ESET’s expert looks at some concerning privacy issues in the new Windows 10.
ESET’s security researcher Aryeh Goretsky pointed out in his latest article, that it always makes sense to review the privacy settings and the policies of whatever software or services you are using, and Windows 10 is no exception. Before making the decision to migrate from Windows 7 or 8, you should carefully review these and think about what the implications might be to your home or business.
Windows 10 potentially gives Microsoft access to the same information about your lifestyle that has previously only been accessible to popular smartphone operating systems such as Apple iOS and Google Android. It is easy to imagine situations where an individual might not want to have information about appointments with doctors, lawyers, family planning clinics and so forth parsed by an outside party, even if that outside party is a machine intelligence.
This data could then be used for various purposes, by various parties, should they gain access to it. Even if it is only looking at the captured metadata and not the actual communications themselves, the metadata may be considered enough to justify extreme actions: Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the NSA, stated last year “We kill people based on metadata.”[su_box title=”About ESET” style=”noise” box_color=”#336588″]
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