Windows 8.1 spying or not?

Question

Windows

Hello!
Please tell me, now there is a lot of hype around Win10 that it is spying on the user. I need the laptop to purchase an OS since it came with FreeDos. I have now set to try Win10, but the above circumstance confuses me. Of course, there are tools that fix this matter somehow, but it’s not clear what happens next with updates. If you buy Win8.1, by the way, it's a little cheaper, and you don't upgrade to the top ten, how is it in terms of espionage?
PS
I'd love to install Linux, but I have an expensive gaming laptop that I mainly use for video editing. And alas, I did not find worthy programs for this in Linux, even paid ones. And besides, I could not start Ubuntu on it, because of the dual nVidia + integrated graphics. Writes an error to nouvaue and kernel panic. People say that optimus support in nVidia's Linux drivers is very poor, unlike Win. Drivers are generally rotten. Therefore, whatever one may say, you will have to buy Windows no matter how sorry.

Answer 1

Everyone is spying. Even vaunted Ubuntu has a collection of search queries. Of course it's disabled, but it's there.

Answer 2

KB3012973 - Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro
KB3021917 - Update to Windows 7 SP1 for performance improvements
KB3035583 - GWX Update installs Get Windows 10 app in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 SP1
KB2952664 - Compatibility update for upgrading Windows 7
KB2976978 - Compatibility update for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
KB3022345 - Telemetry [Replaced by KB3068708]
KB3068708 - Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry
KB2990214 - Update that enables you to upgrade from Windows 7 to a later version of Windows
KB3075249 - Update that adds telemetry points to consent.exe in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7
KB3080149 - Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry
KB3044374 - W8,8.1 Nagware for W10
KB2977759 - W10 Diagnostics Compatibility Telemetry
KB3050265 - Windwos Update services update to upgrade to W10
KB3068707 - Customer experience telemetry point. W7,8,8.1
Source - www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/list-of-windows-7-...
Script for semi-automatic removal - ibid.

Answer 3

use this thing (open source, by the way, if anything)
https://github.com/Nummer/Destroy-Windows-10-Spyin...
but in general, the biggest espionage in the free version is just. the higher the version in the hierarchy, the smaller it is. in an enterprise, for example, you can generally disable almost everything in the settings.
pirated movies and games are caught only for the United States, so this is also not scary.

Answer 4

recent patches have added this feature to Windows 7 - 8

Answer 5

Any smartphone on any axis is watching you, so everyone already knows everything about you

Answer 6

Already written above. Everyone is spying.
Your OS, your programs (what if you are a fan of mail.Sputnik, for example?), Your boyfriend (here I’m conditionally, of course, with someone’s wife), Your provider, Your younger brother, Your neighbor, Your employer
... all their goals. The goal of OS tracking (I guess) is to show more targeted ads and (perhaps) improve future versions of products (for example, they will find out that in 88% of the cases when you launch Skype you use the enhanced performance mode and draw some conclusions).
It's not that I don't need to worry about it. It’s me to whom that surveillance is actually much more and this option is by no means the most unpleasant. It is extremely unlikely that MS will post your intimate photos anywhere.

Answer 7

Thanks to all.
Looks like I'll have to buy ten.