Yep.  They don't even have Windows installed on their straw huts.

ETA Must be a lot of Apple users up in here, considering how worried everyone is about data collection.  I mean, Google makes MS look like a bunch of privacy advocates.

i liked windows 10,but my computer didnt so im back on 8.1

For Christmas, I just got my wife a Toshiba laptop with Windows 10 preinstalled. She's used to working in a traditonal desktop mode, and she has certain must-have programs that won't even run on Windows 10. All in all, the OS was unacceptable (for us). So, I purchased an OEM version of Windows 8.1, proceeded to re-partition and format the hard drive, and installed Windows 8.1 from scratch. So far, after installing Classic Shell, it's working well. (I copied all the contents to another computer before wiping the hard drive.) It was a lot of work to reinstall all the proper drivers. At least I got rid of all the bloatware.

One of the reasons to go back to Windows 8.1 was that it was the last version to support Media Center Edition. When I went to download and install MCE from Microsoft's web site, I found that they had stopped selling it back in October. Fortunately, I had a product key from an earlier installation, and it worked!

The biggest annoyance of the laptop is the damn touchpad. We just can't get the hang of using it. She's going to be using a regular mouse. The other main issue for us is the lack of Greek letters on the keyboard. I thought about replacing the keyboard with a Toshiba Greek-English keyboard, but doing so involves disassembling practically the entire machine! I'l have to use stick-on overlays even though that is not an elegant solution.

For old folks like us, there's a learning curve with new systems that often is not worth the effort. For example, I don't have a Smart Phone, and I know nothing about Facebook or Twitter. I think my life in general is better without those things!

There's a big difference between Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. and what Microsoft is doing.  In the first case, user CHOOSE what they will post online.  In the latter case, Microsoft is gathering all information online and offline about the user (files, working patterns, when and what he/she does, passwords, among other stuff they describe in their EULA).   Microsoft now also forces updates and the users no longer have control over it.

So, no comparison between both.  

Type that from your Android phone?

Nope.  No Android phone.  Also no Apple phone.  Had a 3GS that I dumped recently.  Barely any apps installed and very limited web browsing with it.  Had the location service turned off also.  

Call it whatever you want but if you feel comfortable being a lab rat with all your movements monitored and controlled, so be it.  To each their own.

Go on.

Why?

Like I said, no goldfish mindset.  

Now, how about you?  Do you have Win 10 fully open, do your browsing through Google and Bing, allow all cookies and stuff to download, buy everything using your credit cards through tour phone, etc?  Have fun!  

Of course not. I do this for a living so I use Win10 with the privacy settings set appropriately. I do use Chrome, again with the appropriate configuration and plugins. I have an iPhone so I take advantage of Apple Pay where I can, safe in the knowledge that my credit card info is never directly exposed to compromise on the vendor side.

Since you mentioned search engines, what is your preference?

I don't want Windows 10.

I found the trick to be placing the task bar on the rt side of the screen. No it's alrite.

I'm actually starting to warm up to it.

I think this comes down to trust issues.  Having read becausy's analysis, I feel more comfortable about Windows 10's privacy today.  It's next year, or the year after that I'm worried about.  Either through Microsoft re-enabling disabled features, adding new data logging in an update which requires disabling, or simply enabling existing logging and not allowing it to be disabled.  Maybe I should just get over it, but it niggles at me.

can you link to his writeup please?

It's the link dmnoid posted on the last page.  Link

oh, yeah I posted in that thread but thanks for the link haha

I thought he had put up something more substantial

Duckduckgo.com

I use Firefox and set it to ask before accepting any cookies.  I only accept "for session" the ones that are essential for the website to work.  Everything else rejected.  The list of websites which cookies I reject is humongous.

Of course, my ISP knows everywhere I go but if I can minimize the list, why not?

And now we are down to debating reasonable degrees.

 
StartPage is also good. I use both.

That's the main point and why I refuse to upgrade to Win 10.

Cool!  I'll give it a try.