Here are emails #3 and #4:
Hi Woody-
You are basing what you say on good faith then? How about the reverse. I have emailed you twice now. So let’s assume for the moment that Windows 10 won’t read my incoming email. That leaves me with two questions. What if I am in your contacts list? Will that change their mind? But let’s go a step further and assume that they read no incoming mail at all even if the person who sends you that email is in your contacts list. But you have replied to me twice. Whatever you say in that outgoing email would be fair game, including my email address. So anything you say to me, about me or involving me and anything I do that you mention in your outgoing email would be legit to mine by Microsoft.
The problem here is that Microsoft controls roughly 90% of desktop PCs since they all run windows. Even if windows 10 never spreads with equal success to the mobile universe, that universe still communicates with desktops. So all of that data that ends up on a desktop running Windows 10 can be accessed. Do you honestly believe that Microsoft will not mine my information if they see a way monetize it? I sure don’t.
I can avoid having my information mined by social media by not participating on such sites. I can prevent my browsing to be tracked to a decent extent by my choice of browser, how I browse and what anti-tracking software I run. I have Windows 7 set so that my box sends no info to Microsoft and I run my own maintenance software and disable that service in Windows. I have not used Internet Explorer since version 6. One of the very first things I did when I loaded Windows 7 when I assembled this box was to disable internet explorer.
I have gone to great lengths not to be tracked, not to be the subject of targeted advertising. I block all cookies save 1st party site cookies which are allowed to be on my box until I close the window. I do not use tabbed browsing ever, so I provide no data to a site as to how I got there and when I leave they have no idea where I am going next. I use one window per site and close it when done there and open a new window to go to another site. I do all of these things and refuse to use most apps because that is how I protect my privacy. In one stroke Microsoft and Windows 10 are destroying that ability even though I will not use Windows 10.
Some call me paranoid, but I won’t use EZ pass for tolls because it can track one’s location. I do not want a car with built in GPS. I use a Garmin and its only on when I have to use it. Otherwise GPS would be tracking me all the time. I will never own a GM car because one cannot disable Northstar. My cell phone is just that. I have never sent a text message and on the rare occasion on shows up on my flip phone, I never read it, I simply delete it as I know it will be spam. I do no mobile computing. Fortunately, because I am retired, I have no need for all this stuff for business reasons. If I was selling stuff I would be all over the social media etc. making money.
I am not registered on Google nor do I use anything from them beyond search and maps. I am not registered on any social media site. I do not send my date to Microsoft and I use the Pale Moon browser. I use as few browser add-ons as possible with almost all being security related. I have nothing set to automatically update on my box at all. I update everything manually and have been rejecting Windows updates for several months now for the first time in 20+ years of using windows. This is the result of all the Windows 10 related stuff they tried to foist on all their users. I do not expect anybody to honor the do not track settings, so I take actions to make sure, to the greatest extent I can, to prevent it myself.
All of these choices are being dismantled for me by other people’s use of Windows 10. One cannot avoid its invasive nature simply by choosing not to use it the way one can by not using anything Apple or registering on sites that mine their user data. I will not store anything in the cloud, I keep all my important information either on my box or in manual form. I still have a handwritten address book I use.
If you remember your history about the Soviet Union you are aware of how many people the government had spying on their fellow citizens. I can assure you these folks would have killed to have something like Windows 10. When something like Windows 10 is built with the capabilities it has, it is usually only as matter of time before there are no lines that won’t be crossed.
Thanks for listening to one man’s objections to the greatest threat to the right to privacy since the US constitution was signed.
Chris L.
and
Woody-
I am not registered on Google, so it is difficult for them to push ads at me etc. But I do use windows, even if it will never be 10. So I am connected to Microsoft. I do not let them get reports from my machine, but I do get updates when I will allow them. So how hard will it be for them to make a connection. I also use Duck Duck Go a lot and Pale Moon for browsing.
Google may be mining your information but they are clearly unable to use mine which you have via my emails because they have no legitimate reason to contact of target me. I am not registered on Google for anything. There is no potential benefit to them having my information. I even disable geo-location to try and prevent targeted ads from that when I search.
Trust me when I tell you I get almost no spam emails, no advertising even from places with whom I do business. I block all the Google trackers on other sites but there are no cookies/trackers which show up as blocked when I do a Google search.
The primary difference is that for Google to get my information and be able to use it, I have to visit a Google site. But Windows10 is not a site, it is an OS. When the invasive things become part of one’s basic operating system, tracking has been raised to a whole new level.
This whole Windows 10 thing is really sickening. They have become the NSA of the cyber world in one stroke no matter whether one uses Microsoft products or not. So let me ask you this, do you think the US or state governments will ever use Windows 10? Do you think law firms and businesses will use windows 10? How will these people react to all this? I sure hope there are a slew of lawsuits coming down the pike over this.
And what will happen down the road when clever hackers penetrate Microsoft and help themselves to al the stored data?
Chris L.