I have to admit that I am a bit creeped out by this. Betanews is reporting that Microsoft is keeping track of how long you use Windows 10 if you installed the update for the OS known as Threshold 2. As a result, they’ve figured out that users have spent 11 billion hours running the OS:
If the company has indeed been checking up on when you are clocking in and out of Windows 10, it’s not going to admit it. I asked how Microsoft has been able to determine the 11 billion hours figure. Is this another invasion of privacy, another instance of spying that users should be worried about? “I just wanted to check where this figure came from. Is it a case of asking people and calculating an average, working with data from a representative sample of people, or it is a case of monitoring every Windows 10 installation?”
You think that Microsoft — keen as it is on transparency — would be quite happy to explain how it came about the information, and why it is being collected in the first place. But no. A Microsoft spokesperson provided BetaNews with the following statement:
Thank you for your patience as I looked into this for you. Unfortunately my colleagues cannot provide a comment regarding your request. All we have to share is this Windows blog post.
The blog post in question is the one where they announce that Windows 10 is on 200 million devices, which is something that I have questioned. Though it does highlight the fact that they do have a ton of analytic data at their fingertips and they’re clearly not talking about how they get it. So, should you be worried? I’m not sure. But I am sure of this: While I have no expectation of privacy these days, Microsoft’s behavior in this regard doesn’t inspire confidence.
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This entry was posted on January 5, 2016 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Windows 10’s Lack Of Privacy Might Have Just Gotten Worse
I have to admit that I am a bit creeped out by this. Betanews is reporting that Microsoft is keeping track of how long you use Windows 10 if you installed the update for the OS known as Threshold 2. As a result, they’ve figured out that users have spent 11 billion hours running the OS:
If the company has indeed been checking up on when you are clocking in and out of Windows 10, it’s not going to admit it. I asked how Microsoft has been able to determine the 11 billion hours figure. Is this another invasion of privacy, another instance of spying that users should be worried about? “I just wanted to check where this figure came from. Is it a case of asking people and calculating an average, working with data from a representative sample of people, or it is a case of monitoring every Windows 10 installation?”
You think that Microsoft — keen as it is on transparency — would be quite happy to explain how it came about the information, and why it is being collected in the first place. But no. A Microsoft spokesperson provided BetaNews with the following statement:
The blog post in question is the one where they announce that Windows 10 is on 200 million devices, which is something that I have questioned. Though it does highlight the fact that they do have a ton of analytic data at their fingertips and they’re clearly not talking about how they get it. So, should you be worried? I’m not sure. But I am sure of this: While I have no expectation of privacy these days, Microsoft’s behavior in this regard doesn’t inspire confidence.
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This entry was posted on January 5, 2016 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.