Originally published at: https://www.myce.com/news/privacy-watchdog-windows-10-telemetry-collection-violates-dutch-data-processing-laws-82838/
The way Microsoft processes Windows 10 telemetry violates the Dutch data processing laws, according to a report by the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DDPA). Users are not properly informed which data Microsoft uses and for what purpose.
Microsoft is going to comply with Dutch law, what about the rest of the world? I suppose we get the same old “We want to know all your business” crap. 
IDK and the Dutch, but here in America, privacy laws are a joke. Most privacy laws come up so short when it counts that we might as well not even have privacy laws. The only privacy law with any real teeth is the 4th amendment to our constitution. However, no law can do any good if everyone simultaneously ignores it, as would likely be the case if internet privacy laws were passed. We know this because our constitutional protections are never enforced.
Welcome to the over-corporatized world that is America, where rights for individuals don’t matter for reasons that usually involve bribery.
Doesn’t everyone smart phone give your “telemetry” already? So this going after just M$ is just that nothing but grabbing for straws. So if they want to go with this law it will come back to bite them since now they will have to get rid of all Smart Phones as those give the phone companies your GPS and telemetry locations 24/7 already.
Painting Microsoft out as some sort of victim is ridiculous. If they are breaking laws, they are breaking laws.The fact that some others might or might not be breaking those same laws does not mean MS is innocent. “They do it so I’m doing it” is not an excuse.
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Then why not bring charges against them as well to prove that your not just bypassing others to benefit yourself. Love how people become hypocrisy when they get exposed as benefiting when your doing the same as another. So either go after all players or face getting labeled a hypocrite.
You don’t know if other companies have been looked at and found to be within the law.
You don’t know whether any companies that have not been investigated are next on the list.
You also seem to forget, this is not about just collecting data, this is also about how the users are informed, what they are informed about and what control they have over what is sent. Either way, Microsoft have been found to be breaking the law, that’s their problem.
And you know this how? One shouldn’t claim to know things they don’t know. Just like CC you agreed to their terms but then again most don’t read them nor read their clauses should you run afowl with them you got no legal remedy. MS is just a single big company themselves so it makes a convenient target. We always talk big about Capitalism and Free Market but when it comes up against their own benefits then it’s against the law right?
What are you talking about that I shouldn’t claim to know things I don’t? Do you have inside knowledge that other businesses besides Microsoft have been investigated or are going to be investigated by the Dutch? Have you read the original article about what the Dutch DPA are saying and what the accusations are?
It doesn’t matter if you agree to the terms when you sign up to something Microsoft related or anything else, terms do not overrule the law no matter what they say. If Microsoft are not breaking any laws then you are right that people have no legal remedy, but that’s not the case here.
Poor old little Microsoft being picked on by big baddies. Get real, Microsoft is one of the world’s biggest businesses and if they are breaking anyone’s laws they should be held to account. Nobody should make excuses for them.