[Rockin Robbins]

The important quote in the article Skybird references above:

Back in September, Windows honcho Terry Myerson posted a blog that says:

From the very beginning, we designed Windows 10 with two straightforward privacy principles in mind:

• Windows 10 collects information so the product will work better for you.
• You are in control with the ability to determine what information is collected.

Experiments conducted immediately after that post showed that Windows 10 was collecting data even with the myriad privacy settings turned off, and sending it to bing.com. What data? We don't know. Microsoft encrypts everything prior to sending it to its servers, and it has yet to give a full accounting.

Note how Woody doesn't ask you to believe him. Woody always supports every position with a link and gives you the means to check it out yourself. The Windows apologists never support their statements with evidence. They demand that you believe them on their own authority, whatever they say about how responsible, truthful and straightforward Microsoft is. The truth can withstand scrutiny, because scrutiny reinforces truth. Falsehood avoids the light because the light would reveal the bankruptcy of their position.

But I am curious about one thing, Skybird. You said

Else you may one day wake up in a state where resisting them will bring you into prison. Or will cost you your life. States are the coldest of all monsters - all states, without a single exception.

That sounds very American. At least it sounds like America used to be before the ascendancy of the left. Folks, Skybird lives in a country with the highest cultural, social, artistic, accomplishments. German culture is the pinacle of Western Civilization. But people in Germany DID wake up in a state (their own!) where resisting "reasonable requirements" of the state brought many to prison and death.

The very fact that it happened in Germany is absolute proof that none of us are free from that possibility. We may think we live in a moral and honest society, and we may even be there for the time being. But Germany proves that is not a permanent state of affairs.

Without warning, or with warning that we ignore, our governments, our corporations, our labor unions, or any combination of them can go to the dark side and we are only as safe as how strongly we protected our privacy during the "good times."

Skybird has a unique perspective because of where he lives. But we are all vulnerable to such a malfunction of human decency, no matter where we live or what kind of government we live under. Ignore him at your peril.

And remember, trust must be earned, not given out by default. Microsoft, by its nefarious actions of late, changing privacy settings, renaming surveillance "services," reissuing Get Windows 10 (GWX) nagware six separate times, collecting information after all settings they make available are turned off, a lack of transparency about exactly what information is collected and how it is used, has actually earned our MISTRUST. The articles already referenced, here, here and here support each and every contention I make here. It's time to be on your guard and protect your sovereignty over your private property.