12 ms·

Let's not forget that by default, Windows 8 now stores even your personal documents in the cloud. Basically everyone around the world is being directly spied up

by dendory 13y ago

Let's not forget that by default, Windows 8 now stores even your personal documents in the cloud. Basically everyone around the world is being directly spied upon by the NSA. We need a strong offshore tech community with real choices ASAP.

nivla 13y ago
Huh? Are you referring to Office 365 or is there something I missed?
- kryten 13y ago
  I think the OP is referring to the fact you can now sign into Windows using your "Microsoft Account" which is technically your ex-Windows Live account. These accounts are hosted in the US looking at the terms and conditions. For the majority of users, they will miss the tiny text at the bottom which allows local accounts an will be put off by the big warning about how crappy local accounts are immediately afterwards. The result is a big conversion to Windows authentication being moved to "The Cloud" and therefore under the eyes of every nefarious agency out there.
ragesh 13y ago
Windows 8 on the desktop does no such thing by default. If you're talking about SkyDrive, it works just like DropBox or Google Drive. You have to move your files in to a specific folder for it to sync to the cloud. Everything else, like "My Documents" and all the other stuff is still very much local. Having never used a Surface RT, I have no idea how it works there, but on the desktop Windows 8 does not force you to store anything in the cloud.
- kryten 13y ago
  By default it asks you for your Microsoft account details on first boot. It is a secondary option now to use a local account and it's well hidden at the bottom of the screen. Also, to install applications from the Windows app store, you need to register your PC with Windows Live. SkyDrive and the Windows Live accounts have access to your local machine as well. This inversion from Windows 7 is not acceptable in my opinion.
skrebbel 13y ago
This is just plain FUD. Windows 8 doesn't put anything but my login info on their servers unless I ask it to.
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  Wait, your local login credentials (password presumably hashed) are passed to an external server for storage? Why in the world would that improve the user's experience?
  - antninja 13y ago
    It doesn't happen if you use a local account but you can login to Windows 8 using your Microsoft account (from Hotmail or whatever). Of course they store those credentials on their servers.
    - kintamanimatt 13y ago
      That seems like a very odd system but a good way to snoop and see who is logging on to a particular computer at a particular location. I can't imagine how this would benefit the user experience one little bit though. What happens if you've lost internet access? (Internet outages happen!) Can you no longer log in to Windows?
      - kryten 13y ago
        It's unified authentication and automatic synchronization between all devices. If you have no Internet access (as per no domain access on Windows), it uses cached credentials.
        kintamanimatt 13y ago
        That's a bit more of a reasonable explanation. It seems convenient on the surface but I can think of many ways it's a really, really bad idea: third party snooping, the possibility of being locked out of your own computer if your Microsoft account is deleted/deactivated/password changed, possible expiration of cached credentials (and therefore inability to log in) during a protracted period of internet unavailability, etc

by dendory 13y ago

nivla 13y ago

Huh? Are you referring to Office 365 or is there something I missed?

kryten 13y ago
I think the OP is referring to the fact you can now sign into Windows using your "Microsoft Account" which is technically your ex-Windows Live account. These accounts are hosted in the US looking at the terms and conditions. For the majority of users, they will miss the tiny text at the bottom which allows local accounts an will be put off by the big warning about how crappy local accounts are immediately afterwards. The result is a big conversion to Windows authentication being moved to "The Cloud" and therefore under the eyes of every nefarious agency out there.

ragesh 13y ago

Windows 8 on the desktop does no such thing by default. If you're talking about SkyDrive, it works just like DropBox or Google Drive. You have to move your files in to a specific folder for it to sync to the cloud. Everything else, like "My Documents" and all the other stuff is still very much local. Having never used a Surface RT, I have no idea how it works there, but on the desktop Windows 8 does not force you to store anything in the cloud.

kryten 13y ago
By default it asks you for your Microsoft account details on first boot. It is a secondary option now to use a local account and it's well hidden at the bottom of the screen. Also, to install applications from the Windows app store, you need to register your PC with Windows Live. SkyDrive and the Windows Live accounts have access to your local machine as well. This inversion from Windows 7 is not acceptable in my opinion.

skrebbel 13y ago

This is just plain FUD. Windows 8 doesn't put anything but my login info on their servers unless I ask it to.

kintamanimatt 13y ago
Wait, your local login credentials (password presumably hashed) are passed to an external server for storage? Why in the world would that improve the user's experience?
- antninja 13y ago
  It doesn't happen if you use a local account but you can login to Windows 8 using your Microsoft account (from Hotmail or whatever). Of course they store those credentials on their servers.
  - kintamanimatt 13y ago
    That seems like a very odd system but a good way to snoop and see who is logging on to a particular computer at a particular location. I can't imagine how this would benefit the user experience one little bit though. What happens if you've lost internet access? (Internet outages happen!) Can you no longer log in to Windows?
    - kryten 13y ago
      It's unified authentication and automatic synchronization between all devices. If you have no Internet access (as per no domain access on Windows), it uses cached credentials.
      - kintamanimatt 13y ago
        That's a bit more of a reasonable explanation. It seems convenient on the surface but I can think of many ways it's a really, really bad idea: third party snooping, the possibility of being locked out of your own computer if your Microsoft account is deleted/deactivated/password changed, possible expiration of cached credentials (and therefore inability to log in) during a protracted period of internet unavailability, etc