So the Chinese governments gets the privacy and security controls we want, but we don't get to turn any of this off?
This looks like the most dystopian cyberpunk global corporate state-- mass surveillance for the masses, privacy and security opt-outs for the elite and governments.
"IT pros can use various methods, including Group Policy and Mobile Device Management (MDM), to choose a telemetry level. If you’re using Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, or Windows Server 2016, the Security telemetry level is available when managing the policy. Setting the telemetry level through policy overrides users’ choices."
Yes, and I think it's a great thing. The masses need to be spied on, and I don't think it even needs to be a secret. But the funny part is that it's completely voluntary. You can opt-out any time you want, by simply abandoning Windows and choosing an alternative OS. But almost no one is going to do that; they're just going to keep using Windows with its spyware and then complaining about it like you do here.
Maybe abandoning Windows is not easy. Cannot the problem be solved by blocking all Microsoft's networks with a firewall? Except for skype there is nothing useful anyway.
I'd imagine the ban was much more of a political stick to bring Microsoft to heel than an actual change in policy.
In short though: thanks, NSA, for providing exactly the argument authoritarian nations around the world were looking for in order to meddle with US software.
Yeah, that last report specifically refers to Windows 8, in the context of energy savings (typical Chinese style, but still a mention of Windows 8, so I guess the Windows XPs, 7s and 10s would not fall under this).
Anyway, lot of generalization going on from the original article without clear grasp on the specifics in the field in China, as always.
This looks like the most dystopian cyberpunk global corporate state-- mass surveillance for the masses, privacy and security opt-outs for the elite and governments.