The fact that a cell phone is a tracking device is one of the main reasons that I never had any interest in having one.  Today it has become even worse.  You can be certain that the NSA has the power to listen too you and everything going on around you through your phones microphone.  They would also have the capability to look through your phone camera to see what they can see through it.  There is no chance at all that they would not have this capability by now, they can and do definitely do this whenever they have an interest in doing so.

I have never used cell phones because they have always been tracking devices, even when everyone rolled their eyes at the thought of that.  They were tracking devices back then, too.  Today they are also eyes and ears that you are carrying around with you that anyone with access too those capabilities can use, not necessarily only the NSA.  You have to be insane to carry a cell phone around with you.

Hey Jorge...just remove all the the annoying updates. I've never had a problem with my windows 7. I have a list of all the Windows 10 updates, and I watch what they are trying to sneak in the update and I just hide them. I keep the list on hand all the time since they keep try to sneak them in.  

I just wear a large hat lined with foil.  That way they won't know I'm on to their tricks.

On a more sober note, Jorge I agree that any capitalist organization is prone to extract as much money and advantage they can from their customers and suppliers.  Just think of Walmart's motto.

However, something is stopping Microsoft for now.  Apple, Chrome books and Linux I would think.

I have a cell phone and I carry it with me when I'm out.  However, I only turn it on when I need to make a call... then I turn it off again.

Thing is, I'm in Australia and we don't have the NSA; FBI; CIA, etc.  However, I trust neither our government or Google to not snoop on my location and affairs, etc, hence turning on my phone only when necessary.... and then very briefly.  If I want to do stuff I use a Win 10 tablet with location and all the snoop stuff disabled.

The very first thing I did when I got this laptop is put a piece of black electrical tape over the lens. They're not gonna see through that. Just in case they can I uninstalled the camera. As for my phone, its an Obamaphone. The camera is always face down so I can see the screen. I take it with me when I go out but its always in my pocket. Location and what not is disabled and I never go online with my phone.

Ok, just to clarify one thing: I don't think governments are actively spying on us personally. What I am saying is that if there ever is a regime change in any of the Democratic countries (and it's not as difficult to happen as some of you may think) then ALL the tools they would need to actively monitor you as an individual are already in place.

Not that I would be very afraid of my own government trying to spy on me . To illustrate why, we have this old Portuguese joke:

"An old Portuguese communist dies and goes to Hell. Once there he is given a choice: he could either go to the Russian hell or the Portuguese hell.

- But what's the difference? - he asks.

- Well, in the Russian hell you get a bucket of poop thrown down your head every other day.

- And in the Portuguese hell?

- That's every single day.

- Damn, I rather have it every other day than every single day!

And so he goes to the Russian hell, where every other day a queue would form to receive their 'special prize'. One day he meets an old friend of his, who was also in hell.

- You fool! You made the same mistake I did by choosing Russian hell! - shouts the friend.

- What do you mean? At least here it's only every other day!

- Yeah, but here it REALLY is every other day. In the Portuguese hell, when they have poop they're out of buckets, when they have buckets they're out of poop, and when they have buckets and poop, they're on strike!"

-RG-

reply 27

Yea well you get what you pay for. Pay a cheap price for Windows you get a cheap return for it is worth. Which is pretty much nothing from what I have seen on this thread. So don't try to make it good on my post, please. Don't waste your time.  

Win 10 was never cheap!  It was supposedly free for a while, and I say supposedly free because there were way too many strings attached... strings that benefit MS immensely and NOT users.  Free it certainly was NOT.  For what users had/have to give up to use Win 10: privacy; personal data; internet details and much, much more, it is by far the most costly OS MS has ever produced.

If you have read any of my past posts regarding Win ten, RG, you'll know that I don't like it.  While it has had some improvements and features added since release, the bug-bear issues with it still remain - forced updates; spying and snooping; patches with who knows what installed by stealth, etc, etc - and make it the worst Windows edition I've ever used.  So when it goes to a subscription model it will be the end of it for me, period.

The worst thing?  When Win 10 was forced down millions of users throats, whether they wanted it or not - I didn't - and nobody did jack diddly squat about it, not government, not regulatory bodies, not the courts.  No bastard stood up for the end users.... NOBODY, and now MS is pushing the envelope even further, to the point where 'our own' PCs will be controlled from Redmond and there will be no more user rights [not that we have many now anyway].

Ubuntu and/or Mint is looking good about now, and hopefully Stardock will port its apps over to Linux.  However, I won't hold my breath.

LOL....paranoia abounds. I know a lady who says she can hear microwaves and cell phone signals in her head and it's driving her crazy.

Neither Google nor Big Brother is spying on you via your webcam. Or your microphone. Threads like this amuse me.

Oops. I didn't do that, it was Putin.

Would...wouldn't...semantics. But a tin foil hat is sounding better every day. Even flat earthers are gettin' in on it. 

*no offense to those who think that stuff*

Yes....I hear it's a global phenomenon ...

It's not that they are spying on everyone all of the time, but if they want to spy on certain individuals the technology is there.... in their hands.

As for hearing things: I have this constant ringing in my right ear, and I'm sure it's the ghosts of peelers past telling me the time and that all is well.

For those who don't know what/who peelers were, they were people who walked the streets of early London at night calling out the time.... and: "And all is well" if there was nothing majorly wrong about.

Well!  The bit of Earth I'm standing on right now is flat.

However, I can see some hills off in the distance....

Sooo, I'm guessin' the world ain't flat after all.    

Even the professionals have had enough:

"Susan Bradley, an 18 year Microsoft MVP focused on Windows patching and patch management, has sent an open letter to Microsoft executives Satya Nadella, Carlos Picoto, and Scott Guthrie about the frustration Windows 10 users have when dealing with installing new updates. This letter includes the results of a survey taken by over 1,000 consultants and over 800 consumers regarding their experience with Windows 10 updates."

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/an-open-letter-to-microsoft-about-poor-windows-10-update-experiences/

What is more worrying than Microsoft destroying Windows is the deafening silence from politicians and big corporations.

Interesting German documentary (at least if you live in Europe):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duaYLW7LQvg

Excellent post, anotherside, thanks.

The problem with Synofsky, Nadella, etc, is that they won't listen. They're perfectly aware about the problems and have been since the beginning, but they don't care - they ALL think they are Steve Jobs reincarnated and that they know better than their users.

In the case of Steve Jobs, this was actually true a lot of the time, but these guys are nothing like him, they're just some deluded and arrogant wanna-be's, all of them.

Could be a sign of collusion delusion.

You all should keep one important aspect in mind.

YOU DO NOT OWN your copy of Windows. You purchased a license, which may be revoked at any time for various reasons. 

(From MS EULA:

Installation and Use Rights.

1. License.The software is licensed, not sold.

This is pretty much the same for all software. 

If MS wants to change their product model there isn't much you are going to do about it.

Those talking up switching to Linux and Mac.. well.. good luck with that. If all you want to do is surf the internet then it will work fine. If you want to run applications, most worthwhile programs/games/ etc are written for Windows.

Yes, the same way you don't own the story when you buy a book, just the media it is printed on.

You can vote with your wallets and switch to another OS. Oh, wait...

Mac? Apple?! They're even worse than Microsoft. Latest from them.

So the only thing left is Linux... but people won't switch until it can run nearly all the games and applications they run on Windows - and developers won't develop for it until there's enough paying customers using it to make it worthwhile. Kind of chicken and egg situation.

But if MS keeps antagonizing their users and abusing what is essentially a monopolistic position the way they've been doing lately, I think eventually the balance will tip over - and when it does, the change will be swift and permanent, relegating Microsoft and Windows to the history books and as an example of what NOT to do.

I know for a fact that Google has pretty much taken over the K-12 public school systems now. All that is really needed are some major business app developers to jump on a Linux bandwagon to start chipping away at the armor. But as you say.. it is indeed a Chicken and Egg situation..