I find it weird how people just learned to accept "we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders)". It feels like vaccination to me. Yes, with Windows 10 you can turn it off (at least that's what we think). But once this becomes the norm, it maybe won't feel so wrong when you can't turn it off any more.
I don't think we're stuck. There are plenty of options, at least for us tech-savvy folks. Often, they are a lot of work to implement though and by far not as well integrated. I understand how convenient it is if you just enter a single user name and password on your new phone or machine and you have all you addresses, calendar, emails, photos, files, etc. back. But the price we pay is enormous imho.
I'm sure most DCers have read 1984. The direction we're heading seems so obvious. Nevertheless, we just don't want to see it, don't want to accept it. After all, you can just turn it off.
-phitsc
...or the original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'.
Just thinking out loud, this reminds me of the cellphones that can be switched on remotely and indetectably, but cannot switch carriers, then methods were found to switch carriers anyway, then the Powers That Be left-brain labeled it 'jail breaking' and tried to outlaw it with oppressive legislation...
But these aren't cellphones, they're PCs with huge sprawling Windows or Windows-alternative OSs that are supposed to be open to creative modifications, and the Windows 10 built-in spyware scene is already creating net-spanning social pressure to do something about it.
And there are alternative OSs to Windows such as Unix, Linux, Apple, and so on.
IOW, it is not a static situation like a tightly sealed box; we can always seek to think outside the 'box' and seek to avoid being 'boxed in'.
That's the virtue of virtual reality; no one entity gets to arbitrarily define it in ways that stay fixed & one-sided with all the rules stacked in their favor.
With cellphones, the self-appointed 'rule-makers' tried to exploit a captive market and cry 'foul' with stupid 'jail breaker' labels.
My PC is no cellphone, but what I'm really getting at is that negative public (i.e. user) feedback to Windows 10 abuses, coupled with people voting with their feet to go elsewhere could theoretically cause Microsoft to backtrack, although at this point it only seems like so much wishful thinking.
But I'm so glad I stuck with WIndows 7 Pro and did not just jump into the free upgrade; it just didn't seem all that inviting to me, nor is it now.
