Windows 10

[Siletrea]

Honestly, I have mine on Full. I do trivial things on Windows, like dinking around on IRC, or playing video games, or doing Windows development. I'm not concerned the amount of data Windows is collecting. If anything, Windows is nice about letting you decrease the verbosity of data collection- that's not something you get out of Google, Amazon, or, well... every other service or network.

In fact, I'd bet that Microsoft is a better option than Google or Amazon where your data comes into place. Unlike Amazon (Amazon is doing really well a providing network services, so they're everywhere. or Google, or Facebook, or Twitter, you are Microsoft's customer, not their product. Microsoft of the past might be super suspect, but ever since Satya Nadella took over, they've been turning a new leaf (Ubuntu subsystem on Windows, for example). Does Microsoft do advertising? Yeah, but unlike Google, it's not one of their core products. The only reason why Google is a lot better than Microsoft is because Google open sources a good component of their platforms- so you can use Chromium, instead of Chrome. Android Open Source Project instead of Android. You can audit them yourself for security (it's open source!), and most importantly, take advantage of what Google has created without selling your soul to Google (Amazon does that. Their Kindle Fire line is Android Open Source Project, without any Google software that phones home, but instead you get Amazon software that serves advertisements direct to your device, and phones home to Amazon about your habits).

Out of all these big services, *Microsoft* is the least likely to fuck you over on the topic of your data. Aside from advertising ID, other data is handled anonymously/in aggregate. This is in contrast to something like Facebook, which specifically sells, well... you. Obviously, when you share your usage data on Windows, Microsoft can use that data to make updates that improve the user experience better for not only Windows, but also other products. I mean, for once, Microsoft has created a really great web browser and are making great strides in advancing and support open source and open standards, with Apple or more less filling in the role of the old Microsoft under Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

And here's more or less a pro tip on data security: You have two forms of security, you are either compromised, or you're about to be. You want to be part of the side that is a few steps ahead of the enemy- you're going to get that by providing more data to your corporate overlord (unique usage conditions, and unique hardware combinations will increase possibility of vulnerability, since there are more and more moving parts in play), or you're going to be using open source, which is under more scrutiny.

interesting...I had no idea...thank you for the info!