What You Need to Know About Microsoft’s Spying Ways

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

I had a conversation the other day with the best and most knowledgeable computer guy I know. After discussing privacy threats, he made this statement:

Everybody buying a Windows computer today is a traitor to humanity.

Now, this is a very technically oriented guy, and he quickly agreed with me that most people don’t have a clue about such things. Still, the primary point stands: Whenever any of us buys a Microsoft product, we are supporting the tools of our own slavery.

Here’s the problem:

Because people keep buying Windows, computer manufacturers are forced to buy and provide “Licensed for Windows” products. And those products include a lot of bad things. As I’ve pointed out before, Microsoft cooperates massively with the NSA to provide them with records of your thoughts and actions. But the problem my friend referred to was something else… something called TPM,

Trusted Platform Module.

It’s a little chip in your computer that is, in my friend’s words, “way evil.”

Microsoft’s goal (with Apple following in their footsteps, by the way) is to kill the general purpose computer. Combining this Trusted Platform Module with Windows provides something that Microsoft and their government pals have been after for a number of years: something called Digital Hygiene.

If that sounds slightly Nazi-ish to you, I’m glad, because it is.

Digital Hygiene means that unless Microsoft approves of all the software on your computer – or any number of other factors, to be determined in the future – your Internet access will be instantly cut-off.

Here’s what Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Trustworthy Computing was quoted as saying (by multiple sources, at a conference in Berlin) in 2010:

Infected computers should be quarantined from the Internet, and PCs should have to prove themselves clean with a digital health certificate in order to access the Internet.

Now they are doing it, and my friend is right to raise an alarm.

More and more computers cannot run anything except a “signed” operating system – signed by Microsoft or the hardware manufacturer. In other words, if they haven’t given the A-OK that what you’re using is as it should be, you get cut off. Moreover, the “we certify it or what you bought won’t work” extends to every program you run.

This is already inside any computer that is sold as “Ready for Windows 8.” When you install Windows 8, these capabilities are automatically activated.

Once that’s done, you will need major computer skills to wipe it off your machine and install something better.

What this all means is that, in the not too distant future – if you use a Windows machine – you might be limited to a small selection of pre-approved, pre-sanitized, privacy-questionable programs.

And I can almost guarantee all the tools we use now to protect ourselves from the reach of digital snoops will be blocked too, leaving us naked and vulnerable.

But there is a solution.

Buy a Linux machine. Not only will it protect you against the above, but it’ll be cheaper, and doesn’t have all the problems that Windows does (e.g., the blue screen of death).

Here’s how to get started:

• Buy an older model computer with an AMD processor. They’re cheaper and still offer WAY more power than you’re likely to need. Just be sure to ask if the thing comes with “vPro,” “CompuTrace,” or a “TPM chip.” If it has any of these, don’t buy it!
• Install Linux Mint on it; a user-friendly version of the program.

Most likely, unless you’re technically minded, you’ll need to enlist the help of your local independent computer retailer. Do so – they will be a great resource as you shift to a non-Microsoft world.

Remember, Microsoft is a traitor to their customers, relying upon their ignorance to keep the game going.

Don’t be their zombies!

Source: Edward Snowden

[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Click here to get your free copy.]

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