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Comment by saberworks | Hacker News Reader

As always, I'm creeped out by the fact that Microsoft is tracking how often everyone uses touch input. Are they tracking what app the user was interacting with? Exactly where/how they touched? What was under the touch? I'm just not comfortable sharing that information with anyone. If they were to provide a complete opt-out of all information sharing I'd definitely consider it, but until then I'm out.

This is in response to the giant quote box they have in the article on the actual blog post.

"97% of people that have a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book use on-screen touch input regularly."

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That has to be one thing Apple has going for then, security. They don't often talk about it on stage but the thought and work that goes into protecting users looks pretty strong.

The touch ID in the new Macbook pro actually uses an apple watch chip with security enclave on it, and the web cam is routes through there too so the CPU doesn't have direct access, making it harder to hack.

I'm not sure I've heard Microsoft talk about protecting users or avoiding exploiting their data...

Upgrading to Windows 10 enterprise/Pro allows turning off of such creepy telemetry.

I understand they probably want to understand how users are using touch that they may not have taught yet but it should not be forced on regular Windows 10 users.

Still, on regular windows 10 home devices, tools like Spybot's anti-beacon seem to be at least somewhat effective in minimizing such calls home.

https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

> Upgrading to Windows 10 enterprise/Pro allows turning off of such creepy telemetry.

Isn't this option enterprise only? And it doesn't disable everything

I don't know what's the situation now but when I checked what a W10 enterprise installation leaked in a VM I was really shocked. Even after using a few tools, and the policy editor, I remember that even explorer.exe (the file manager I mean) was making network calls.

Not trying to spread FUD about MS, I'm tired of ALL telemetry, from apps to Apples. I would love to see some privacy advocating foundation or public service that released constant unbiased reports about what each OS version is collecting from you.

And, like I said before, if MS wants me to consider using Windows (outside of my daily job, that I have no other option), they should offer a PAID option with ZERO data collection. I don't care if you offer Windows for free in exchange for the user data, but I don't want any of it. And you can have my money for that.

Most likely, they do surveys.

that could just be from a survey?

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