Posted on 08/04/2016 5:03:21 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Windows 10 and the amount of data it collects via the Windows Store could prompt users to switch to Mac according to a new survey.
The study conducted by OnePoll on behalf of security and privacy advice and comparison website Comparitech.com finds that 61 percent of the US public who regularly use Windows would at least consider switching to Mac.
In the UK the figure is even higher at 67 percent, with 15 percent saying they would definitely consider swapping. Only 33 percent in the UK and 39 percent in the US say that they would not contemplate switching operating systems.
The poll results come in the wake of France ordering Microsoft to remedy multiple privacy failings in its latest operating system. The French National Data Protection Commission pointed to three specific cases where it found the operating system's collection of user information to be excessive.
The Windows Store collects data on the apps users download and the time spent on each one without permission; Windows 10 installs an advertising identifier by default, which allows Microsoft to monitor browsing and target users with ads; and Windows Store authentication, which allows users to set a 4-digit PIN instead of a password, doesn't restrict the number of attempts to enter the correct code.
"These issues are things that have set off alarm bells within the security community on release of Windows 10 a year ago. Now, with France taking the next step in ordering Microsoft to fix them, it’s a small win for privacy and the wider public who have expressed concerns," says Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate for Comparitech.com. "Companies tend to take these issues seriously when people start voting with their wallets, so hopefully the results from this survey should serve as a wake-up call that consumers are becoming more privacy conscious".
You can see more information on the survey results on the Comparitech blog. Would privacy concerns make you give up Windows for Mac? Tell us in the comments.
Photo Credit: Angela Waye/Shutterstock
That claim has never proved to be true. This canard has been claimed for the last two decades yet the results have not changed. The question must be asked is what is the tipping point of number of Macs in the wild, that will attract those bad guys to attack the Mac platform?
Recall, if you will, that every study shows that Mac users are wealthier than are Windows PC users and have more disposable assets at hand. It is also true that approximately 99% of all Macs and iOS devices are operating without any anti-virus or any third-party malware of any kind. That would make them sitting ducks. There are now approximately 1.4 BILLION of these devices out there, including approximately 100,000,000 Macs.
It takes only 2,000 Windows PCs aggregated together into a SpamBot for an uninterrupted period of two weeks to be economically valuable. Such a Spambot can be sold on the underground for upwards of $50,000 to blackout spammers for their nefarious emails. Yet the only reported MacBots in the wild, turned out to be hoaxes. . . promulgated by a Russian anti-virus company, DrWeb, intent on selling its Mac Antivirus wares for business who created a honey-pot claiming they were intercepting 600,000 "infected Macs" calling into another server for instructions. Mac users were told they could connect to DrWeb's honeypot and check their computer's UUID and see if they were "infected."
The so-called MacBot "infection" required the infected Mac also have JAVA installed to even get infected, and the users had to have connected to an obscure Russian language only gaming site to download character definitions for a game that only had under 20,000 users around the world. . . yet 96% of the supposed infected Macs were in the US or Canada, English speaking countries. The next problem was that those who found they were supposedly "infected" never found any malware on their computers and the UUIDs reported by the honey-pot included many Macs that had never had JAVA installed (its not a default install). Included many brand new Macs that had yet to be sold, and many that had the UUID assigned but were yet to even be manufactured! Ergo, it turned out that all DrWeb had was a random list of Mac UUIDs, not a list of infected anything. . . a HOAX! I had two of these members of the list, neither of which had JAVA installed.
The upshot was that not one single infected Mac member of the MacBot was ever found in the wild. . . and the numbers DrWeb was reporting as infected kept shrinking as people started reporting on discussion threads their "UUID" identified Macs were not infected at all. From the original 600,000 infected Macs it was dropped by a week to 270,000, then to 169,000, then to under 100,000, then to under 60,000, then it disappeared from the news entirely. The reports went from headlines to nothing in less than two weeks. . . and died with a whimper.
Two years later DrWeb tried the same tactic again by announcing they had found another MacBot. . . which coincided with their release, this time, of their new DrWeb Personal, for individuals. Again, not a single infected Mac was ever found in the wild, and only DrWeb ever claimed to find such an infection, which still used the same Trojan to supposedly infect a Mac.
We know from history of malware, that malware authors have written malware for vulnerable populations of fewer than 18,000 target machines. (One was written to infect a mere 80 vulnerable computers!) The Witty Worm is an prime example. When the Witty Worm was released into the Net, within 35 minutes, every single one of the BlackIce protected WindowsPCs that had not been updated to the latest version of the BlackIce software six months before, all 18,000 of them or so, was infected with the Witty Worm! That number of non-upgraded computers had just been publicized in an effort to get their owners to upgrade. . . and a few days later, the Witty Worm was released!
The point of all this is that if bad guys can make $50,000 for just infecting 2,000 computers that are protected by the full arsenal of anti-virus and malware that Windows users routinely deploy, WHY ARE THEY NOT TARGETING THE ONE HUNDRED MILLION BARE NAKED, SITTING DUCK APPLE MAC COMPUTERS if it were so damn easy, as you seem to think????
The OS X operating system on Macs has been in the wild since 1998, eighteen years, and its UNIX roots for 50 years. It has undergone a baptism of fire, being attacked in every way imaginable, Vic S.
To date, there have been exactly SEVEN computer virus candidates for OS X, all of which have failed for lack of a viable vector. There are 84 known Trojans in seven known families, all of which the operating system itself will WARN the user about if he or she attempts to download, install or run one. . . and this warning requires that user to input an administrators name and password to continue in their folly if they wish to continue, each step of the way before they can infect their machine. It takes INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH STUPID to get one of these trojans or even a new variant on a modern Mac through that gauntlet of requesters.
Perhaps Windows users ARE industrial strength stupid, and that is the reason they have gotten so many malware for that platform, but frankly I doubt it. I think Windows users are pretty smart. . . they've just been conned into thinking that Windows is as good as it gets.
Uh, no, I'm not. World wide share of Macs has grown to 7.4%, up from 4% while Windows PCs have declined. Apple Macs have been outpacing Windows PCs sales there as well for those same quarters I mentioned before. In just the last year, Apple moved from the number five maker of personal computers to the number four position. Those are the facts.
Apple does not make political donations to any party. However, the Apple Employees Political Action Committee does. . . split about 80% to 20% Democrat over Republican. If you look you will see that when Cook and his cohorts make political statements, they are now being careful to state they are acting in a personal capacity. That doesn't mean that Apple doesn't make some really stupid decisions such as replacing the gun emoji with the squirt gun.
You're flat-out wrong. Microsoft, of which you're so fond of, donates lots of money to Democrat causes, and doesn't donate to Republicans. For instance, Microsoft was the No. 2 top contributor to President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, donating more than $815,000 to the Democratic incumbent. Apple doesn't.
“World wide share of Macs has grown to 7.4%, up from 4% while Windows PCs have declined.”
Which in English would be an enormous number to a slightly less enormous.
“Apple Macs have been outpacing Windows PCs sales there as well for those same quarters I mentioned before. “
So? If I have a million and make only one nickel, and you have a quarter and make another 25 cents, you have OUTPACED me in earning money. You still only have 50 cents.
“Apple does not make political donations to any party.”
They just make it to the left and globalists with a great big old smile on their face.
“You’re flat-out wrong. Microsoft, of which you’re so fond of, donates lots of money to Democrat causes,”
I’m sure they do!
At least the CEO of MS isnt making damn speeches bragging about it, and threatening to use the resources of that company to go after people he doesn’t agree with.
“For instance, Microsoft was the No. 2 top contributor to President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, donating more than $815,000 to the Democratic incumbent. Apple doesn’t.”
Apple doesn’t what? I guess they gave to Romney, right?
Apple’s people are very outspoken about their political activities, and only the Apple fans on FR do a big old sappy dance to try to CYA.
wow! let me think about that. And I’m a dot-commer.
It's ONE company with five different computer models against thousands of companies making generic commodity products usually in multiple dozens of models. That says a lot, VanDeKoik.
Not to mention your PC is affordable. A comparable MAC would cost you a couple of grand. And if used expect Apple to obsolete the OS shortly after.
Oh and a PC can run the FREE OS linux.
Apple computer lost the “for the peoples” title when Siri was exposed as censoring searches that favored conservatives.
So?
Maybe Jobs should not have killed the clones?
You act like variety is some sort of negative. Sorry if some people would rather not pay Apple’s premium because no one else is allowed to innovate while bringing the price down.
Apple doesn't donate to political causes. Their employees or stockholders may, but not Apple. And of the donations given by stockholders/employees to political causes, their ranking is by amount is several hundred down the list. Microsoft donations given by stockholders/employees is about 37th on the list of donations by total given by any entity. So stop using Microsoft Windows if you're griping about donations to the democrats, because Microsoft is about the worst offender (not Apple by a longshot). Of course hypocrisy is your burden to carry.
“Apple doesn’t donate to political causes. Their employees or stockholders may, but not Apple. “
Introducing the iSpin!
Any non-gamer over the age of forty who uses Windows for their personal computer(s) is probably just being lazy. If said person is doing only browsing, email and multimedia, then the Mac is too expensive and Windows is too ditzy, but Linux ix just right.
I just wish they’d update their innards! My Mac Pro was cutting edge now it’s almost obsolete, with no update on the horizon.
Ed
More than 60% of Windows users would be totally lost trying to run a Mac.
Windows 10 causing people to switch to Mac? Say it ain't so! ... PING!
 |
 |
|---|
Thanks to Swordmaker for the ping!!
And which company is the largest company in the world and also takes home 47% of all the profits in the personal computer market? Don't stretch your brain trying to figure it out, VanDeKoik. It's Apple. . . with it's 7.4% of the worldwide market share of the personal computer market. Apple also takes home 94% percent of the cellular phone profits with its also minority position of the cellular phone market.
Steve Jobs made the correct decision in killing the clones.
No, you are mischaracterizing the situation. Market share means nothing when Apple, with only 7.4% of the market share has 47% of the PROFIT share, while the companies who have the 92.6% of the market share are trying to share the 53% of the profits that are left. . . and the majority of them are losing their shirts competing on price in a spiraling race to bankruptcy trying to out-do each other with the lowest price. Apple doesn't even bother to compete with those mistaken people who think you can lose money but make the losses up by selling the losers in volume!
No, they talk a lot, but don't give much to anyone. As a company, not much at all.
Actually Mac is different, I have both, one for home and one for work - Windows.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.