Is Microsoft Spying on You? | Leaving Telemetry on or off

In this video, I am going over the question everyone is asking... Is Microsoft Spying on You? Also, I will be showing whether you should Disable Telemetry or Leave it on.

What Telemetry Captures
-Browsing history
-Device Connectivity and Configuration; settings and peripheral data
-Inking Typing and Speech Utterance; keyboard and microphone captures
-Product and Service Performance; reliability data and file queries
-Product and Service Usage; uptime, apps used, OS info
-Software Setup and Inventory; installs and updates for applications

Disable Telemetry Pros
-Your keystrokes, browser history, device information isn't sitting in a repository at Microsoft
-Avoiding possible security issues that can arise from Microsoft hosting this information (Government Agencies, Hackers, etc.)

Disable Telemetry Cons
-Blocking Windows Updates
-Hosts file blocks can mess with Skype Messages
-Windows Store Issues
-Issues with integrated tools like Defender / OneDrive
-Can cause issues with future feature updates
**Using Minimal "Basic" Option because of the Cons above is recommended

Disabling Instructions
O&O Shutup 10
Disable Windows 7 Telemetry

Sources:

[ChrisTitusTech]

*Over-Compressed the Sound in this video (Either the cats or kids adjusted the compression knob) - Next Video will be better sound

[Hobgoblin]

I dropped Windows completely because of s**t like this. Both the performance and the privacy stuff.
100% Linux and BSD overhere with me!

[SwitchedtoLinux]

The 100% Disk Spin is a huge deal to me. I think this could actually decrease the lifespan of the drive. Coupled with the rest of the stuff that I would rather have the ability to turn off is exactly why I choose not to use Windows any longer despite it being a fine OS all together. Control is what drove me to Linux for everything I can!

[minchevm]

Personally I do not trust MS. This is a very wrong way using your monopoly on the market. Go Linux!

[williambaldwin]

It is not so much "Scarry" as it is just plain dis respectful and stepping over a line. What if instead of on a computer, it is in real life. Let say a construction company will build you a home, BUT will put security cameras and microphones all over the house that you are not allowed to touch, or log in to an admin panel to turn off or adjust, in return a significant discount in the cost to build it. Even very personal events in your bedroom... Every thing you say and do is recorded, and even has a "live" mode, where the company can just login and watch you at any time live.

It is the same thing, spying is spying,

[northmanmartin]

Is Microsoft Spying on You ?

*Well Yes, But Actually, YES

[RowlandOConnor]

One of the interesting thing that noticed in the last couple of weeks is the somewhat worrying perspective of several posters on other YouTube channels.
Specifically, when talking about Windows 10 telemetry, I've seen several comments along the lines of:
"I don't care about Windows telemetry because everyone else is collecting it too".
What I find worrying is that many of us seem to be happy giving up our privacy so easily.
Ignorance is bliss perhaps?
For me, I am very concerned about data collection from anyone (MS, Facebook, Google etc)

[rickbhattacharya]

Short answer: Yes
It's in the EULA that they can legally do what ever they wanted to do with any PC which has windows on it .

[MrHRScrc]

O-F-F or get out of Windows. Go to Linux, your OS your data

[JeffScott-]

Just stop for a minute and take all of these things into consideration. This is your computer that you paid for. It’s your electricity bill, hard drive usage, internet bandwidth, and the rest of it. Why submit to this corporate bureaucracy that has abused and abandoned its users? Most people only need to run Windows for a very small percentage of the time. For a niche application or to enjoy a movie or a video game that cannot yet be had on Linux or an alternative platform. Join me in abandoning Microsoft for more than 90% of your Computing life. They've created a toy operating system in a professional wrapper that’s full of spyware. Treat it as such.
This is a great video Chris. You're doing fine work here.

[ktinosGR]

If you value your privacy do not use Microsoft products. I do not trust Microsoft so i use Linux for all my work

[gregg]

If they keylog everything then they have passwords and the like. What's to stop them from taken over your accounts?

[LordAlacorn]

For me it's less about the telemetry - they are not Google sells your guts to the highest bidder. Still telemetry is not welcome beyond system diagnostics.


What made me drop Windows is the EULA - they can upload or download from our PC's anything they want or run whatever they wish. This is just no go.
Biggest irritation I got from Windows, is the update that ignores set hours, wakes up PC from hibernation while I'm asleep, then failing by some reason and keeping my PC on - could you at least shut it down Microsoft?!

[CoolDudeClem]

I'm just going to say yes they do and that's the reason I'll never use Windows 10. I like my computer doing what I want it to do, not what THEY want it to do.

[peterjansen]

Microsoft not an avil cooperation? Some would argue that EEE was rather evil.

[flashcloud]

Microsoft/Google/Apple wouldn't self report on individual cases. But there are reports of them turning information over to governments in criminal cases either on request or if it is something *they* deem offensive.

[markstevens]

Oh, I get it. The moral of this story is that one has to be bat-shit crazy to run Windows!

[cecilhenry]

Too concerned??? NOOO. This is a big deal. No company has any right to be spying or collecting data from users if they object.


Collecting keystrokes is criminal invasion of privacy!!

[theodoros_]

Great video! I've been warning people about this for quite some time. I've also just shared this.

[peterjansen]

The European Commission, in its March 24, 2004 decision on Microsoft's business practices, [1] quotes, in paragraph 463, Microsoft general manager for C++ development Aaron Contorer as stating in a February 21, 1997 internal Microsoft memo drafted for Bill Gates: "The Windows API is so broad, so deep, and so functional that most ISVs would be crazy not to use it. And it is so deeply embedded in the source code of many Windows apps that there is a huge switching cost to using a different operating system instead. It is this switching cost
that has given customers the patience to stick with Windows through all our mistakes, our buggy drivers, our high TCO, our lack of a sexy vision at times, and many other difficulties. […] Customers constantly evaluate other desktop platforms, [but] it would be so much work to move over that they hope we just improve Windows rather than force them to move. In short, without this exclusive franchise called the Windows API, we would have been dead a long time ago. The Windows franchise is fueled by application development which is focused on our core APIs"


This is what EEE is about. For me that is evil. With regard to keylogging and browser-history: unsafe (hackers, people who abuse access) and none of their business!