By Robert Wenzel
The emails have come pouring in since I posted at EPJ this: Windows 10 is an Impressive Surprise—And the Most Forward-Looking Operating System We Have.
It happens every time I post positively about a new technology. You should have seen the emails I got after raving about "OK Google" voice recognition on the new Samsung cell phone: The Superiority of the Samsung S6.
The emails take one of three forms. Some warn me about the privacy problems. some provide alleged workarounds to the privacy issues and some are just outraged that I would recommend a technology with such privacy issues---perhaps with some firms that may even be cooperating with the government on surveillance.
Guys, and all the warnings and outrage have been from males, thanks for the emails, and I sincerely mean this, but I don't care about the privacy issues.
I operate under the basic premise that anything done over the internet and over the phone is potentially being monitored by the government. That goes for Windows 10, Apple products, ATT phone service etc.
Consequently, I don't do anything over the internet that might cause the government to raise an eyebrow. That is the ONLY way you can insure privacy from electronic snooping.
So I am going to continue to use the latest and greatest new whizbang technologies and the government will learn how much of a Knicks fan I am, since I use these technologies to check Knicks scores (Even the summer league scores!). They will learn about the incredible number of books I buy through Amazon. If they monitor my phone, they will learn how often I call my mother. But they won't learn anything that I consider private. I don't use whizbang technologies for that kind of stuff.
Totally disgraced, former New York governor, and former New York state Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, once remarked:
Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail.
I take that to heart. Thus, I am free to use every whizbang contraption that comes out of Silicon Valley.
The limit of technology whether it is a browser, cell phone or Bitcoin, is that it is all very trackable. Never, ever put anything into the electronic system that you want to keep absolutely private and you can freely use any new technology.
Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher at EconomicPolicyJournal.com and at Target Liberty. He is also author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics
To be clear, you do understand that Windows 10, by default, shares your private files (i.e., all your files)? This is what makes it very different from previous Windows versions, and my expectation is that it will take 6 months to a year, and possibly longer, for the experts to track down all of the switches that need to be thrown to prevent Windows from uploading private data to their servers.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course. I should have made clear that for private data, I simply don't use a computer that is connected to the internet. With pretty decent laptops now available for $200, just keep a computer off line.
DeleteRobert, with respect, you are not fully comprehending the implications of this. Windows 10 logs your keystrokes and sends them to Microsoft among other things. That means under certain situations, which are not clearly spelled out in their privacy agreement, it could log username and password keystrokes. Are you fine with Microsoft potentially logging your username and password for every website you goto? Maybe you don't care about some sites but I bet there are sites you do care about. What about any finance related websites?
ReplyDeleteNot to be rude but your attitude here Robert is naive in my opinion. I have Windows 10 installed on my home tablet and I have disabled all the privacy infringing elements as everyone should who uses it. Fortunately for me it is a toy. My real computer is a Macintosh. Apple respects your privacy.
Not caring about "privacy" is a choice. I understand if you sign a TOS or contract with an entity you may agree to certain disclosures. Buyer beware. Not caring about unconstituional/unlawful gov't surveillance implies consent. Very dangerous in an era of uncertain/Orwellian definition of terms and public trial balloons about precrime, thoughtcrime, and internment camps. I don't consent to unconstitutional/unlawful surveillance by the gov't.
ReplyDelete"Consequently, I don't do anything over the internet that might cause the government to raise an eyebrow. That is the ONLY way you can insure privacy from electronic snooping."
ReplyDeleteYou trumpet the benefit while ignoring the cost of such a single-mindedly conservative approach.
Freedom-loving people are a tiny minority, geographically dispersed, and rarely in the same physical room. Constraining all government-eyebrow-raising comments to face-to-face interactions effectively squelches most all politically incorrect thoughts and observations. Yet these are the ones that tend to offer the most potential value. A person so eschewing such topics effectively stunts the quality of his own intellectual development because his conversations and associated consideration of ideas are killed by his own hand before they can occur. He does the government’s censorship work for it.
Of course, whether a person considers such sacrifices justifiable in the name of his personal safety, only he can decide. But if safety commends such a high premium for that person, self-censoring not only his speech but also his thoughts by embracing statist thinking would be the safest choice.
Of course, the opposite approach of throwing caution to the wind, focusing on benefits while ignoring costs, is just as folly. The sensible answer is there are a range of risk/reward profiles to be compared across multiple potential communication methods and messages. Tradeoffs abound. Both risks and rewards alike should be weighed carefully and compared. One should be ever evaluating new options and carving an optimal path through them.
These other commenters have thankfully raised awareness Windows 10 presents a much higher incremental risk at much lower incremental reward compared to using older Windows or alternative OS's. That's a vitally important revelation for those endeavoring to strike an optimal balance in their use of technology and the Internet for their communications.
Im sticking with Windows 7 as long as I can (even with my new build that I plan to do next month) and Ive converted an old Windows Vista laptop into a Linux machine
ReplyDelete