Windows 10

I have been a Linux user and kernel developer for years. I was a very skilled user of cli, vim, tmux, etc., you name it. But I still find Windows 10 to be the best and finally switched back to Windows. I don't understand why so many people hate Windows so much. Linux is just not a substitute for Windows, lacking so many powerful apps and drivers, including the widely hated Office (LibreOffice is just not a substitute for it, face the truth). Even a skilled CLI user like me will find the command line configuration exhausting, not to mention novice users. Microsoft is not making billions of dollars from Windows and Office without a reason.

Though, the battery consumption is just unbearable in Windows. And I appreciate the security, privacy, clarity, file system, flexibility, scripts, low resource usage and CLI of Linux, especially if you are a developer. But I just think there is no need to hate Windows and overrate Linux, not to say who is better or worse, they just serve different purposes. If you are using an OS for your daily life without programming or specific tasks, use Windows, it's the right choice.

Why Microsoft spy on their users

Google, Facebook, Amazon and others have adopted a business model in which huge databases are constructed about their users' contacts, who and when they talk/email/chat, what about, what files they store, calendar contents, search history, bookmarks, posts, likes, where/when you go physically, what they read and buy... and on... and on.* Doing this allows them to know their users in incredibly intimate detail. They are then able to promise advertisers that their ads can be targeted with huge precision because they know who to display specific ads to. This is where many modern billions are made.

In this context, Microsoft have a distinct advantage: a world-wide near monopoly on desktop operating systems. They have chosen, via Windows 10 and retroactive updates to Windows 8 and 7, to make use of this monopoly. Windows 7, 8 and 10 now gather gigantic amounts of data about Windows users. In this way, Microsoft can potentially out-compete Google, Facebook and the rest. (That means you are not avoiding Microsoft's violation of your privacy by staying on Windows 7 or 8.)

What Microsoft's Windows collects about users

Recent EU pressure on Microsoft about its privacy practices (including over the 2017 Creators update) seems to have forced them to reveal which "telemetry" data Windows 10 gathers. It includes, but is absolutely not limited to:

• What you search for online
• What files you search on your computer
• Which networks are available to you/near you
• Voice recognition (activated, it listens all the time)
• Typing patterns that may uniquely identify you
• Which keys you are hitting (in principle can record everything you type)
• How long you have your browser open
• Which websites you visit
• How many photos you have
• Which music/videos you have/listen to/watch
• Which programs you have installed
• What you search for within programs
• Make, model and serial number of all your hardware
• What you write, including with a pen/stylus
• How you write, including with a pen/stylus (which can identify you)

... and all of this in addition to the data you give them if you have a Microsoft account:

• name
• phone number
• email address
• calendar information
• and contacts (who you know and all their details)

Note also, that if you use Microsoft's email services, e.g. Outlook, or other services, like LinkedIn, they can correlate all of this information with what you email, when you email it and to whom and who you know.

Note that if you store other people's contact details or private information on your Windows machine, all of this in principle can be monitored by Microsoft. For example, if you search in your computer (locally) for a name that has someone's personal details (e.g. name, address, National Security Number), all of this can be sent to Microsoft servers. Microsoft is therefore not only using your privacy for their profit by amassing your details into a database, but also that of people you may know, contact or whose details you might be responsible for, even if they never agreed to Microsoft's Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy.

Microsoft categorize the telemetry settings into "Basic" and "Full", and claim that user data collected is not personally identifiable. This is misleading. Firstly, the Basic level collects 90% of what the Full level collects, so it's does not give users meaningful control. Secondly, at least according to one former Microsoft employee, Jerry Berg, Microsoft databases are easily cross-linked and therefore it is trivially easy to correlate telemetry gathered via Windows to, e.g. telephone numbers and mobile phone sim card numbers, and vast amounts of other types of personally identifiable data.

Why It is Wrong & Dangerous

1. Microsoft push updates to Windows computers and with them install ever-increasing levels of spyware ("telemetry") from which users cannot, effectively, opt out. This applies to paying customers. Microsoft already has their money; but it wants to make more by violating your privacy and freedom to say no.

2. When you read the End User Licence Agreement that every Windows installation requires, you realize that Microsoft retain the right to control your computer. Whilst you might, on a day-to-day level feel that you are the computers owner, it remains nevertheless true that Microsoft can download and install software onto your computer against your wishes, reset your preferences and much else besides. This means that your computer becomes a node for software you might not want, but for which you paid to have the privilege of not controlling. This is unethical because it gives control of your machine to Microsoft. However much control you have, they have more.

3. Microsoft updates - the recent Creators one included - resets many user preferences, such as which browser is default. In effect, this is saying they don't care about what you like; they will try any and every trick to get you to use their preferred apps instead of those you chose. Again, the reason for this is because their apps give them enhanced levels of information about what you are doing on your own computer.

4. All data Microsoft collects and stores about its users can be subpoenad under NSL and FISA legislation in the US, and this applies to information about non-US citizens. So Microsoft and the American government (and companies they sub-contract, e.g. to analyze the data) can know everything about you, even if you are not American and have never even been to the US. And, of course, you have no choice to opt out. Because it is true that Microsoft control your computer (see point 2 above), your computer effectively becomes a spyware device for both the company who stand to profit (Microsoft) and US federal agencies, like the FBI, who can - in principle at least - force Microsoft to use your computer to spy on you. If you doubt this relationship between large US firms and the feds, read about how Yahoo wrote software for the FBI to search through all their users emails. Yahoo has also had hundreds of millions of accounts hacked, and some have alleged this was made possible by a security exploit introduced by the feds.

5. Databases of private people of the type Microsoft is creating are ripe for huge abuses. Please observe that every totalitarian government in history has aimed to manipulate citizens by gathering information about them. For any kind of political power to know what its citizens are thinking, what they are saying, where they are going, with whom they are meeting, what... all of this is a problem because:

• people change their behaviour when they know they are being observed (they cannot be themselves)
• it gives people with this data the ability to manipulate emotions (as Facebook did), predict political prefernces and your personality generally, control the flow of information, pre-empt protests, thwart human rights activism, and a lot else besides. The only thing that stands in the way once the databases exist is the will, political or otherwise, to misuse it.
• there are no guarantees where the data will be in the future. Who will own Microsoft's data in 20 years? Even if you trust them, it's still a fact that the largest technology companies (e.g. here) and intelligence agencies leak sensitive, even top secret information (see the recent FBI Vault 7 leaks or the NSA's leak of Windows exploits).
• As Jerry Berg explains, databases of the kind Microsoft are creating can be correlated and subpoenad to incriminate even innocent people. I would add that with such capability, you should now be scared not to cross the people who can use that data against you. Except, as I wrote above, you don't know who that will be, necessarily.

The only way to avoid all of these problems is not to create such databases in the first place.

(You should also know: previous independent programs/apps distributed by individuals aiming to help people switch of Windows telemetry are now unlikely to work because of "under-the-hood" changes the recent Creators update includes.)

What you can do about Windows spying

If the databases continue to be created, as individuals we have the choice (still) to opt out by not using products that treat us this way. If you don't have to use Windows (and most people reading this probably don't have to), then I cannot possibly recommend anything other than to switch away to an operating system that doesn't spy on you. Note that some of what Windows does, Apple's MacOS also does. For example, Apple's desktop search app, Spotlight, records the search terms you use on your own computer. (You can disable this, but then you disable the search.)

Operating systems that do not spy on users include Linux and BSD. Of these, Linux is by far the more popular and comes in many different flavors, including user-friendly versions for beginners (e.g. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, OpenSuse and even Manjaro). They are also free, open-source (which means the code can be trusted) and have huge communities of people happy to help newcomers. There are general Linux forums and distribution specific forums. Modern Linux distros are now largely so usable and stable that a beginner would only really have to relearn a couple of basics about what some new icons do and where some folders are that they might not be used to. That's about it. It is also possible to run Linux with Windows in a virtual machine for programs that don't have a Linux equivalent (although most do).

Other fantastic resources online that you can use to learn more about protecting your privacy are:

• PrivacyTools.io (info on everything from browsers to file sharing)
• ThatOnePrivacySite (the best site for neutral analysis and reviews of VPNs and private email services)
• PrismBreak (read advice about how to avoid being surveilled by the government)

The other thing to do is to campaign against what Microsoft (and Google, Facebook, etc.) are doing. Contact your local representatives, politicians, MP or MEP and get them to kick up a fuss about this. You can also

• Support the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which fights for people's digital rights
• Sign this petition against Windows telemetry spyware
• Support this campaign to buy the internet browsing history of politicians who made purchasing people's internet browsing history legal in the US. Maybe it will prompt them to reconsider, like it did with German law-makers.

Last updated: 2017-04-20