Comment

Friday Night Quirky Pop Jam: Margaret Glaspy, "Emotions and Math"

368
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge12/29/2018 1:02:16 pm PST

re: #365 Anymouse 🌹

They can be shut off, as the CNet article notes. The problem is Microsoft doesn’t tell you how to shut those adverts off.

Moreover, Microsoft programs are very promiscuous with other Microsoft programs.

For example, Microsoft’s individual ID allows Cortana to display things in a search which are tailored to your computer. I have Office for Business 2016, which means such things can be displayed in Office programs.

If you have a wireless router which is open (or others have the password for it), Microsoft Windows computers around you will download updates from your computer rather than Microsoft (it saves them bandwidth). That’s another privacy setting which can be shut off.

If you have Windows 10, searching for all the privacy settings to secure your computer is one of the first things you should do.

If Windows were the only alternative, I’d simply stop using a computer altogether. I’m of an age where I don’t think of it as a necessity of life. And no, I’m not interested in writing my own OS on the fly—AKA Linux—either.