsoft's collection of telemetry data, which is anonymous data that is collected for the purpose of improving Windows. To be clear, this is nothing new, no matter how much urgency the EFF attempts to imply by using italics.

 

The organization offers the following solution:

Microsoft should come clean with its user community. The company needs to acknowledge its missteps and offer real, meaningful opt-outs to the users who want them, preferably in a single unified screen. It also needs to be straightforward in separating security updates from operating system upgrades going forward, and not try to bypass user choice and privacy expectations.

Otherwise it will face backlash in the form of individual lawsuits, state attorney general investigations, and government investigations.

We at EFF have heard from many users who have asked us to take action, and we urge Microsoft to listen to these concerns and incorporate this feedback into the next release of its operating system. Otherwise, Microsoft may find that it has inadvertently discovered just how far it can push its users before they abandon a once-trusted company for a better, more privacy-protective solution.

To be more accurate, the many users that have asked the EFF to take action stand at a grand total of 5,994. The statement refers to a Change.org petition, which you can sign as well if you agree with it.

 

The fact is that services such as Cortana are meant to enhance the user experience. As for telemetry data, there will always be those who assume that Microsoft is spying on them. After all, Windows is not, nor has it ever been an open-source system. As long as it's sending back data, there will be those that wonder what that data is.

 

Article source

[vissha]

@steven36 Now, what will you say for this? You were the sole member spreading here that EFF will not take this matter(Change.org petition - 6004 signatures and increasing) seriously. However, we believed in EFF.

 

Update to @steven36 reply:

Since EFF takes this issue/concern for the first time, they've issued a warning. I'm sure that if Bull$h*t MS & Pervert $h*tty No No della and his Win team didn't change to the right path and strategy, EFF will definitely file a lawsuit where MS can no longer indulge in OS and would sell Windows Division.

[Holmes]

Im sorry five thousand users is hardly a significant amount of users three hundred and fifty million users supposedly are running windows ten.  Now thats not to say what those five thousand users are petitioning is wrong I agree those users are right I think microsoft has to step up to the plate and admit fault.  Are they going to admit fault I doubt it there lawyers are going to lie and win and microsoft wont have to admit anything thats my prediction do I like that prediction no microsoft has alot of money they can afford to hire the best lawyers in the country I hate saying that its true.  FOr your information no one knows if microsoft is collecting personal information if someone has used a packet sniffer got the encrypted information being sent to microsoft and decrypted it and witnessed private information of there's being sent to microsoft show me a link to that I want to see it.  I almost forgot to say I havent seen the get windows ten app upgrade after clicking on the x button thats not to say that never happened hell microsoft could have made a mistake or purposely made it upgrade when you clicked on the x for a certain amount of time I personally never saw it.

[steven36]

40 minutes ago, vissha said:

@steven36 Now, what will you say for this? You were the sole member spreading here that EFF will not take this matter(Change.org petition - 6004 signatures and increasing) seriously. However, we believed in EFF.

As we speak Microsoft  is fixing to put Windows 10 style updates come Oct in windows 7 and 8

 

EFF is not going do nothing they done spoke on it

Quote

 

The Way Forward

Microsoft should come clean with its user community. The company needs to acknowledge its missteps and offer real, meaningful opt-outs to the users who want them, preferably in a single unified screen. It also needs to be straightforward in separating security updates from operating system upgrades going forward, and not try to bypass user choice and privacy expectations.

Otherwise it will face backlash in the form of individual lawsuits, state attorney general investigations, and government investigations.

We at EFF have heard from many users who have asked us to take action, and we urge Microsoft to listen to these concerns and incorporate this feedback into the next release of its operating system. Otherwise, Microsoft may find that it has inadvertently discovered just how far it can push its users before they abandon a once-trusted company for a better, more privacy-protective solution.

 

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/windows-10-microsoft-blatantly-disregards-user-choice-and-privacy-deep-dive

They just warned Microsoft what others may do but no were do they say they will take them to court .They just said what everyone has said all along but if they want change  there's nothing you can do but  switch O/S  and that will hit them were it hurts in the pocketbook. I already know they need too change but as long as people keep using windows and complains and does nothing I doubt it will ever happen, This time there going to fight back with real lawyers if anyone tries too sue them .

[steven36]

1 hour ago, vissha said:

Update to @steven36 reply:

Since EFF takes this issue/concern for the first time, they've issued a warning. I'm sure that if Bull$h*t MS & Pervert $h*tty No No della and his Win team didn't change to the right path and strategy, EFF will definitely file a lawsuit where MS can no longer indulge in OS and would sell Windows Division.

Edited 13 minutes ago by vissha

if you can't reply to me  down here were im at dont bother to reply at all to me . without editing you're post up there.I dont want to have too put you're post on ignore too. because you poping up in my notifier and bugging me.  I'm not into speculation post or conspiracy theories the EFF didn't say that you did. and we already know you hate windows 10  because we can read it says so under you're name . If  hated  Microsoft as much as you id just switch to Linux for good and not worry about what they done, 

 

  I use Windows 10 and it dont really bother me . I dont really care about Windows 7 or 8  anymore  because i no longer use it  but i respect  people who do  , but if they done something that did bother me id switch to just using Linux and not care what they did..I'm a man of action and solutions . I solve my problems as they arise .

[Holmes]

Not that im with vissha on this one him replying keeping his first post updated prevents him from adding post's to the number of post's he has unfortunately it can create confusion to you have to look at his first post to see his reply and some users could miss his reply.  I think its good that EFF is calling microsoft out unfortunately microsoft may ignore them or beat around the push giving a pr statement denying the allegations and you know where it goes from there.  I hope Im wrong and microsoft sees the error in there ways.  My prediction is they wont Ill pray for it to happen thats all we can do.

[steven36]

If the EFF went after Microsoft they have to go after Facebook ,Google  and Apple too after all that's were they got most of there ideas from . Like @Ordeith said at another site Frontline already aired it on TV all these problems in 2014 for the whole world to see with the generation-like video back in 2014 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/generation-like/

Mark Andrejevic: We Are All “Lab Rats” Online

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/mark-andrejevic-we-are-all-lab-rats-online/

That reached more people than any pc centric news site and still no one listens ,As long as billions  of people  use there products all these companies is going keep sticking it to every one . Its like the normal long before Microsoft made Windows 10  that its OK for these companies  to spy on us. 

[Togijak]

 

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August 17, 2016 | By Amul Kalia

 

With Windows 10, Microsoft Blatantly Disregards User Choice and Privacy: A Deep Dive

 

 

Microsoft had an ambitious goal with the launch of Windows 10: a billion devices running the software by the end of 2018. In its quest to reach that goal, the company aggressively pushed Windows 10 on its users and went so far as to offer free upgrades for a whole year. However, the company’s strategy for user adoption has trampled on essential aspects of modern computing: user choice and privacy. We think that’s wrong.

You don’t need to search long to come across stories of people who are horrified and amazed at just how far Microsoft has gone in order to increase Windows 10’s install base. Sure, there is some misinformation and hyperbole, but there are also some real concerns that current and future users of Windows 10 should be aware of. As the company is currently rolling out its “Anniversary Update” to Windows 10, we think it’s an appropriate time to focus on and examine the company’s strategy behind deploying Windows 10.

Disregarding User Choice

The tactics Microsoft employed to get users of earlier versions of Windows to upgrade to Windows 10 went from annoying to downright malicious. Some highlights: Microsoft installed an app in users’ system trays advertising the free upgrade to Windows 10. The app couldn’t be easily hidden or removed, but some enterprising users figured out a way. Then, the company kept changing the app and bundling it into various security patches, creating a cat-and-mouse game to uninstall it.

Eventually, Microsoft started pushing Windows 10 via its Windows Update system. It started off by pre-selecting the download for users and downloading it on their machines. Not satisfied, the company eventually made Windows 10 a recommended update so users receiving critical security updates were now also downloading an entirely new operating system onto their machines without their knowledge. Microsoft even rolled in the Windows 10 ad as part of an Internet Explorer security patch. Suffice to say, this is not the standard when it comes to security updates, and isn’t how most users expect them to work. When installing security updates, users expect to patch their existing operating system, and not see an advertisement or find out that they have downloaded an entirely new operating system in the process.

In May 2016, in an action designed in a way we think was highly deceptive, Microsoft actually changed the expected behavior of a dialog window, a user interface element that’s been around and acted the same way since the birth of the modern desktop. Specifically, when prompted with a Windows 10 update, if the user chose to decline it by hitting the ‘X’ in the upper right hand corner, Microsoft interpreted that as consent to download Windows 10. 

Time after time, with each update, Microsoft chose to employ questionable tactics to cause users to download a piece of software that many didn’t want. What users actually wanted didn’t seem to matter. In an extreme case, members of a wildlife conservation group in the African jungle felt that the automatic download of Windows 10 on a limited bandwidth connection could have endangered their lives if a forced upgrade had begun during a mission.

Disregarding User Privacy

The trouble with Windows 10 doesn’t end with forcing users to download the operating system. Windows 10 sends an unprecedented amount of usage data back to Microsoft, particularly if users opt in to “personalize” the software using the OS assistant called Cortana. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of data sent back: location data, text input, voice input, touch input, webpages you visit, and telemetry data regarding your general usage of your computer, including which programs you run and for how long.

While we understand that many users find features like Cortana useful, and that such features would be difficult (though not necessarily impossible) to implement in a way that doesn’t send data back to the cloud, the fact remains that many users would much prefer not to use these features in exchange for maintaining their privacy.

And while users can disable some of these settings, it is not a guarantee that your computer will stop talking to Microsoft’s servers. A significant issue is the telemetry data the company receives. While Microsoft insists that it aggregates and anonymizes this data, it hasn’t explained just how it does so. Microsoft also won’t say how long this data is retained, instead providing only general timeframes. Worse yet, unless you’re an enterprise user, no matter what, you have to share at least some of this telemetry data with Microsoft and there’s no way to opt-out of it.

Microsoft has tried to explain this lack of choice by saying that Windows Update won’t function properly on copies of the operating system with telemetry reporting turned to its lowest level. In other words, Microsoft is claiming that giving ordinary users more privacy by letting them turn telemetry reporting down to its lowest level would risk their security since they would no longer get security updates1. (Notably, this is not something many articles about Windows 10 have touched on.)

But this is a false choice that is entirely of Microsoft’s own creation. There’s no good reason why the types of data Microsoft collects at each telemetry level couldn’t be adjusted so that even at the lowest level of telemetry collection, users could still benefit from Windows Update and secure their machines from vulnerabilities, without having to send back things like app usage data or unique IDs like an IMEI number.

And if this wasn’t bad enough, Microsoft’s questionable upgrade tactics of bundling Windows 10 into various levels of security updates have also managed to lower users’ trust in the necessity of security updates. Sadly, this has led some people to forgo security updates entirely, meaning that there are users whose machines are at risk of being attacked.

There’s no doubt that Windows 10 has some great security improvements over previous versions of the operating system. But it’s a shame that Microsoft made users choose between having privacy and security.

The Way Forward

Microsoft should come clean with its user community. The company needs to acknowledge its missteps and offer real, meaningful opt-outs to the users who want them, preferably in a single unified screen. It also needs to be straightforward in separating security updates from operating system upgrades going forward, and not try to bypass user choice and privacy expectations.

Otherwise it will face backlash in the form of individual lawsuits, state attorney general investigations, and government investigations.

We at EFF have heard from many users who have asked us to take action, and we urge Microsoft to listen to these concerns and incorporate this feedback into the next release of its operating system. Otherwise, Microsoft may find that it has inadvertently discovered just how far it can push its users before they abandon a once-trusted company for a better, more privacy-protective solution.

 

Article Source

[Batu69]

Topic moved from general news forum & merged.