Yeah, about Windows 10 Privacy, 7 is likely my last windows OS :-(

I haven't talked about it yet, but Microsoft considers Windows 10 a "service", meaning theirs, not yours, and they can monitor anything they want.

As a result, people are panicking and accusing them of all kinds of things like reading your emails which they apparently don't do, according to their blog or TechNet - either in consumer or  enterprise versions.

According to techdirt though, and Ars Technica they don't address other things, like Cortana (Microsoft Siri), remain on and collecting data, and aren't disabled when a user or admin disables telemetry.

As a result, I, and other people a lot more Microsoft-centric than me are moving toward Linux.

:-(

Thanks techdirt!

Google: That whole "don't be evil" thing is so last century!

According to Edweek.org, The latest thing in Google slide to become the great evil empire is the "Google Apps for Education".  

Apparently Google has these free applications that schools can sign up for, and then require their students to use.  Then Google scans the content learning all kinds of things about the students.

Why do I think that's a problem? Well, let's see what happens in a class action lawsuit in San Jose, which Judge Lucy H Koh denied Googles motion to dismiss the case and is not deciding whether to certify it as a class. (Google Inc. Gmail Litigation, 13-md-02430.)

 Also, there's FERPA, the "Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act", which is meant to protect students privacy, and gives the following example:

EXAMPLE 4: A district contracts under the school official exception with a provider for basic productivity applications to help educate students: email, calendaring, web-search, and document-collaboration software. The district sets up the user accounts, using basic enrollment information (name, grade, etc.) from student records. Under FERPA, the provider may not use data about individual student preferences gleaned from scanning student content to target ads to individual students for clothing or toys, because using the data for these purposes was not authorized by the district and does not constitute a legitimate educational interest as specified in the district’s annual notification of FERPA rights.

Yes, right, which is exactly what Google does with Gmail, and they state they make no secret of.  Except they're not contracting with adult users of the services, they're contracting with schools that require minor students to use the applications.

How about Microsoft Office 365?

The privacy policy for Microsoft’s Office 365, the company’s competitor product for Google Apps for Education, states “We do not mine your data for advertising purposes. It is our policy to not use your data for purposes other than providing you productivity services.” 

Score 1 for Microsoft