Windows 10 has been praised for its sleek and simple user interface, improvements from Windows 8 and the integration of user-friendly voice-driven assistant Cortana. However, users have discovered one big problem with the operating system – privacy.
Windows 10 can “legally” access all personal data, emails, and files to provide to law enforcement or government agencies. The highly anticipated operating system has turned into a massive NSA spying tool, which could obtain data from Bitcoin wallets and systems.
One excerpt from Microsoft’s privacy statement read:
“Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: 1. comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies; 2. protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone; 3. operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks; or 4. protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services – however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement.”
Non-browser based Bitcoin wallets installed on Windows 10 could fall victim to Microsoft’s privacy “agreement,” if the details of transactions, IDs, codes and history get passed onto government agencies or law enforcement. Specifically, sensitive data of BIP32 Bitcoin wallets could get sent to the NSA directly.
One redditor explained in detail:
“You'd have to be out of your damn mind to run a BIP32 Bitcoin wallet on Windows 10, which includes both desktop and online BIP32 wallets. If you want your wallet seed to get sent straight to the NSA, running Windows 10 is a good way to do that. It's not just the NSA either; it's whoever else M$ wants to partner with and whoever hacks them and their partners. This means the NSA, local law enforcement, courts, Russian and Chinese hackers, etc.”