Microsoft Does Not Plan To Change Data Gathering Policy

[rv3392]

People fail to understand that every device and application is continually collecting data about you. iOS, Android, Chrome OS and I wouldn't be surprised if MacOS did too, browsers such as Chrome collect copious amounts of information, and the humble webpage stores and sells your every move. Where do you think those personalised ads that Google AdSense uses come from?

 

[hellwig]

iOS and Android have set a dangerous precedent where people are willing to give up tremendous amounts of their private data for a "Free" OS. Facebook, Twitter, etc... have propagated this environment online as well.

Microsoft, stuck in the days of having to get the customer to pay them for their product, was losing ground, finding it hard to compete. Their solution, as in all things, is to embrace and adapt. If Apple and Google can GIVE away their OS, so can Microsoft. Of course, Microsoft still has to make money, so they spy on us just like Apple and Google. People ignore this problem on their phones because they're so convenient, but I'm thinking that market segment of people willing to let Apple and Google spy on them is NOT same segment that buys and uses PCs anymore.

Microsoft's problem is they're trying to combine their Desktop environment with their failed mobile environment to compete. But they never accepted that their desktop and mobile environments are SEPARATE user bases. Apple's desktop market is minimal, and Google's is non-existent (chromebook? please). Apple has no intention of combining OSX and iOS (at least, that's their story today). Google just tried to move Chrome/Android to the desktop and failed. Microsoft screwed themselves over when they took the one product they had a dominant position on (Windows) and tried to turn it into a mobile OS that no one wanted.

I wouldn't be surprised if Windows eventually died, and Microsoft launched a new OS for desktop-oriented environments. They'll never recover their Windows glory, but they might at least stop driving away loyal customers in droves.

 

[cst1992]

All those who are saying "Give up everything, you're still getting tracked" are forgetting that in case of Chrome or Google or Amazon, they do a kind of 'acceptable tracking'; all data collected on Amazon.com is not harmful if collected by Google, and it's a believable story that they use it for 'research'. If I go to a bank website, there will be safeguards built-in to prevent tracking through the browser for Google. In other words, we still have a say in protecting confidential data from getting in the wrong hands.
On the other hand, if you install a keylogger on your system that tracks keystrokes, there's nothing stopping it from recording your emails, passwords, sites of preference, names, addresses, basically anything you input anywhere. Much of this data is something you want to keep to yourself, and if you knew someone was listening, you wouldn't input it at all.

Basically it's the difference between completing customer surveys at the supermarket and having a salesperson permanently in your house listening to private internal conversations.