It’s Not who I want to benefit, no, not even people on SocMed. A hint:

One of the universal rules of happiness is: always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.

I had made huge strides in productivity for two days but I still kept having difficulty moving files. What looked like the familiar photos app I use for looking at my research images was set to run at start up and then in the background. Continually even after ended the task. So then I had a look at the app and oh no.

Same file name, same icon, but a new app that is cloud based. The app I had been using is now a “legacy” app you have to download. Needless to say I did and deleted the new one.

But that’s ethically wrong, surely? You don’t substitute a new app with the same name and icon, you give it a new name, you give it a new icon.

So then you ask, why? Well the default settings were to collect data. Images have much more information in them that the pixels and location. Further, two apps recommended to use with it also collect data and it goes to their AI. To create images and video from your photos and any information about what’s in them. The privacy notice says:

The editor saves project data such as editing progress information, titles, or media file names in your [app] account, but not the associated video, audeo, and image files you added (unless you enable content backup.)

I’m sorry, that’s a huge amount of data by default, and then all of it in a backup- you know how we’re all encouraged to backup everything?

But even without those editing tools, that’s photos of my friends and family, that’s photos I’ve got for my research, that’s images I have created from my research the photos app has taken data from already.

So AI basically gets on my work, my curation of information, even before it leaves my PC.

Holy crap.

And no, there is very little information on this substitution, so I started clicking multiple apps and now clock (you know for alarms, a timer) now opens in “focused sessions” and the default setting?

You need the Spotify app to enhance your focus sessions with music and podcasts.

What the hell?

The media player is also new, you can use the legacy one though that is under “optional features” so now there are different ways to get the old apps back. Three Dark Patterns already.

If you open the calendar? It opens then closes to open what used to be just an email app. You have to log in before you can find the settings, another Dark Pattern. If you uninstall the app, you get your calendar and email apps back. But how do you know you can delete it? You can go online and ask.

I’m not surprised by all of this. Just the extent. It probably is the reason for the BSOD with the September update. That’s a lot of change that goes right into the registry and already set privacy and security. And no it was not limited to “preview” builds though a lot of fans of the tech tried gaslighting people into taking the blame for allowing preview updates.

Be default we are all teaching AI when we type into any field, even for our eyes only. Ever noticed how your typos get saved to your custom dictionary so you can make the same mistake over and over again? Ever right clicked in a text field when using a browser to look at spell check options? Notice that the enhanced version has every single keystroke uploaded to the cloud?

No matter how much influencers make from monetising each word, each image, each video, each sponsorship, it’s a tiny fraction of what the tech companies make monetising all of that. So much so they want all of us trying to be influencers, grabbing at the crumbs left over from what they take.

And the worst part comes back to what I wrote earlier: if this was just my data I’d be furious but it’s not, is it? And it means that in turn my data is being collected from everyone who has emailed me, taken a photo and tagged me, so we simply can’t just disconnect either.

And I worry about the physical costs on my hardware. I can’t afford to replace this PC. I have used other OS and I still have my original installation CD in case I get desperate.

Anyway. Each time I have a few hours of productivity I have to stop and figure this stuff out. It’s not like we are using freeware either. We pay a lot of money for the operating system. And this still applies by default for those who buy the full business suite. Though with a better tool to understand what you can do and all in one place.

But I have finally got files separated, and file names shortened and it’s actually really inspiring rather than simply a really hard on my body chore.

I can bypass interference app by app by disconnecting from the internet, turning off/deleting apps that are triggered simply by the presence of an associated file (and multiple apps per file) in a folder. So yes, I’ve been very right, I just now have a clean slate OS to be able to prove it.