It seems to me that most of you have given up on reasonable privacy, simply by insisting on the most implausible method to achieve it. Vassago, by your own admission it's easy to spy on you. You're protected by a flimsy layer of legality, not by your own actions or any reality presented by technology. The only thing one has to do to know everyone about you is violate the law, wait until the law changes, or operate under an implementation of the law that permits gathering information about you.
The irony is that because you seek to promote privacy through secrecy, by looking for society to create all the nice, dark corners that only the powerful have
ever been able to hide in, never to the benefit of the likes of you and me, there's no reason to think you'd have any idea if any of the above conditions are ever or will ever be met.
Privacy is achievable through one and only one method, and that's transparency. I can't stop people from having the basic ability to looking at me, and by your own admission, neither can you. All we can do is demand the power to look back and have accountability on when and how such power is used.
Screaming "No don't look at me" at the world only accomplishes one thing: screaming. It doesn't actually mean no one will look at you, given a reason. There is a big difference between privacy and secrecy, and the latter does not accomplish the former. You could ask Julian Assange all about that, except that if he ever came to your supposedly perfect country again he'd be arrested on trumped up **** charges.
Here in the US, we have no illusions that somehow we're going to blind the powerful. That has never worked, and it's never going to work, and we grew up beyond any such illusions a long time ago. In lieu of that, we've taken to something that does work, which is looking back, which is why our police are now increasingly being required to wear badge cams, and laws preventing surveillance of them (you know, that wonderful secrecy stuff), have all been struck down. If you'd like some of our perspective on that matter, you could start with one of our better known authors on the topic, David Brin
http://www.davidbrin...entsociety.html
In the meantime, enjoy thinking Windows 7/8 somehow keeps you hidden. I'll use 10, and if Microsoft REALLY wants to keylog and find out how I manage my fantasy football team and where I go for upside down chocolate toaster porn, I'm not particularly concerned, and being concerned wouldn't stop them from finding out anyways. I'm happy, within the limited scope of a technical preview, to agree to provide them data for selective, internal use to improve Windows. The entire POINT of a beta is to provide its creators with as much information as possible on your use of software, and how well it facilitates that use. If that surveillance continued indefinitely without warranted and agreed upon purpose and/or was used unwisely, then transparency is what lets me see that, call them out on it, and damage their reputation with consumers.
Edited by Catamount, 09 March 2015 - 09:01 AM.