Given it's approach to privacy settings in Windows 10, does MS really expect us to believe this was just an unfortunate error?
Bit-tech should know better than this. Keystroke-logging is only enabled in preview builds, not in normal installs. And the idea that Microsoft is hoovering up private information that you haven't deliberately sent to them is total nonsense.
Not a bit-tech thing; my mistake. I shall go and correct that now. EDIT: Wait, I'm seeing "Send Microsoft info about how I write" as an option on my Windows 10 tablet, which is most definitely *not* a preview build. So, it would appear I wasn't mistaken: by default, Windows 10 (non-preview) does send keystroke information to Microsoft - or is there an explanation of exactly what the company means by "information about how I write" that excludes actually sending keystroke information?
Whilst it's not the clearest, the FAQ on the matter implies it sends typed words rather than individual keystrokes. But it doesn't state under which circumstances it does [or doesn't] 'learn' from you, does it ignore anything typed into a 'password' field for instance [it should]. IIRC Google Keyboard and Swiftkey [and i'd hazard a guess at iOS' keyboard too] are equally vague about what they do with your typing data.
Seriously? You're using what Ed Bott says as "evidence" That guy has no more evidence than the very same people he derides, i know he has very, very strong connection with Microsoft but unless there's something he's not telling people his opinion is no more valid than anyone else's, in fact i would go as far as to say Mr Bott's opinion is less valid seeing as he has all his chips in the Microsoft game. The idea that Microsoft are hoovering up private information is exactly what they seems to be doing by default, yes those options can be disabled but the default settings are very permissive when it comes to data collection, and before anyone says that can be disabled it would seem, based on real evidence, that even with all data sharing options disabled Windows 10 just can't stop talking to Microsoft.
With your hands? On a keyboard? That's how I write. Sometimes I use a pencil, sometimes not. Maybe it's talking about your literary method? Do you write your articles in one go or make frequent edits? I heard D.H. Lawrence would rewrite every novel from scratch several times before he was happy with it - maybe that's the information Microsoft are collecting!
handwriting recognition gets better by supplying samples of how people write, it is anonymised, so no biggy
Yeah, just don't use it for anything even remotely important. I just wonder how 'anonymised' that data turns out to be? Is it 'anonymised' except it has a hardware hash attached? Or an IP? Or an account name? That doesn't even touch server logs... wherever it reports to will be logging what IPs connect when; wouldn't be that hard to keep track of an 'anonymised' handwriting sample by tabulating IP, connection time with a SHA256 of the submission. Also... presumably it logs language of handwriting sample... that's also valuable (though less so without other statistics)... I've so far only moved one of my systems to Windows 10... and while it's mostly OK, I've found that I really don't use it any differently to how I used Windows 8... ie: don't really use the Start Menu; just hit 'Super/Start' key and type program name if it's not already pinned to the taskbar. So far, Windows 10 has been a bit of a damp squib for me. Right now I have no need to migrate any of my other systems to Windows 10; I've found my laptop slower to start up and much slower to shut down with Win 10 compared to Win 8.1... I've also had a couple of BSOD's when Win 10 has decided that it's got an updated driver available. I've been on Win 10 for about six weeks and two BSODs is more than I've ever had from a stock-settings Win7/Win8.1 system (obviously not including OC related BSODs)... should I blame Realtek or Intel Graphics or Microsoft? Aside from that... about the only thing I used Edge for was to download Firefox... if I want 'private browsing', that's what a bootable linux USB stick is for...
So. To browse "in private" I use Firefox. To be asked where to download anything to I use Firefox. To connect directly to my router I use Firefox (as Edge keeps sending me into the Interwebs/bing-search) In tablet mode, if I want the on-screen keyboard to work, i need Edge So far, not a good show for Edge. And Firefox needs to get their thumbs out for not having a tablet mode.
Most of what we think of as anonymised isn't, it's simply sudoanonymised and in the case of Windows 10 i think it's safe to say that any anonymisation that's done could easily de-anonymised, not that i think that's what's happening just that anonymisation isn't much of an obstacle if someone wished to identify the source of the data.
Well it shows just how much ZDNet still believe their own hype. In their article they chose to quote this from the Microsoft Terms: The punchline in case you missed it was "It also includes the content of your communications sent or received using Microsoft services...", Windows 10 is being sold as a service, not a product afterall, so yes they can, if they so choose collect all the information they want should they so choose.