Hi everyone,

this might be a little out of topic, but I recently heard about the new end user license agreement from Microsoft and some of the stuff in it made me raise an eyebrow or two. As far as I understand this, the reach of that thing starts at the Microsoft account, followed by any online services Microsoft provides. So if you use Microsofts cloud service, Teams, Skype, Office 365 or Xbox, your files are now open for Datamining and surveillance measures by MS AI systems and employees of MS. I assume that the mayority of you are not located in Europe therefore I don't know the law situation in those countries, but I think this is a really bad thing. In short, if you use one of the services I mentioned above in a manner that doesn't confirm with the "house rules" of MS, they are entitled to search your device, read your messages and block you from your MS account, without warning and they decide if this ban is permanent or temporary. 

It would be nice to have your opinion on this. Does this concerned you or not at all?

Greetings from Germany.

Well the obvious answer is if it does worry you don't link your Windows user account to your MS account, or unlink it if you have, use the standalone version of Office (which is still available) rather than Office 365 and don't store files on Onedrive 

So how would you unlink the 2 accounts?

The only thing in that list that I use is my Xbox but then I am not the average Windows user I guess, the only social media I am involved in is here and one other 3D art site.   I use LibreOffice as my Office 365 equivalent and, while I have not completely removed, Onedrive is configured in a way it leaves me alone.  My cloud storage is taken care of by Acronis Cyber Home protect.

Having said all that I think this is just the way the world is going with half the world population happily giving their data away for free the big boys are used to knowing loads about everyone and making decisions for us.  Does it worry me, well I think I could get bothered about it but I am of an age where I am writing the last few chapters of my life story so any impact will be minimal.  My age also means I will have stopped driving before I am forced to use an EV for my mode of transport.   I am retired on a couple of pensions so I cannot be sacked or made redundant and, while this does not make me bullet proof, it does result in me having a relaxed view on most things.

Andrew_C thanks for sharing your thought on this issue.
Sure, killing all connections to MS online services could be the obvious answer.
The new rules in said EULA mention "hate speech" on social media platforms and the creation of "pornographic content" on windows os and distributing of "pornographic Content"using MS services, which would include the Edge Browser for example.
The question is, what qualifies as hate speech or pornography and since when is Microsoft a branch of the justice system?
My concern is that this will have an impact on artists expression and people who are critical on social issues. The knowledge that one could risk to be flagged and even banned from the internet, because of a text or picture one produced, that was misinterpreted by a AI System, will hush some people into silence.
Some commenters on YT and similar platforms are speaking about the end of free speech and the freedom of expession.
I personally think that is a bit over the top, but that there is a company with such an monopoly and market share in the most important business on the planet now being able making decisions on that scale without judge and jury involved, is rather remarkable.

Well since they can only get away with doing this is by the grace and acceptance of the governments of the various countries you know where to direct your outrage.  But since the current countries are trying to suppress "Hate Speech" whatever that means, and since they can't directly force their people to toe the line of what they want you to think the next best thing is to force companies to enforce their wishes.  If the companies don't comply then they get sued and since they are the Big Evil enemies of your "freedoms" no one is going to get upset.  So, your choices are real simple either stop using computers and the internet or only express opinions that the Main Stream Press is happy with.  As long as you agree with the Press you have nothing to worry about.

Guh - while I don't particularly go into the creation of pornographic stuff myself, it really baffles me how puritanistic the internet and services have been trying to be lately. It's not like pornography by itself is harmful (not going into predatory practices in the industry, but the pornography by itself), why are services on a war against it now? Let adults be adults, ffs.

And if Facebook bots have taught me anything, it's that AI really can't understand what hate speech is. I see actual neon4zi groups go unscathed and plan real life attacks using the platform, but you can't comment on how n4zism is bad without having to somehow censor the word like I just did. They don't look for the messages, just plain words, and whoever types them gets flagged, even if you're trying to report actually harmful people.

I'm going to buy a new laptop soon.

I'd go Linux if it weren't for Poser, alas...

So here's my plan:

1: Install Windows 10 without an MS account. (And all the spyware disabled)

(Can be done with Windows 11, too, but it's a bit more complicated)

2: Install a version of Poser that doesn't need to phone home.

3. Keep that laptop strictly off the internet and just use it for Poser and model building

4. Keep my current laptop as a backup and get a cheap tablet with Linux installed for my internet surfing, banking and emails, etc.

Perhaps even use TOR and a proxy to go completely dark.    ;-p

"The net views censorship as damage and routes around it."

Thanks to all of you who have spend a few minutes and wrote a statement. For me as a German, born and raised roughly one generation after the end of WWII, outlived the separation of Germany, I'm always looking for attempts to censor art, book banning and stuff like that. This are early warning signs of an upcoming fascism of sorts. Interesting opinions you brought up. I will definitely think about some of the countermeasures you mentioned.

Would be nice to have futher discussion on this, or related topics here.