> Not sure where you're going with this.  I offered, as an aside, 3 of my top tips to, in general, protect your privacy.

I'm simply pointing out the irony that in a thread dedicated to the gratuitous privacy violations perpetrated on Linux (via its most popular "desktop" Android), your recommendation is to "use Linux" for better privacy(?).

>  If you think MS and Win 11 is honoring your privacy more than an install of Fedora 35 is, then I have some news for you...

Actually yes I do think Windows 11 is doing more to honour your privacy. Windows11 discloses what it is doing and has privacy controls that give you the ability to shut off all the data collection that it does if you like.

Fedora, Ubuntu and most linux distros don't say anything about the data that gets sent home by default and offer NO Privacy Controls. There is no built-in way to shut off telemetry, you have to figure out which applications are calling home and manually uninstall them.

I get it that Windows is everyone's favourite OS to hate, but I think it's reasonable to point out the fact that Linux itself does absolutely nothing to protect your privacy. Anyone can make a distribution of Linux that steals your user data (e.g. Android).

Let's be real here; the majority of privacy loss happens through the applications you have installed (e.g. browsers) regardless of the OS. For those that care about privacy that is where the focus should be.

For anyone interested in learning more, here is a great video on windows 11 privacy. What data does Windows collect and why? How do you shut it all off plus what is the downside of doing that? (but be warned that by visiting Youtube you just violated your privacy!)


John


On Sat, Nov 5, 2022 at 12:01 AM Trevor Cordes <trevor@tecnopolis.ca> wrote:
On 2022-11-04 John Lange wrote:
> > 3. Use Linux, not Windbloze. 
>
> Despite the fact that your post and the entire thread is railing
> against Android (which runs on Linux) you manage to blame Windows for
> violating your privacy?

Not sure where you're going with this.  I offered, as an aside, 3 of my
top tips to, in general, protect your privacy.  Someone already
mentioned don't use Windows (especially 11), and I agree, and thus it's
in my top-3 things people should do if they are privacy-conscious.

As for me personally, I don't use any Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11, so I'm
not blaming it for violating *my* privacy.  But if someone asks me
"what can I do", I would definitely say don't use Win 11.  Why?
Because of the telemetry and all the tracking and app store that
has basically turned it into the same thing as a cell phone OS (Android
or iOS) vis a vis privacy.

I'm not sure what's controversial here?  If you think MS and Win 11 is
honoring your privacy more than an install of Fedora 35 is, then I have
some news for you...

And I don't think anyone is "railing against Android", as iOS is
equally as bad, if not worse.  And it's not the linux-ness that makes
Android a problem, it's all the google-proprietary stuff they've forced
on the world that invades your privacy.  That's like saying iOS is
somehow also innocent because it runs on BSD.  The underlying
technology on these phones is irrelevant to privacy.  I use Android
every day, and I do my best to maintain a semblance of privacy as per
my previous post.  Doesn't mean I have to like the status quo and not
yearn for something better.

Brian makes a great point: "ANDROID IS SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN".  Yes, and
it is, and you can load the base of Android onto some phones.  The
problem is, everything that makes your phone useful is a proprietary
google add-on, and they've engineered it this way on purpose.  That is
(part of) what is holding back a truly FLOSS phone.


--
John Lange