The backlash is a bit of an overreaction, although justified due to the lack of total transparency of what's being sent. This is no different than any other cloud oriented services offered by Google/Apple, etc. Edit: blog.laptopmag.com/windows-10-privacy-issues-exaggerated

The phoning home isn't new, is it? Licensing validation was done every few months on Windows 7.

The only thing Microsoft is guilty of SO FAR that I'm aware of, is providing slightly better transparency over the data it sends to its' and third parties' servers, and now they're getting called out for it.