EVERYONE LOVES FREE CRAP RIGHT??!! And of all companies, it seems as though Microsoft the arch-villain of tech companies is the one distributing the FREEBIES!!! That’s RIGHT, grab that FREE UPGRADE to Windows TEN (they skipped 9, because THE NEW UPGRADE IS JUST SO AWESOME….. Annnnd FRREEEE). Let’s forget that debacle over Windows 8, which was basically another FREEE downgrade to force you to use their App store and their Metro-whatever interface and was universally hated. WINDOWS 10 IS FREEEE.
Thing is though, most people don’t read that all-important fine print. You know, that unimportant extremely long-winded bit of legalise designed specifically to bore you to tears before getting through the first paragraph… You see, in a Newsweek report, it seems that Windows 10’s SPYWARE IS ALSO 100% FREE OF CHARGE. Get that extra bit of unnecessary bloat ware 2.0 so that Microsoft, that awesome company that is CERTAINLY LOVES GIVING FREE STUFF, actually gets to profit off of your private information!
Think those nude pics were going to get stolen by Hackers, Facebook and even the NSA?? Well, Microsoft intends to beat them ALL to the punch by getting your nude pics as soon as you click that Webcam on!
Windows 10 starts monitoring your activity as soon as you sign up for an account. It begins by saving all your basic info: your contact details, name passwords, race, religion and credit card details….
And then it starts doing what it was really programed to do (and I don’t mean provide you with really awesome features for FREE). Finding out this true purpose was certainly not easy, as one privacy expert stated, “there is no world in which 45 pages of policy documents and opt-out settings split across 13 different Settings screens and an external website constitutes ‘real transparency’.”
According to that NewsWeek report,
“More than 14 million devices are already running Microsoft’s Windows 10 after its global launch on Wednesday, but it’s unclear how many of their users read the company’s Privacy Policy and Service Agreement before downloading. Tucked away in the 45 pages’ worth of terms and conditions (effective August 1) is a substantial power grab: The company is collecting data on much of what you do while using its new software.
From the moment an account is created, Microsoft begins watching. The company saves customers’ basic information – name, contact details, passwords, demographic data and credit card specifics – but it also digs a bit deeper.
Other information Microsoft saves includes Bing search queries and conversations with the new digital personal assistant Cortana; contents of private communications such as email; websites and apps visited (including features accessed and length of time used); and contents of private folders. Furthermore, “your typed and handwritten words are collected,” the Privacy Statement says, which many online observers liken to a keylogger. Microsoft says they collect the information “to provide you a personalized user dictionary, help you type and write on your device with better character recognition, and provide you with text suggestions as you type or write.”
All this information doesn’t necessarily remain with just Microsoft. The company says it uses the data collected for three purposes: to provide and improve its services; to send customers personalized promotions; and to display targeted advertising, which sometimes requires the information be shared with third parties.
Though possibly surprising to some, the company’s data collection practices fit within the industry’s new normal.
…
Also like its competitors, Microsoft says it will disclose content of private communications or files in saved documents to “respond to valid legal process.” In the company’s latest bi-annual transparency report released in late March, it disclosed that of the 31,002 government requests for information received between June and December 2014, it disclosed content of personal communications in 3.36 percent of cases and non-content data in 73.17 percent.
…
Microsoft didn’t respond to requests for comment about specifics of the privacy terms, but in a blog post introducing them, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, Horacio Gutierrez, calls the Privacy Statement a “straightforward resource for understanding Microsoft’s commitments for protecting individual privacy.” Alex Meer of the gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun countered, “There is no world in which 45 pages of policy documents and opt-out settings split across 13 different Settings screens and an external website constitutes ‘real transparency’.””
Basically, Microsoft gains access to your entire hard-drive. Your entire search history. Your PRIVATE email correspondences to other people. The words you type, even if you don’t save them. THEN, it intends to SELL ALL THAT DATA TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER (your government probably, or a large corporation). Hell, if your government hates you enough, Microsoft will GIVE your information to them FREEEE. Orwellian nightmare, eat your heart out. Oh, yeah, you get a “personal assistant” with the same name as the one from that video game franchise. To be fair, there are “options” you can pick to “reduce” the amount of data Windows 10 collects…. But I’m hardly convinced that there’s any way to be sure that Microsoft honors this decision other than to unplug from the Net.
Big Brother is watching, and he’s being invited into our homes, all because he comes free of charge. Better be careful about what you watch online…. what you write online… and what you download for your own personal uses while you’re offline. What you write online…. Wait, that’s ME.
As the article points out, this IS the new normal, because people are being tricked into signing away their privacy for…. free stuff. Snowden would be so proud, living in Russia, away from home and family lest he gets turned into Bradley Manning 2.0…. So you can sign your data away willingly. I can imagine the NSA directer going ” yeah, well, we had to use dragnet spying and that Snowden thing was a mess… But who knew you could get all that data just by giving them free stuff? Microsoft just sold us a hard drive with everyone’s nude pics on it for 4 bucks, so we decided to discontinue the dragnet program. Way cheaper this way.”
And by the way, Microsoft actually offers versions of Windows 10 that is spyware lite; designed for corporations (who clearly don’t want to lose their secrets to the highest bidder) these versions must be bought. I’m sticking to Windows 7, and might switch to open source Linux if Microsoft keeps this up.
This Article (Windows 10: The FREE Upgrade That Threatens To DESTROY US ALL) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
Microsoft is pushing updates to 7 and 8/8.1 machines that dobthe same thing. Coilbpartvis you can choose not to install the updates and block them in 7/8/8.1, you cannot do this in 10. On a side note, Ubuntu has uefi support and can be installed along with Windows 10, just finished the install last night.
excuese me, ubuntu spys on people also. Have you not noticed all that amazon shit in there?
there is a reason for everything my brother
I feel XP was the last, great OS. Even then, it had some flaws, but they are mostly pluggable.
Other than all the other great OS out there. Though for some strange reason they all seem to be UNIX/*nix…
It’s almost as if that was some kind of… standard for OS.
@Joey I agree with Richard XP was the last great Microsoft OS, only upgraded to 7 on my desktop this year, though I have no intention of upgrading from 7 for another 5+ years. I also use Linux though so at some point I’ll probably completely switch over to it. Either that or I’ll include the ability to run Portable Execution files (*.exe) on my OS.
then its good i pirated it so i dont need ti make all those login and shit to use the upgrade to windows 10
The biggest problem this world faces is ignorance and laziness. This article just proves how both are a very big part of life since it proves that people really don’t care to read or educate themselves all for a free version of a Microsoft product. Remember everyone, Bill Gates stole the idea for MS-DOS from his “partner” when they worked in their garage together way back in the 60’s. So what would we expect from an already obvious criminal that no one ever demanded justice for in the first place. But again, people just don’t care anymore as long as they have their gadgets to play with and they can continue their pointless existence as long as the products are free. Long live gluttony!! I guess.
You sir, deserve a Windows 10 free upgrade
So… hm… if I made a program that does that I get arrested but not for Microsoft what’s so special about them?
They know to hide it very carefully in 45 pages of license agreement and FREEEE stuff 🙂
The only good thing that has come from Windows 10 is that it is pushing people away from Microsoft.
Hey, could you not deadname Chelsey Manning? Not cool.
So what you are trying to say is that big evil Microsoft has come up with ways to gain- sorry, “steal”- information and reports on the features and uses of it’s product so that it can “sell” your information to 3rd parties, aka Microsoft’s subsidiary companies, in order to improve said features and learn how to make a profit from their initially free software.
Wow, that sounds so bloody crazy and conniving. They surely must be evil for “spying” on us.
Don’t be stupid people. Use your beautiful brains and think critically about the garbage that you read.
absolutely agree with you!
Do yourself the biggest favor of your life. Please. Mint has a beautiful new release and it’s easy. Point and click easy. Ask yourself. What is it about windows you will miss? Video performance? VLC runs flawless. So does firefox. But your employer requires you to log in from home with a VPN? covered. You’re a die hard gamer. Alright fine. Linux has come a long way and you can run most games in a virtual environment but no. It’s not windows. Here’s an idea. Build a nice windows box for your gaming needs. And keep a nice linux box for your more private matters. Like surfing the interwebs. Or typing your credit card number into some supposed https site. Email. without mr. Gates reading along over your shoulder. And linux will happily accept that old beater box you have hiding in the closet somewhere. Youknow? The one that wouldn’t run COD the way you wanted it to? Yeah. That one.
Well said bro!
Mint 17.2 is a very good distribution. I rarely use windows any more. I have found software that claims to disable win 10 spying. Mostly by using a firewall blocking the exit ports. I don’t remember where I got it but search should find it.
Scaremongering bullshit at its finest. Good job guys, keeping the reputation of Anon at its peak.
I know people like you. They came to me and said ” we’re from the government and we’re here to help you”
I ended up in Vietnam.
They thinking before you write.
Was i the only that think : ” why did they spend money and give it for free ? ” This is the answer
Like Google isn’t! RIGHT!
No worries… Trust it if u r using it… Else don’t even put ur nose on it… M the special client of this organisation… N this nothing like to cheat people… We r just working on to being more user frndly.. Money is no Matter to us… Coz we get it with ur faith..
So… Maybe I can get them to somehow send me a free PC! That would be awesome! You know, give them some line about not owning a PC or wanting to upgrade from Ubuntu or something and then when/if I get it, BAM! Wipe the hard drive and get Win7. PROFIT! (if it were to work of course)… Meh, probably better not bother though I guess.
great bill gates sr. DUI hit and run police escort home, guess he had to get back to work at Planned Parenthood, where his money originally came from sitting onthe board. Pass the scissors? 2 cold hearted bastards, donating millions won’t earn your spot in heaven
Hi there,
I use a program like DWS_Lite .
What do you think about it ?
Out of all that you left out the money part! You only get windows 10 free for only 1 year, after that year they automatically get charge for each month. When that happens your really going to have troubles getting rid of it. The other thing is it will have control over your web cam anytime whether your computer is on or not, and that’s with sound!
Excellent article, very informing and also humorous, keep it up! 😉
If you know what you’re looking for, you can disable all that crap and not worry about microsoft getting private info.
hard truth. and nice post
So…. How do I get rid of this shit but still use Win10?
http://windows.wonderhowto.com/how-to/everything-you-need-disable-windows-10-0163552/
Thank you for the link !
If you think Windows 10 is bad what about Office 365 & Azure.. Microsoft not only spy’s on your day to day usage but holds all of your data in their massive data farms.. More and more Companies and governments house information in these data farms never mind the average person who signs up for their free first years subscription of office 365.. Microsoft is the IT infrastructure for the majority of the world let that sink in..
I knew the secound windows 10 apeared for free on my computer, that something was very wrong. I did not agree to update, cause it seemed suspicious and by reading this article, my worst fears got proven and grow even larger. Thanks for the knowledge!!! I clearly don’t want to update my windows 7!
I did a clean install of Windows 10 Pro and I had trouble with the fonts not rendering correctly. Later I tried to create a dual boot system with Windows 10 and opensuse linux. Opensuse would NOT install in the second partition!. I never had a problem doing this before, so I booted up gparted and when gparted displayed a graph of my HDD, it showed a small(10-16)MB partion in black with a ? and said “unknown”. Thats the first time gparted could not identify a Windows partition to my knowledge. Whatever is in this partition, must be what kept me from doing a dual boot system. So I totaly wiped my HDD, and instaled opensuse with NO trouble at all. Very suspicious to say the least. Perhaps this partition also has some spyware in it, call me paranoid I don’t mind. John :)”
I tried Windows 10 Pro, but the fonts were not displaying correctly. I tried to create a dual boot system with Windows 10 on the first partition and openSUSE on the second, well openSUSE would not install at all!, very strange as I have done this before with other versions of Windows with NO problem. So I booted up gparted to see what I could find, and gparted showed a graph with a small 10-16 MB partition in Windows and this partition was marked “unknown” in black. I wiped my HDD and installed openSUSE by itself and had no problems. So what is in this partition?, someone suggested this patition contains malware, I don’t know, but it is very odd as I have often used a dual boot system with Windows and Linux and NEVER had this roadblock before.
There are implications that go far beyond the possible mis use of Microsoft of personal data.
It’s just a matter of time before the start charging for updates. Just a few cents.
So you can’t turn off updates. Every time you log in to a network you get the update
Weather you want it or not. Soon the updates will be essential to the operation of Windows 10.
If you don’t get them then does your machine fall over?
I see a lot of idiots saying ” it’s from Microsoft” it must be good for you.
“SOUNDS A LOT LOT LIKE ” WERE FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND WERE HERE TO HELP YOU”
I don’t say not to upgrade. BUT FOR GOODNESS SAKE THINK!!!!! Before you do.
Use Qemu/KVM or Xen hypervisor, if all you need is a gaming machine and not internet/wifi. You can easily accomplish this using Fedora/Debian, install Windows till kingdom cometh on there. If they can’t even reach you what’s there to spy on?