There’s a lot to bash about Microsoft, no doubt. The sleeping giant seems to be confused as to where all these new competitors came from. Google’s just a dozen years old and Apple’s resurgence has taken tablets and smart phones to a new level. Microsoft seems to be grasping at straws with its anti-Google campaign (Scroogled), even going so far as to hire Pawn Stars stars to appear in a TV commercial bashing Chromebooks – even though the commercial contains a lot of fiction, not facts.
Maybe Microsoft is grasping at straws trying to draw customers back in the Windows fold with its apparent new, hard-line stance against government snooping — Hey! Hey! What do you say? Gotta love the NSA!. Microsoft promises users of its products and services will be protected from government snooping. This comes on the heels of some reports than Microsoft has a backdoor built-in to Windows — I’m just sayin’. If that is true, and we’re not saying it is, then anything else they do to stop the snooping is just window dressing.
Here read for yourself:
(CNN) — Still concerned about some faceless government bureaucrat peeking at your e-mails and other online communications? Well, you’ve got a new champion: Microsoft.
The computing giant has announced a set of new privacy features, in a post that specifically calls out “government snooping” as the reason.
Responding to news reports that the National Security Agency may be monitoring more online activity than was previously believed, Microsoft attorney and executive vice president Brad Smith wrote that the company is rolling out three new features:
— Expanded encryption across Microsoft services.
— Reinforced legal protections for customer data.
— Enhanced transparency designed to show customers that Microsoft products don’t have “back doors” that make government surveillance easier.
OK. Put on your best anti-snooping goggles and head on over to this page to read the rest of this CNN article.
It is so sad that we now have to be protected from our own government! What is this world coming to?
If the NSA were to snoop on my computer, they would die of boredom!
Thanks for all your great info!
Sounds like the old tale of closing the barn door after the horse it out. Too bad it took them so long to get the message. That being said, how long do think it will some hacker at the NSA to crack it? That’s their job and I am sure they are getting paid well for it. Best antidote to all this, is if you don’t want someone snooping into your life, then don’t put anything in writing and email it to friends or family. So far they haven’t placed a chip in all of us to monitor our thoughts; or have they?
All a bunch of PR as far as I’m concerned. ANYTHING to distract us from the Windows Updates and, IE, problems and burdens. If we can’t trust Windows Updates, why in the heck should we trust any attempts at shielding us from the NSA? Even the programs they’ve already created to “protect” us (“microsoft seurity essentials and now “Windows Defender”) leave a lot to be desired. Let’s assume that they do come up something that protects us from government “spying”. I wonder how frequent they’ll have to update, upgrade, botch the upgrades on upgrades, etc.
Best way to shield us from the NSA snooping without due cause or warrants, is not for some corporation to “capitalize” on it and roll out another group of “protections” that we have to pay for, BUT get rid of the LAWS that Congress put in place that circumvent our rights under the Constitution.