Some people are claiming that Windows has updated itself from a previous version (without their knowledge/consent) and that some/most/all of the telemetry stuff has already made its way into Windows 7 and 8.XX, so it's not just Windows 10 users that are affected by this.
I posted a link a couple of posts above that says otherwise. They show that the updates MS has pushed, at least for win7, are revisions of crap that already came with the OS in the first place. Not saying they aren't already transmitting and recording everything they can though... just that they've done it for quite some while and it seems to just be the "report why everything just crashed once again" feature. which as Klumpen quite eloquently said, is enough intrusion as it is.
I can't believe people are so gullible and are shrugging things off like this, too. I am confronted by it daily. The same idiots talking about privacy issues, surveillance and how cool cyberwarfare and whistleblowers are in the theatre scene in Germany, are advertising themselves and their crap on facebook and use every aspect of this system. They all buy apple products (almost all actors and directors I've met had nothing but apple products), they all use google features like crazy while trying to seem super involved and skeptical. But they all agree that "shit is reaaaallly baaad. someone should seriously do something about these abusers... well, we'll make a performance about it and then advertise it on facebook to invite all of our cool friends..."
for the same reason I believe, that it's going to take a while before serious media productions software will become open source or at least available for linux. Yes, there is a few exceptions like Ardour, Rezound and some broadcasting stuff. But video editing is apple territory. Same with most music production tools. I don't know of any studio, that doesn't use apple exclusive software and hardware. well except from reading about them on the internet...
There is probably a thousand punk bands singing about this shit constantly. I bet they all record their stuff with garage band or in a studio using apple products. As long as artists keep on not caring about what software/hardware is involved, the industry will never ever make the switch. Just because a f***ing apple computer is so "convenient to use".
Consumers need to take responsibility and make the switch and stop using compromised software and buy from exploiters. I wish that would happen, then software developers would surely follow.
Same goes for offices using windows computers and servers. I have been working for the theatre in Dortmund for 4 1/2 years and am now freelance. During my time there, me and the other techy guys, especially computer engineers and video crew were laughing about the office network and computers. It's ridiculous. They spend thousands of euros on rent for each of these computer systems (which are horribly outdated and are only replaced very sporadically with already outdated systems) and for windows licenses. Why don't they just refurbish some good quality desktops and run a decent linux version? Because someone scored an incredibly good contract some years ago apparently. Meanwhile noone can use these systems for anything but office work and some web browsing anyway, because youtube is blocked (which is a vital source of information for a theatre, you need to watch trailers, download material, preview other plays from directors you would want to invite etc) and we were not allowed to use usb sticks because it would be a security risk (for what??? use decent malware detection and groupware). We laughed our asses of when they updated some desktops to windows 8 desktops recently, I'd call that a security risk. Needless to say, we used usb sticks anyway all the time, all brought our own laptops because it was impossible to work otherwise and went about our business. Also after a lot of paperwork, youtube was finally unblocked. I remember when I had to go to the official IT tech for the whole operation, who is working for the city. I had to get him to provide internet access on stage for some live feeds during a performance and he also wanted to give me some network cable he had left over for us. I was horrified when he did not know the difference between a cat5 and cat5e class cable. Why the hell does this guy get to watch over hundreds of computer workstations?
I can only shudder if I imagine how much money could be saved if government funded organizations and institutions would start using FOSS to write their emails, documents and databases.
