Windows 10 - Impending privacy policy changes 1st August

randal · 29 Jul 2015 at 15:04

What's everyone's take on this privacy policy change implementing on 1st August?

I find it all a little unsettling personally, I know it's been happening for a while now (advertising ID etc) but to have it cannonised in print that you have to agree makes it all feel like data farming.

https://edri.org/microsofts-new-small-print-how-your-personal-data-abused/

Not to mention this:

cactusweasel said:
It gets worse

“We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to”, for example, “protect their customers” or “enforce the terms governing
the use of the services”.

Doogles · 29 Jul 2015 at 15:10

Well they can look at my porn if they want, who doesn't like some alexis texas?

murah · 29 Jul 2015 at 15:44

edit: wrong thread

TheMorningStar · 29 Jul 2015 at 16:07

Doogles said:
Well they can look at my porn if they want, who doesn't like some alexis texas?

I think it's less about porn and more about file sharing and pirating, your more personal files, emails, photographs etc will be used to identify you.

You would have to run multiple systems to keep your anonymity in tact. It's actually all rather scary. I'm yet to look into the full implications of it, but I believe that end users will be targeted for copyright violations and they will justify it all by saying it's needed to find pedophiles or something like that.

russell664 · 29 Jul 2015 at 17:46

Doogles said:
Well they can look at my porn if they want, who doesn't like some alexis texas?

Heh

ANDARIAL · 29 Jul 2015 at 18:11

Thanks for this thread

Just cancelled my impending W10 install
Not going to say YES to letting them sell any of my data

R3X · 29 Jul 2015 at 18:13

I read this tracking can be switched to off, maybe someone with 10 can confirm this when choosing custom or in control panel ?

Frenzy · 29 Jul 2015 at 18:24

Some more info on the privacy stuff

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/

Columbo · 29 Jul 2015 at 18:31

Suppose this is the price of the 'free' upgrade.
No thanks.

Glaucus · 29 Jul 2015 at 18:35

Frenzy said:
Some more info on the privacy stuff

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/

And most of it is absolutely essential for things like Cortana to work, dont want it turn it off.

And no auto syncing should not be opt out. Most people actually like being backed up. Leave it for the scared people to opt out.

There's only one line that is concerning and that's in the op. But then again, no different to any big company these days, so not much you can do about it.

R3X · 29 Jul 2015 at 18:37

Frenzy said:
Some more info on the privacy stuff

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/

great stuff glad it can be all switched off

randal · 29 Jul 2015 at 19:18

Glaucus said:
There's only one line that is concerning and that's in the op. But then again, no different to any big company these days, so not much you can do about it.

Yep, it's that last line I can't get right with. Despite all the opt outs and things you can turn off, you can't get away from the fact that MS hold the right to enforce that provision upon you.

I find it no coincidence that CISPA v2.0 is working it's way through the US Senate at the moment either, making for a legal and streamlined mechanism to inspect data at will.

stopper · 29 Jul 2015 at 20:17

Columbo said:
Suppose this is the price of the 'free' upgrade.
No thanks.

Nothing is free, you pay for Win10 with your privacy.
It wouldn't surprise me if the NSA and GHCQ had some thing to do with the pricing, with China Russia and Cuba all moving to Linux an' that.

.Lethal · 30 Jul 2015 at 14:08

ANDARIAL said:
Thanks for this thread
Just cancelled my impending W10 install
Not going to say YES to letting them sell any of my data

You can opt out of practically all of it.

R3X said:
I read this tracking can be switched to off, maybe someone with 10 can confirm this when choosing custom or in control panel ?

Yes it can.

Glaucus said:
And most of it is absolutely essential for things like Cortana to work, dont want it turn it off.

And no auto syncing should not be opt out. Most people actually like being backed up. Leave it for the scared people to opt out.

There's only one line that is concerning and that's in the op. But then again, no different to any big company these days, so not much you can do about it.

I personally don't see the need for Cortana having looked closer at it. Disregarding Cortana and disabling the data sent to Microsoft Windows 10 is absolutely worth upgrading for the performance boost itself. Do you own an iPhone and frequently use Siri?

randal · 30 Jul 2015 at 14:18

If there's an opt out of the "We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary" bit then I'll happily upgrade, otherwise I'm noping out of this one.

Pixel · 30 Jul 2015 at 15:44

Glaucus said:
not much you can do about it.

Apart from simply not "upgrading" to Win10.

randal · 30 Jul 2015 at 15:58

I need to have a read up, but I have a feeling that Privacy Policy is going to cover previous versions on Windows too.

Still on the upside:

You must sign in to your Microsoft account periodically, at a minimum every year, to keep services associated with your Microsoft account active, unless provided otherwise in an offer for a paid portion of the Services,” Microsoft’s updated services agreement states. “If you don’t sign in during this period, we will close your account (which means you won’t have access to the Windows Services, Office Services, Content stored in your account, and any other product or service that uses Microsoft account). If your Services are canceled, we will delete information or Content (as defined below) associated with your Microsoft account, or will otherwise disassociate it from you and your Microsoft account, unless the law requires us to keep it.”

NexusK · 30 Jul 2015 at 16:17

Columbo said:
Suppose this is the price of the 'free' upgrade.
No thanks.

Not really, it's the same whether you get it free or pay £100.

Arthur Hucksake · 30 Jul 2015 at 16:50

Do Apple have anything like this in place for Macs?

randal · 30 Jul 2015 at 16:56

Arthur Hucksake said:
Do Apple have anything like this in place for Macs?

Need to have a proper read up, but this is one quote I found from it:

We are absolutely committed to protecting our users' privacy and have built privacy right into our products. For Spotlight Suggestions we minimize the amount of information sent to Apple. Apple doesn't retain IP addresses from users' devices. Spotlight blurs the location on the device so it never sends an exact location to Apple. Spotlight doesn't use a persistent identifier, so a user's search history can't be created by Apple or anyone else. Apple devices only use a temporary anonymous session ID for a 15-minute period before the ID is discarded.

However I then read this:

We also worked closely with Microsoft to protect our users' privacy. Apple forwards only commonly searched terms and only city-level location information to Bing. Microsoft does not store search queries or receive users' IP addresses.

You can also easily opt out of Spotlight Suggestions, Bing or Location Services for Spotlight.

Apple do also admit in their privacy policy to storing iMessage conversations in encrypted form for a limited time, along with temporary storage of IP addresses and location data. Particularly when used with Siri, this as per Microsoft's stuff can also be disabled.