Privacy Guides

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In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.

This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.

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Avast fined $16.5 million for ‘privacy’ software that actually sold users’ browsing data (www.theverge.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

As long as you keep your packages up to date, don't install random packages found online, and don't run random scripts, desktop Linux is very secure.

Same with windows, Android, iOS, etc.

On the other hand, Windows users almost have to install software from the wider internet.

Not sure when you last used windows, but there's a built in store for most mainstream software, and I'm sure most games come from steam.

Yes, you can download your random exe files, which will trigger warning prompts when you try to run them.

So, failing all warnings, it's possible to install malware on windows. The same could be said for any OS.

If you want to keep Windows secured like Linux, you would create a non-admin user account, which will not install or change system settings/files, without the admin (root) access.

That said, I don't disable the built-in antivirus or firewall in Windows. 😬

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Same with windows, Android, iOS, etc.

Windows is the only OS listed where you almost need to break those rules. You can't easily keep software updated and basically need to install software from outside the store. Only winget and choco are promising in this regard, but these are power user tools. MacOS, and even many Linux distros, ship with a graphical app store that keeps packages updated.

On Android and iOS, most users can get away with never installing an app outside the Play Store or App Store. The app store keeps the apps updated.

Not sure when you last used windows, but there's a built in store for most mainstream software,

Unless all you're doing is web browsing, the Windows Store doesn't contain nearly enough software. Users of Windows need to be used to installing software outside of the store. How many Windows PC's have never run an exe or msi?

and I'm sure most games come from steam.

Perfect example. I need to find, download, and run an exe from a website to install Steam. Having this be a normal procedure that a user is used to doing is horrible for security.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I mean, basic users really wouldn't need anything outside the Microsoft store. And modern users tend to use their browser more than anything else (fortunately or unfortunately).

It's got pretty much everything covered, barring some very specialized software. Heck, even stuff like Firefox and OpenOffice are there, but obvious M$ would prefer you use their own browser and office suit.

Certainly games are probably easier through the Xbox app in windows (or the store directly), and the play pass Microsoft offers makes it really easy to play without having to install a third party game store.

If someone wants a Linux experice on Windows, I'm saying that it's quite possible.

Now, I won't for a second defend all the telemetry, ads, bloat, and forced Microsoft crap. For that, Windows is indeed worse.