6 ms·

Yeah there should definitely be a "Hey Cortana, off the record,..." query mode. I'm a bit conflicted now. My girls are 7 & 9 and they've been using Microsoft A

Yeah there should definitely be a "Hey Cortana, off the record,..." query mode. I'm a bit conflicted now. My girls are 7 & 9 and they've been using Microsoft Accounts. With the final Win10 build having all this (none of these settings worked a few months ago), it looks like I've got a lot of reading and explaining to do for them.

drzaiusapelord 11y ago
This is a great suggestion. I'm getting sick of having to open incongito mode on Chrome unless I want Google Now to happily repeat whatever I was looking at later. Uh, I don't need reminders for sales on hemorrhoid medicine or news alerts about the side effects of MDMA. I don't need that popping up where others can see it. Some kind of "off the record" mode would be invaluable for voice interfaces. Hell, it would be nice if there was a check box under the Google search box as well, but I imagine Google would never make it too easy to avoid their data mining. I feel like we never had the proper privacy conversation we needed to have with companies like MS, Google, Facebook, etc. I think some level of easy to use yet strict segregation between what I consider my public life and my private life should be cooked-in, and enabled by default, into all this software.
- ewzimm 11y ago
  I agree completely. The split between public and private life is so natural that we sometimes forget how important it is. Sometimes people need to be able to experiment and access information privately so they can think it over without being judged. It leads more genuine expressions in public life, even in simple ways. Maybe I want to experiment with listening to all the worst pop music to see if there's something in there I like without my music player thinking I love all of it.
  - nsns 11y ago
    Absolutely. Or take for example my friend, who's a literary translator - she sometimes has to research online the most outlandish and obscure subjects, which have no bearing on her own interests...
- noxToken 11y ago
  > I'm getting sick of having to open incognito mode on Chrome unless I want Google Now to happily repeat whatever I was looking at later. Isn't that what incognito mode is for? If don't want your searches in cards at all, you completely opt-out of the cards that are strictly based on your search history. Ctrl+Shift+N seems like a small, reasonable step to go off the record. What is the alternative?
  - smacktoward 11y ago
    Why are you complaining about having to wear a bag over your head whenever you go out to pick up your prescriptions or meet your mistress, citizen? It's a small, reasonable step to go off the record. What is the alternative?
    - icebraining 11y ago
      Hyperbole much? You can still simply not log in to Chrome and/or Google Search. But if you want to be logged in by default, then you'll have to tell the browser when you occasionally don't, no?
      - adwf 11y ago
        Most people don't intend to log in to Google Search, as far as they're concerned they're logged in to their email account. This is why Google got in so much trouble in France and the EU over the past couple of years.
        e12e 11y ago
        This. I don't use gmail, but I use youtube. And when you've logged into youtube, you've logged into your "Google Account". So you can't have youtube open in one tab, and not have your history from other (non-incognito) tabs logged (modulus some tweaking of various preferences that aren't obvious or intuitive). There's no reason why they couldn't to the same thing Mozilla does: a) have a pretty clear account thing for "sync", b) have a pretty clear page for opt/in out on what to sync, c) Have working self-host sync solution, d) have an open source sync solution so you can easily see what's going on, and how things are encoded/stored.
brudgers 11y ago
For the US market, the way you frame the concern is the legal reality for Microsoft...parents who will blame Microsoft when information about their children passes online...are why there are no privacy guarantees in Microsoft's new policy. It's just too easy for a lawyer to convince a trier of fact that Microsoft "should have known".
- pjc50 11y ago
  Doesn't the US impose privacy guarantees on those storing data about the under-13s anyway?
  - brewdad 11y ago
    Sure. The way around that is to simply not allow users under 13 to have an account. If a user lies about his age in order to get an account, Microsoft is no longer liable.
    - MichaelGG 11y ago
      Yep. We use fake birthdays for my kids' accounts. First it is an opportunity to explain to them that you simply don't need to answer questions truthfully just because a form asks. There's zero benefit to being truthful here; only potential downsides. Same with real name. Second I explained that under 13 means stuff won't work, so let's add 10 years or so to make sure they don't have trouble.
  - brudgers 11y ago
    I don't think Cisco's routers or Youtube's CDN or the typical iPad application have that capability. Stuff gets cached and logged automatically. Microsoft is a big target for lawsuits.
phjesusthatguy3 11y ago
If you don't have any Windows-only applications keeping your younger-than-double-digit children on Windows, well then now is your chance to put them on anything-other-than-Windows. My own children are still using computers with Windows 7. They play Spore (Windows only), Sims 3 (Windows only) Minecraft (Java, so playable anywhere), Osu! (no idea, really), and a couple of other games. I have no intention of upgrading Windows on their computers past 7. Take a look at your options, you might be surprised how easily Windows is replaced with anything else.
- Maarten88 11y ago
  My son, who mostly plays Minecraft, does not understand why many of his friends use Apple PCs. The "render distance" and framerate in Minecraft on our home PC (running Windows 8.1) is twice that of his friends, and our PC cost half what a similar Apple costs. As a parent, I'm also not sure if an equivalent of Family Safety exists on other platforms. Windows sends me weekly overviews of our kids PC use and blocks inappropriate content. Also, our kids log into their own profiles, I don't give them Administrator level access, they have to aks me if they want to install something.
  - Domenic_S 11y ago
    On my desk now I have two MBPs and one windows PC. The macs are for work, the PC is for games (and occasional windows testing). I use the same kb/mouse/monitor for all 3. After being out of the PC scene for 10+ years -- and as a rabid apple fan -- let me say this: PC gaming is AWESOME. Games I'd only played on Mac before come to new life on a proper gaming PC. That said I would probably go into a different line of work if I had to use Windows as my primary dev box.
  - arm 11y ago
    This performance disparity between OS X and Windows for gaming may finally be diminished now that Apple’s bringing Metal from iOS to OS X (far faster than using OpenGL): http://www.imore.com/metal-os-x-so-huge-i-no-longer-need-mac-pro http://www.imore.com/metal-os-x-so-huge-i-no-longer-need-mac...
  - 11y ago
PhantomGremlin 11y ago
My girls are 7 & 9 and they've been using Microsoft Accounts. Well, maybe Child Protective Services should be involved? They intervene when children walk home alone from the park, perhaps they'll start to intervene when children are raised to use Microsoft products? http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parents-investigated-letting-children-walk-alone/25700823/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parents... Just kidding, of course. But my daughters are now 14 and 17 and I don't think they know how to use Microsoft products. We've been on OS X for about 10 years. So maybe CPS should investigate me? Am I doing my kids a dis-service by not exposing them to the dominant OS?
evolve2k 11y ago
One of the best things ive done is to shift my kids onto Linux computers. They really enjoyed "Tux" the built in Mario like game featuring the Linux penguin and it helped them connect with the 'Linux brand'. Now when my kids are wanting to install more advanced things they are naturally exploring package management and typing into the terminal to get a new thing going. Wish I'd had better Unix terminal exposure as a child.

drzaiusapelord 11y ago

This is a great suggestion. I'm getting sick of having to open incongito mode on Chrome unless I want Google Now to happily repeat whatever I was looking at later. Uh, I don't need reminders for sales on hemorrhoid medicine or news alerts about the side effects of MDMA. I don't need that popping up where others can see it. Some kind of "off the record" mode would be invaluable for voice interfaces. Hell, it would be nice if there was a check box under the Google search box as well, but I imagine Google would never make it too easy to avoid their data mining. I feel like we never had the proper privacy conversation we needed to have with companies like MS, Google, Facebook, etc. I think some level of easy to use yet strict segregation between what I consider my public life and my private life should be cooked-in, and enabled by default, into all this software.

ewzimm 11y ago
I agree completely. The split between public and private life is so natural that we sometimes forget how important it is. Sometimes people need to be able to experiment and access information privately so they can think it over without being judged. It leads more genuine expressions in public life, even in simple ways. Maybe I want to experiment with listening to all the worst pop music to see if there's something in there I like without my music player thinking I love all of it.
- nsns 11y ago
  Absolutely. Or take for example my friend, who's a literary translator - she sometimes has to research online the most outlandish and obscure subjects, which have no bearing on her own interests...
noxToken 11y ago
> I'm getting sick of having to open incognito mode on Chrome unless I want Google Now to happily repeat whatever I was looking at later. Isn't that what incognito mode is for? If don't want your searches in cards at all, you completely opt-out of the cards that are strictly based on your search history. Ctrl+Shift+N seems like a small, reasonable step to go off the record. What is the alternative?
- smacktoward 11y ago
  Why are you complaining about having to wear a bag over your head whenever you go out to pick up your prescriptions or meet your mistress, citizen? It's a small, reasonable step to go off the record. What is the alternative?
  - icebraining 11y ago
    Hyperbole much? You can still simply not log in to Chrome and/or Google Search. But if you want to be logged in by default, then you'll have to tell the browser when you occasionally don't, no?
    - adwf 11y ago
      Most people don't intend to log in to Google Search, as far as they're concerned they're logged in to their email account. This is why Google got in so much trouble in France and the EU over the past couple of years.
      - e12e 11y ago
        This. I don't use gmail, but I use youtube. And when you've logged into youtube, you've logged into your "Google Account". So you can't have youtube open in one tab, and not have your history from other (non-incognito) tabs logged (modulus some tweaking of various preferences that aren't obvious or intuitive). There's no reason why they couldn't to the same thing Mozilla does: a) have a pretty clear account thing for "sync", b) have a pretty clear page for opt/in out on what to sync, c) Have working self-host sync solution, d) have an open source sync solution so you can easily see what's going on, and how things are encoded/stored.

brudgers 11y ago

For the US market, the way you frame the concern is the legal reality for Microsoft...parents who will blame Microsoft when information about their children passes online...are why there are no privacy guarantees in Microsoft's new policy. It's just too easy for a lawyer to convince a trier of fact that Microsoft "should have known".

pjc50 11y ago
Doesn't the US impose privacy guarantees on those storing data about the under-13s anyway?
- brewdad 11y ago
  Sure. The way around that is to simply not allow users under 13 to have an account. If a user lies about his age in order to get an account, Microsoft is no longer liable.
  - MichaelGG 11y ago
    Yep. We use fake birthdays for my kids' accounts. First it is an opportunity to explain to them that you simply don't need to answer questions truthfully just because a form asks. There's zero benefit to being truthful here; only potential downsides. Same with real name. Second I explained that under 13 means stuff won't work, so let's add 10 years or so to make sure they don't have trouble.
- brudgers 11y ago
  I don't think Cisco's routers or Youtube's CDN or the typical iPad application have that capability. Stuff gets cached and logged automatically. Microsoft is a big target for lawsuits.

phjesusthatguy3 11y ago

If you don't have any Windows-only applications keeping your younger-than-double-digit children on Windows, well then now is your chance to put them on anything-other-than-Windows. My own children are still using computers with Windows 7. They play Spore (Windows only), Sims 3 (Windows only) Minecraft (Java, so playable anywhere), Osu! (no idea, really), and a couple of other games. I have no intention of upgrading Windows on their computers past 7. Take a look at your options, you might be surprised how easily Windows is replaced with anything else.

Maarten88 11y ago
My son, who mostly plays Minecraft, does not understand why many of his friends use Apple PCs. The "render distance" and framerate in Minecraft on our home PC (running Windows 8.1) is twice that of his friends, and our PC cost half what a similar Apple costs. As a parent, I'm also not sure if an equivalent of Family Safety exists on other platforms. Windows sends me weekly overviews of our kids PC use and blocks inappropriate content. Also, our kids log into their own profiles, I don't give them Administrator level access, they have to aks me if they want to install something.
- Domenic_S 11y ago
  On my desk now I have two MBPs and one windows PC. The macs are for work, the PC is for games (and occasional windows testing). I use the same kb/mouse/monitor for all 3. After being out of the PC scene for 10+ years -- and as a rabid apple fan -- let me say this: PC gaming is AWESOME. Games I'd only played on Mac before come to new life on a proper gaming PC. That said I would probably go into a different line of work if I had to use Windows as my primary dev box.
- arm 11y ago
  This performance disparity between OS X and Windows for gaming may finally be diminished now that Apple’s bringing Metal from iOS to OS X (far faster than using OpenGL): http://www.imore.com/metal-os-x-so-huge-i-no-longer-need-mac-pro http://www.imore.com/metal-os-x-so-huge-i-no-longer-need-mac...
- 11y ago

PhantomGremlin 11y ago

My girls are 7 & 9 and they've been using Microsoft Accounts. Well, maybe Child Protective Services should be involved? They intervene when children walk home alone from the park, perhaps they'll start to intervene when children are raised to use Microsoft products? http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parents-investigated-letting-children-walk-alone/25700823/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parents... Just kidding, of course. But my daughters are now 14 and 17 and I don't think they know how to use Microsoft products. We've been on OS X for about 10 years. So maybe CPS should investigate me? Am I doing my kids a dis-service by not exposing them to the dominant OS?

evolve2k 11y ago

One of the best things ive done is to shift my kids onto Linux computers. They really enjoyed "Tux" the built in Mario like game featuring the Linux penguin and it helped them connect with the 'Linux brand'. Now when my kids are wanting to install more advanced things they are naturally exploring package management and typing into the terminal to get a new thing going. Wish I'd had better Unix terminal exposure as a child.