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Experts warn against Windows 10 for professionals
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: September 11, 2015
The Windows 10 free upgrade rolled out at the end of July. It is a “.0” iteration, so it probably has a lot of bugs and other problems, and Microsoft has always been notorious for “allowing” its users to be guinea pigs in finding bugs, but some computer experts are already warning against professionals, or anyone who transmits confidential data, about major, built-in, privacy problems with this new operating system.
In order to tailor your computing experience to your needs, various programs and operating systems read the information on your computers, and then sell that information to advertisers. That’s why locally addressed ads show up on your computer, and why those ads are for things you have a history of interest in.
Beyond that, Microsoft’s Cortana “personal assistant” needs to have that information to cater to your needs.
That information, experts say, according to the terms and conditions of Windows 10, includes all of the data on your computer, including your emails.
Microsoft has access to your emails, including those that contain confidential client information, in Windows 10, and can take all of that and sell it to anyone.
Furthermore, the key to the built-in encryption in the MS email client is held by Microsoft, not the user, meaning that any encrypted data can be unencrypted by Microsoft when subject to a subpoena.
Kinda gives ya that warm and fuzzy feeling toward the Redmond giant, don’t it?
What to do?
Well, first, attorneys only have to exercise “reasonable” caution to protect client data privacy. Is it “reasonable” to read the terms and conditions of an operating system? If you’re a lawyer? You tell me.
The experts I’ve read about this are suggesting that attorneys not adopt W10, but I’m not sure that’s an option for Windows users, considering that W8 is so awful, and support for W10 will fade away at some point.
You could switch to Linux (right), or over to the Mac world.
Or, and I’m no expert, you could follow the advice that I, and countless others, have been giving for years, and encrypt all data, use a secure search engine like Start Page, download a fully-encrypted email client for which you own the key, encrypt all file-sharing apps like Dropbox, download a private VPN like ViprVPN, and surf the web anonymously with something like TOR or Ghostery.
And then, maybe, you have made a reasonable attempt to protect your clients’ confidentiality.