Does it concern you virtually every online service you've ever signed up for "spies on you"? Got a Gmail account? Congratulations, you're being "spied on" by Google. Got a Facebook account? Same. Twitter? Instagram? eBay? People don't seem to realize that the data they collect has virtually no value beyond marketing research and search optimization, not a single company or organization cares if you like watching torture porn, beyond trying to sell you torture porn. People are just bitching for the sake of bitching, as always. If people don't want their precious youtube history seen, they might as well leave the internet.
Or not log into Youtube, use anti-tracker extensions, log into gmail only long enough to check your email, use tor, etc. Honestly, though, Windows 10 takes it up a notch by monitoring everything you type and not even really totally disabling the monitoring even when you
disable it. Put another way, I can take reasonable steps to avoid or minimize my use of other spying software. But if the spying software is the OS, I basically have to avoid or minimize using that OS.
There isn't any actual spying going on, it just collects various bits of data like what you search for or asking Cortana questions or what you check out on the Microsoft Store...AKA what everyone else does. The only difference is Microsoft comes out and just tells people they're collecting the data, so everyone just assumes Microsoft now has access to their bank accounts and they can tell all their friends they like looking at horse dicks.
Actually, no, they haven't been any more forthright about the details of what they're collecting. It's been precisely because people have used packet sniffers that they've figured out the degree of (but not the kind of) monitoring done by Windows 10. And by extension, they've also discovered that Windows 7 has gotten "updates" that incorporate such monitoring as well.
This is only a thing for Microsoft software only...which is absolutely within their rights as the owners of that software. Might as well start bitching at Nintendo for blocking flashcards, it's the same thing.
Beyond the fact that there is good reason to bitch at Nintendo for blocking flashcards--hint: this is a large reason why 3DS games cost so much compared to mobile games, why there's such a small collection of actual games for the system, etc and that all reduces the value of a purchased 3DS--, the point in question is not about "bitching" about anything. It's about raising awareness for people to avoid usage of software, for valid reasons, in the first place.
So, a better analogy would be if Android were to start banning unapproved microSD cards in a new version of Android. To argue that people shouldn't "bitch" about it seems crazy, since it's clearly an anti-consumer act. And for people to raise awareness and avoid it now when they can to hopefully stop it from being the norm is a good thing. Otherwise, you get to the point where Nintendo is at banning flashcards or where online services all seem to want to monitor you and you can only try desperately hard to avoid that monitoring. The fact that, until now, it's only been for sleazy marketing--as honestly, the whole notion of targeted ads makes no sense except to try to manipulate people into buying specific brands of extant products and not to inform people of a wide range of available products--doesn't change the issue that data breaches do happen and company policies can change which can radically undermine, embarrass, extort, etc you in ways you'd think otherwise weren't possible. *cough*Ashley Madison*couch*
PS - To all those people who think they can use a hosts file or a firewall to block Windows 10, good luck. It might work. It might not (nothing to stop an update to include more monitoring and more servers). But, then, fundamentally if you don't have access to the source and an ability to compile it, you're at the mercy of others to do with you as they please. At least for a while, I agree that their desires are on your bank account and the law will prevent outright fraud or conversion. I don't think that'll last, though, especially if people are so willing to accept the notion that one has to not only take proactive opt-out steps, when those opt-outs are so spread out to be nearly impossible to be fully covered without a substantial guide, but also to expect to explicitly block access when those opt-outs aren't even fully respected. Bitch now, bitch often?
