Another day, another debunked Microsoft privacy violation myth
This time, it is the completely unsubstantiated, and rather thoroughly debunked lie that Microsoft would be giving security firm FireEye telemetry data from ALL Windows 10 devices.
I caught a whiff of the initial news during one of the few moments I was able to sneak online as I was OTG, and it pissed me the eff off!
Why would Microsoft do this I wondered?
Especially since it wasn’t a condition explicitly opted into by Windows 10 users.
And it pissed me off more.
Then, I got a few emails on the subject from acquaintances. I became most concerned, however, when I received an email from my most bleeding-edge client. This is a man who consumes the latest-and-greatest. Nevertheless, and even after migrating his company to it, he still has some reticence around Windows 10, for business IP reasons.
These untruths do not help.
Not at all!
After a few times thinking about it, especially on the jettrain back home, I started composing a blog post lambasting Microsoft for pulling a Google/Facebook/Uber.
Crisis averted.
However, upon getting home, I got an alert from a saved search for that keyword that it was all a mistake.
However, this isn’t the first. Or fifth. Or one-hundredth time Windows 10 has gotten a bad rap because of false assumptions, outright lies, or just plain FUD?
Right?
So, who is to blame?
Who is to blame?
Microsoft.
You got it.
Instead of a top Microsoft honcho to come out and unequivocally state why Microsoft needs that information, silence.
In the stead of this, Microsoft cowardly employs a legion of surrogates that try to do the job for them.
Bitte, wachsen eine Wirbelsäule, ja?
I believe Microsoft needs to simply, and plainly detail what the telemetry data is being used for.
Plainly, I say. Not in the obfuscating legalistic verbiage their current ToS and EULAs detail.
Oh, and Microsoft NEEDS to find a way of making this gathered telemetry opt in. By clearly enumerating the benefits it delivers.
Right now, it doesn’t, or isn’t hurting Microsoft, the brand.
One day, these myths just might.
How does that saying go again?
A lie repeated often enough will be treated as the truth.
Never fails.
