data collection

Why You Must Dump Microsoft Now

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microsoftPaul Rosenberg – I’ve written about dumping Microsoft before – and I stand by those comments – but the newest outrage from Redmond forces me to it again. I don’t care how “inconvenient” you think it may be, you have to stop enriching Microsoft. NOW.

Yes, I have serious issues with Apple too, but at least Wozniak and Jobs started out as real hackers. Gates was a political monopolist, and it still shows.

What’s Happening Now

As of August 1, 2015 (that is, a few days ago), Microsoft announced a new privacy policy and a new services agreement. In the words of one network professional, “Basically, they redefined their operating system to be spyware.”

The European Digital Rights organization examined these new policies in depth and concluded this:

Summing up these 45 pages, one can say that Microsoft basically grants itself very broad rights to collect everything you do, say, and write with and on your devices in order to sell more targeted advertising or to sell your data to third parties. The company appears to be granting itself the right to share your data either with your consent “or as necessary.”

If you’d like to verify anything, you can find the privacy statement here and the services agreement here.

The Ugly Details

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Who Is The ‘I Spy’ Of Google?

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googleRebecca Hardcastle Wright – Google’s homepage wishing me Happy Birthday looked cute but felt creepy. Like a birthday card from your dentist who means well, but reminds you of drills and scraping. I tried to shake off this foreboding Google feeling, with no success.

Then I came across an interview with Julian Assange where he shares the underbelly of Google as a type of private National Security Agency behemoth.

Google is an emerging state within a state. It’s a type of private National Security Agency,” he says. “It’s in the business of collecting as much data around the world as possible, about as many people and places as it can. It stores and indexes this data, builds profiles of people and sells them to advertisers. Spying is its business model. But as the Edward Snowden revelations make clear, it’s also a target and ally of the National Security Agency.”

Times have changed since the most prolific spy network was the Roman Catholic Church with its rank and file priests filled with endless confessions that continuously dropped into their data collection plate. Wars and destruction were launched with this information. The Roman Catholic Church is religious and political.

Assange reminds us that Google is private and political. It is an advanced player in the new religion of Singularity with its promises of immortality, artificial intelligence and a superhuman body. With Google, you have command and control from your own social media, blog or website as long as you follow their dogma and doctrine.

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