Windows 10 Privacy concerns may just be tip of larger iceberg

Privacy, Data Harvesting, Advertising, Targeted Advertising, Security, Control over system, settings, defaults, unexpected and undesired results, Windows using your internet bandwidth to run peer-to-peer file distribution to other people’s computers, and more. These are all topics, words and phrases that I think about and add to my search history as I start to research Windows 10. I don’t want to see alarmist or make a big deal about something that isn’t anything to be concerned with and that isn’t my nature to do so. However every time I start to Google these phrases I find more articles to read that raise my concerns to rather high levels.

I would like to revise this article in the near future and put more of my own comments, concerns and facts that I want to make sure you know about but I am limited at the moment from doing the complete job of writing that.

However there are well written and easy to read articles already on the internet and I’m going to share with you 3 or 4 of them that I recommend you read at so you get an idea of where my concern is coming from.

I don’t think you can read those articles and not feel concerned afterwards.

No. Instead I imagine you will likely want to contact me (especially if you are running Windows 10) and arrange to have us review your privacy and other settings. You likely will want us to curb, remove, disable, turn off or re-configure your system so we can reduce the possibility of unexpected possibly offensive images and advertising polluting your computer display! If you have personal content that you don’t want shared with kids, wife, husband, visiting family members or friends (and that could run the gamut from just plan personal family information to explicit and not appropriate for those people to see) then you need to be concerned and aware. Likewise you have less control over what images could be brought to your screen by programs that get content from the internet. Again I think you should be concerned whether these ‘features’ or programs could display things that are not appropriate for the environment you operate your computer within (work, home, around co-workers, kids, etc.)

Well that’s all I can personally write at the moment and now I must leave you with these excellent articles to review.

Please do look over those articles. And if you are concerned or bothered by this then please let me know that I am not alone. If I find others share my concerns then I will continue to look for things we can do to make our computers private and safe.

THESE ARE THE ARTICLES TO READ!!!

Callaham, John. “Here’s What Microsoft Says about Windows 10’s Version of Solitaire and Its Ad-supported Model.” Windows Central. Mobile Nations, 31 July 2015. Web. 1 July 2016. <http://www.windowscentral.com/heres-what-microsoft-says-about-windows-10s-version-solitaire-and-its-free-play-model>.

Price, Dan. “Everything You Need to Know About Windows 10’s Privacy Issues.” MakeUseOf. MakeUseOf Limited, 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 01 July 2016. <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/everything-need-know-windows-10s-privacy-issues/>.

Sieber, Tina. “How to Ban Windows 10 Ads & NSFW Content from Your Desktop.” MakeUseOf. MakeUseOf Limited, 23 Oct. 2015. Web. 01 July 2016. <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-10-desktop-ads-nsfw-content/>.

Last thought…
The following comes straight from Microsoft’s privacy statement (https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/) about a Windows 10 feature/function called ‘Cortana’. Cortana sounds innocent and it may be helpful to have an assistant that can help you with finding things, etc. But read this and let me know how you feel after reading it:

    “To enable Cortana to provide personalized experiences and relevant suggestions, Microsoft collects and uses various types of data, such as your device location, data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on your device.

    “Cortana also learns about you by collecting data about how you use your device and other Microsoft services, such as your music, alarm settings, whether the lock screen is on, what you view and purchase, your browse and Bing search history, and more.”

The good news is that the above is disabled by default. The scary thing is that it can be turned on. What if someone other than you were to turn this on and not tell you? Would that concern you?

Does the above seem unlikely? If so then I ask you to think again. Consider the evil things being done by malware writers today! How many of us wish it wasn’t possible for malware to get on to our computers and do things? But we all know it can and likely will. And so the question is: “If creators of today’s malware can so easily write code to encrypt user files without anyone noticing until the damage has already been done and then successfully extort millions of dollars from the people whose data they have encrypted … what’s to stop them from writing code that could turn on data harvesting features, hack access to your private user data and then use your data against you and for their financial gain”?

Look for more from me on this in the future.

David Ingalls

About David Ingalls

Owner/Chief Tech DavidIngallsOnline.com & Ingalls Computer Services, ingallscomputerservices.com
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