Computer Exorcisms

Computer Possessed? We do Computer Exorcisms ! ! !. Reader and friend, Tom Stirewalt, who performs exorcisms on broken Windows computers in New Orleans, Louisiana, wrote such a great comment to one of my Windows 10 posts that I wanted to publish it here. The increasing control exercised by the companies which create our operating systems is, on the one hand, understandable (they want to make money with advertising, and they are afraid of hackers); but, for those of us who store confidential client information, gives us pause. Of course, an argument can be made that we are only required to exercise "reasonable" precautions to keep client data secure, and, in a world where you would have to disconnect from everything to do a decent job, it isn't "reasonable" not to adopt a new operating system. But, still, we need to think about these things. Here is the comment, as received. Thanks, Tom.

"My advice is to avoid Win-10 like the plague if you are in any profession where client/patient confidentiality is a concern or requirement. I believe MS has really really over reached on the terms and privacy conditions. The encryption key is stored on Ms servers, so it is not in YOUR hands exclusively, which means the data, if subpoenaed for example, can be de-crypted without your co-operation. The Win-10 Operating System will routinely examine your EMAIL. All of it. So what about your emails to your clients/patients. Ms is doing all of this snooping supposedly to SELL your INFO to marketers, AND, to make Cortana (the Siri-like) virtual assistant be able to tailor responses to your questions, to your habits and lifestyle. You may be able to turn off some of these "features" but not all of them. You can always decline to have a Microsoft Account up on the web where your Microsoft (one-Drive) cloud storage is kept on Microsoft servers, and use what is a "Local Account" [you can do this now in Win 8.1]. But that does not appear to stop the Operating System from perusing whatever else in on your hard drive and phoning home. This may be a fantastic opportunity for Linux, which is getting easier and better all the time. The vast majority of software is free/open source and does most everything the average Windoze user wants to do. From the user graphical user interface, there is not much difference. Yes, under the hood is different, you will need to learn some new stuff if you want to be your own computer tech."

Comments

[Tom Stirewalt]

Yep, I'm gonna thank you here too.
Thanks!
:)

[Carol G]

Well, I think this makes up my mind - no adoption of Win10 on any machine I plan on using to access client info.

[Kevin Sullivan]

It's hard to take those comments seriously when your friend uses "Windoze" and is pushing Linux. I will have do some investigation of my own to see if the issues he brings up are well founded or over blown, but I get the sense he went into this with his mind already made up.