Some torrent trackers ban Windows 10

Windows 10 has been in the limelight regarding privacy concerns since it was released, with reports claiming that Microsoft can wipe torrents and pirated software from people’s hard drives – a piracy kill switch so to speak. For its part, Microsoft says that such restrictions are only in place to enhance the security of its software and service.

You’re probably aware of the whole privacy craze around Windows 10 these days and while Microsoft provides nothing more than basic statements to explain that users are allowed to choose what info to share and what to not, more criticism reaches the web to disclose the way the new OS can actually track you.

Nearly one month has passed since Microsoft launched the Windows 10 OS, and every Windows 7/8/8.1 user who bought the license was given the opportunity to upgrade for free (this offer will be available exactly one year). Since last Thursday Windows 10 is officially banned from iTS. TorrentFreak reported that various torrent trackers shared why they are choosing to ban Windows 10 for now. If we were to believe some of the reports, Microsoft would nuke all torrents downloaded from The Pirate Bay.

“Unfortunately Microsoft decided to revoke any kind of data protection and submit whatever they can gather to not only themselves but also others”.

“Amongst other things Windows 10 sends the contents of your local disks directly to one of their servers”.

iTS said “obviously this goes way too far” and that it “is a serious threat to sites like ours”. “Members using it get redirected to a video that eggsplains the dangers quite in detail hoping to enlighten as many people as possible”.

As a result, Levichev is asking Medvedev to impose a complete ban on Windows 10 in Russian government agencies, state-owned corporations and scientific and research institutions.

Other small private torrent trackers will likely follow suit, according to Torrent Freak. Microsoft added, “This section of the Microsoft Services Agreement is consistent with language in former Terms of Use agreements, which carried over with the introduction of the unified services agreement on August 1”. Let us know what you think in the comments. “That would mean you can not use the site with the OS installed”, FSC staff writes.

Torrent groups BB and FSC are considering the removal of the operating system from their trackers, while other groups have already done so.

In a slightly different twist, instead of banning individual Windows 10 users, some Russian lawmakers and lawyers want to ban the Windows 10 OS. By default, the operating system has a range of privacy-impinging settings turned on – and even when they are turned off, computers continue to send information to Microsoft’s servers. It seems that the Live Tiles interface wasn’t well-received, even if it reduced the functionality of the desktop, so Windows 10 will make a lot of users very happy, because thanks to the Start menu, they will access applications, pin applications, websites etc.

However while many do claim to love Windows 10, there are some features that not everyone is particularly enamored with. The Russian Association for Electronic Communications said Windows 10 has “flexible settings and therefore does not breach Russian law”.