Windows 10: Public enemy No. 1, or an OS like any other?

[JMH]

What’s the biggest danger we face today? A gyrating stock market that could push us back into recession? Continuing terrorism threats? The long-range health of our social safety net? The specter of Donald Trump as president?

Not if you restrict your reading to the tech press. There you will see that the one overriding threat today is Windows 10. That’s right; a simple operating system trumps terrorism, recession and, well, Trump. Since Microsoft released the new OS in late July, Windows 10 has been accused of massive privacy violations, denounced by members of the Russian parliament as a tool of espionage, banned by some file-sharing sites due to fears over privacy intrusions, and beset by allegations of violating federal HIPAA health-privacy regulations.

And that’s just in the first month.

The charges against Windows 10 have at their root people’s justifiable fears about their privacy when they use computers and browse the Internet. People’s fears have coalesced around Windows 10 because Microsoft has been a very big and convenient target for decades, particularly for those people who write the company’s name as Micro$oft.

Windows 10: Public enemy No. 1, or an OS like any other? | ITworld

 

[Digerati]

This article clearly was written to squash all the falsehoods and rumormongering about Windows 10 security and Microsoft spying. It saddens me a bit to see an extract of only the FUD.

"Justifiable fears"? Bull hockey! They are only justifiable if real.

The rest of the story from that article (my bold added):

The charges are overblown, of course. Windows 10 doesn’t handle privacy issues much differently from most operating systems. And you can easily customize the operating system to maximize your privacy.

Windows 10 assigns an advertising ID to users, and then uses that ID to deliver customized ads and information to them. Apple’s and Google’s digital assistants need to gather information just like Cortana does. And although those features in Windows 10 can easily be turned off, Microsoft takes a big public hit.

Windows 10 also includes a feature called Wi-Fi Sense that lets people share bandwidth on Wi-Fi networks with each other — nothing happens automatically. Encryption and other features make it a secure way to share bandwidth. It can easily be turned off.

As for the worries about HIPAA, they have to do with Windows 10 capturing your typed and written input so that it can provide suggestions as you type, or improve handwriting recognition. Again, this is commonplace on operating systems and the Web. And in Windows 10, the information is anonymized and scrubbed of identifiers, so it can’t be traced to you. And you can turn the feature off as well.

I am glad to see the author calls out irresponsible reporting by the tech press, citing as an example, the sensationalized FUD generated by The Slate's David Auerbach. Mr. Auerbach, for example claims SmartScreen is used to "simply send more of your activity to Microsoft". Simply? Not hardly. SmartScreen is a very effective anti-phishing and malware prevention program.

Mr. Auerbach also claims it is difficult to restore W10's privacy to W7/W8 levels. That is also false. It is easy. And he shows how easy it is by advising users to use the Custom install option instead of Express install. This is good advice but I note this is the same advice ALL USERS should take when installing ANY program. ALWAYS select the "Custom" install option.

NEVER select Express or the Default settings option - unless you want to also install extra toolbars, add-ons, auto-updaters, other programs you don't want or need the developers (or their financiers) want to foist on your system, or unless you want to have your home page and default search engines changed!

For the true facts about Windows 10 spying and security, see Ed Bott's article in my thread, Microsoft is NOT spying on you with Windows 10!.