What is going on with Windows 10 and privacy????

jimbo45 said:

Personally I think these companies should be made illegal --if a Bank wants to issue / deny people a credit card they should do the research themselves.

Er, how would they do that?

If the client isn't your customer you have to, and often are legally obliged to (such as in the case of watchlist checking) consult external lists.

Can you expect UselessBank.com to actually phone the CIA and see if @jimbo45 is on a watchlist or phone every bank on the planet to check he didn't default on a car loan in Portugal 23 years ago?

lx07 said:

Er, how would they do that?

If the client isn't your customer you have to, and often are legally obliged to (such as in the case of watchlist checking) consult external lists.

Can you expect UselessBank.com to actually phone the CIA and see if @jimbo45 is on a watchlist or phone every bank on the planet to check he didn't default on a car loan in Portugal 23 years ago?

They can do like they use to do. For example they can ask for credit references, present and past employers, past and present residences and if needed a co-signer or two.

Kari said:

Not again!

Where do these tinfoil hat brigade users come? "I know that Microsoft has a team employed just to follow and spy me!".

Microsoft has not the faintest interest in your person. If a grown up man likes My Little Ponies and regularly visits their website, or visit adult sites, or tells in chat how he hates mommy but must accept her rules because he still lives with her, that has absolutely no interest to Microsoft in any other sense than to be able to enhance your Windows experience.

The telemetry data is used to make your searches more accurate, to make your browsing easier, to do some "under the hood" pimping of Windows so that your user experience would be better. As I mentioned, they have no interest in your person other than that.

They do not post your most stupid comments, most absurd websites you visit on internal memos to all Microsoft staff. They do not pin your most idiotic photos on walls of Microsoft campus café to give MS staff a good laugh. Telemetry data collected will be used to make your user experience better.

In all honesty, only meaning this to be taken as a friendly and polite advice: please consult a professional to get help. That "I know they are following me" paranoia can get really serious if not treated properly!

Kari

Just so you know -

I am digital marketer and an app developer so very much know what I am talking about.
People hire me for me to do the strategies and the tracking (Including nowadays non cookie, AI implementations etc.), so lets not go there where I am saying someone is spying on me.

I'd pay to see a useful ad. Period. That's my business basically. I set that up for businesses.

On top of that - It's completely unacceptable for an OS to collect information on not only how it is being used, but EVERYTHING it can. It goes a little over the fence with being useful and providing useful content - That's called espionage.

And I'm not paranoid. It's a fact.

CountMike said:

What about Google, Tweeter, Facebook (and other social media), Youtube...... etc ? Antivirus and antimalware programs can follow every step you make on your computer, go thru your email and messages, that's how they work and couldn't work properly without it. Your bank, credit bureau, insurance companies etc. know more about you than you do.
I'd say that MS has least vested interest in you as a person by name than your friendly neighborhood grocer.

They do not.

Google stores information about search volume on keywords to provide advertisers with information they can use to target ads. They also collect information on how you "behave" on the internet to serve you better ads. That's googles businesses.

Its the same with Facebook only a little different.

They certainly don't care I'm or was watching on my computer a day earlier.
The insurance and banking companies don't care about anything other than things to do with either you being a fraudster or your having bad credit score. So basically your ability to earn money.

Their business is not to collect a wealth of data on YOU.
Microsoft's is.

Because my friend - Whenever something is free -> You Are The End Product!

margrave55 said:

If turning off most/all of the monitoring truly behaves as claimed, then fine.

And, saying that "Microsoft has not the faintest interest in your person" is perhaps accurate in that neither they nor anyone else in this world (save for close friends and family) cares about you as an individual.

But the online experience offered to us exists SPECIFICALLY for "spying". Web sites cost money, yet we go to the for free. So how are they being paid for? By your data and your usage patterns and by any other means unknown to us behind closed doors.

What you do is used to tailor what you see ... for the purpose of targeted marketing. And that information can be leaked, spied, or subpoenaed for use by authorities for legitimate or illegitimate use.

We are being watched.

Great post!

Yes - The entire experience is turning into a spying tool.
A mass media spyglass.

And that's completely unacceptable

CountMike said:

Wrong. Insurance companies have most vested interest in you personally by name and everything else. As they are mostly private enterprises, they are some of least regulated when your personal data security is concerned.
My last year (1997) in Toronto, I applied for car and comprehensive insurance at several insurance companies. They checked for my driving record (ministry of transportation), health records OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan), credit rating because I applied for monthly payments. Police is informed when my car insurance starts and ends, police can check if your car insured right from their car computer just by punching in registration plates and also can know your other particulars at same time. Those and multiple other agencies know so much PERSONAL data about me. Government agencies I don't even want to mention.
Wth, could MS profit from knowing all that ? Nothing and having that would cost them big money without any return.

You are arguing pointlessly and missing the big picture.
If I were to insure you in Canada, I'd do a background check for you before giving you a quote as well.

If I were to hand you a loan on top of your provided loan collateral, if you have had a history of bad credit, I'd increase the loan interest, because its a bigger risk for me.

That's not personal data. That's business information.

I've worked for 2 major Insurance companies : Allianz and Grawe.

cereberus said:

We'd like to know though, so we can give you appropriate advice what colour to wear when using Windows. Brown is appropriate on days you upgrade :-D.

Wait until you see ads all over the place, WHILE you are watching your next TV show on Netflix or opening a random file you are working on for your education purposes.

Then you'll remember this.
That's where this is going.