"Microsoft says they collect the information “to provide you a personalized user dictionary, help you type and write on your device with better character recognition, and provide you with text suggestions as you type or write.”
According to the article, it tracks EVERYTHING you do on your PC, not just online. And yes, some of it is shared with third parties. For those of you who did it, you consented to it when you clicked "Agree" to the 45 pages of terms and conditions you didn't read.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
If you click on Default Settings, that's what you get - Big Brother
However, if you select Custom Settings, you can turn any or all of these features off
I rarely use default settings, they're usually designed to help someone else...
Trev
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
"Microsoft says they collect the information “to provide you a personalized user dictionary, help you type and write on your device with better character recognition, and provide you with text suggestions as you type or write.”
"personalized user dictionary"??????
Say what?
For whatever reason this could be useful. If you're working in a specialized field in astrophysics, or medicine, of [pick something yourself] for example, that might be helpful. Stephen Hawking uses a very specialized software of this kind for his lectures.
Your phone (if you are using a smart phone) has likely been building a personal user dictionary every since you turned it on the first time.
MS Office has been doing the same for a really long time, perhaps decades. Pretty sure all of the big 3 browsers have been collecting this info as well to various degrees. These 'personal user dictionaries' have been part of the software you are used to using.
Windows 8 has this on portable devices and it works famously while e-mailing or texting. Apple iOS as well since at least iOS 6 I believe. I've never had an Android phone so I don't know if it's in there, but confirmed in Windows 8 on the phone and at least in the text messaging feature of iOS 6 and above. These are the 'suggested' words that appear in various places while you are typing. That's your personal user dictionary. It's really not a dictionary in the sense of providing definitions, it's a personal commonly used word list and sequencing.
One simple example: I live in Colorado Springs. In my Windows 8 phone as soon as I hit a space after typing 'Colorado', 'springs' is in a short list of suggested words. There's also some kind of cloud reference as well as my own personalized list
It makes complete sense to integrate it into all Windows releases for all devices.
Here's one snippet of the article on how they build the word lists (erroneously called dictionaries):
"How did we build them? You helped us! Remember the little checkbox during phone set up (and in Settings) that talks about helping us improve text suggestions and build a better product? When someone gives us permission, we collect anonymous typing data—free of passwords, names, numbers, and other personal info—to help create and test Word Flow."
Doesn't look like Android has a user-specific word suggestion/tracker built in from what I can tell.
As with any information technology, it can be used for good and for evil. I will say that I'm thankful for word suggestions on the Win 8 phone. E-mails and texts are 'muy rapido' compared to my iPhone 4s.
Lenovo YOGA 900 Window s 10 Home 64bit M4 pro Mac mini 1tb HD 24GB mem casio wk7500 presonus audiobox i2 usb interface casio wk-7500 biab & realband 2025 everything pk both with Current builds
Let's cut to the chase, guys. Win 10 functions as a keylogger. It searches for or records credit cards, passwords, and other personal data, then stores it, and possibly transmits it to Microsoft, who may then share some of it with third parties.
Here is one application where that may actually be criminal. As a medical transcriptionist (MT) working from home, under the provisions of a congressional act known as HIPAA, I am responsible for maintaining the security of patient information. I use a password-protected PC on a secure network in a locked room. No one may see or hear patient information besides me. An MT is liable for $25,000 per occurrence of a HIPAA violation. But if I upgrade to Windows 10, this data is being recorded, and perhaps being sent to Microsoft by default. How is that legal?
This is currently the subject of vigorous discussions on MT forums around the Internet. How does MS justify providing an OS with such a feature enabled without users' knowing consent?
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
Richard, it's always good to be security minded. You make excellent points. Like I mentioned, you can turn on or off any of these features. Most of mine are Off. I suspect you can turn just about everything Off. The 'default' option doesn't do this, but custom settings does. HTH Trevor
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Like I mentioned, you can turn on or off any of these features. Most of mine are Off. I suspect you can turn just about everything Off. The 'default' option doesn't do this, but custom settings does. HTH Trevor
That's a helpful image to post. I don't know when I'll be doing the upgrade to Win10 but the icon is in my tray.
Hmmm....if/when I click on that Win10 icon I'm still a bit unclear what happens. Does it first ask me questions, etc. prior to any installation beginning? No....I'm not terrified I'll muck something up.
It asks all of the question the very first time Windows 10 starts. You can also get to the questions later on via the control panel (that's how I got the screen captures)
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Well on the second attempt I got windows 10 installed, most apps seem to work ok.
I do like it that you can open the apps now on the desktop rather than having to go to the start menu.
When windows 8 came out I bought the upgrade to my windows 7, though 7 was home version, my 8 version was pro. So I have upgraded that to 10, had error message on first install, second time around it went ok. I have turned off fast boot in 10 as I had trouble with that in windows 8 not booting right into the desktop in a dual boot with windows 7.
One thing I have found with windows 10 (though its got the new browser EDGE) is that the old internet explorer 11 seems to hang and crash but running as admin seems to have fixed that problem.
For the moment I am treating windows 10 as a novelty and a new toy, my go to OS is windows 7
Windows 10 (64bit) M-Audio Fast Track Pro, Band in a Box 2025, Cubase 14, Cakewalk and far too many VST plugins that I probably don't need or will ever use
As a tax pro I have the same level of security requirements from the IRS you do with your thing Ryzard. People's tax returns and financial information is obviously confidential.
Having said that I really think your concerns are blown way out of proportion. MS is not "stealing" that level of secret info, they're not keylogging you. If you don't want their "help" with writing stuff fine. That's not a problem but to think MS can go into your machine to steal patient records is ridiculous and over the top paranoid imho. Patient records get stolen by hacking the health care providers. THAT's where the problem is.
It's hackers getting into GSA's system and stealing the personal info of over 30 million former and current government employees, some with high level security clearances. Then there's the Sony hack, Target, Home Depot and who knows how many other big ones. It's stupid and incompetent IT people at these big entities or perhaps I should say maybe not the IT people, it's their bosses who cut their budgets and are too political.
You have a choice. You either have some faith in these huge companies and our government or you don't. If you do then take the usual precautions we all talk about here. If you don't then throw away your phone, your computer, your tablet, your credit and debit cards, online banking, anything that is connected to the internet and just go back to the 70's. No email, no social media, no Google, no streaming anything, no GPS, no PG forum, nothing.
Seriously there's no halfway with this, it's one or the other.
Let's cut to the chase, guys. Win 10 functions as a keylogger. It searches for or records credit cards, passwords, and other personal data, then stores it, and possibly transmits it to Microsoft, who may then share some of it with third parties.
It POSSIBLY transmits it to Micro$oft who MAY then share it.....
We need proof, not speculation and possible case scenarios. Remember, I am as anti- Micro$oft as you can imagine, but "possibly" and "may" are not an indictment.
You remember when one of the cell phone carriers had some deal where you were supposed to give them names and numbers of your friends and then they would contact those friends and market them? Did anybody here do that? Then YOU are doing what Micro$oft is doing. How many people, upon a crash, click "send error report". Your computer then phones home and you have NO idea what it is looking at. Does anybody every say "Yes" to those "take a survey about our website" prompts? My question to that is "Do you get paid to do market research for that company?"
People are WAY too concerned about what might possibly could maybe happen. Most of those same people have no clue about data encryption. They think their actual credit card number is transmitted, not their credit card number multiplied by a random 128 character algorithm. That kind of paranoia is based on the same logic that says you should never drive on a highway because an engine might fall off a jet and hit your car.
Being prudent about where you use your credit cards is the key. How many people do I meet that go on and on about not using a credit card online because their number may be stolen, yet they think nothing about going to a restaurant and handing that card to a waitress they don't know who then disappears for 10 minutes with that card and perhaps leaves herself a voice mail with the card number, name and 3 digit security code.
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