Windows 10 Banned by Torrent Trackers

Paranoia over Windows 10’s privacy policy is reaching its apex with the news that users of the operating system have been banned by a number of torrent trackers. The excessive prohibition has been implemented over concerns that Microsoft’s newest Windows iteration could share data related to torrents and associated servers with the company.

Windows 10 has been attacked from all quarters for its invasive approach to user privacy, from sharing WiFi access with other people to its storage and sharing of user data gathered through software, apps, and the Cortana personal assistant. Erroneous reports even emerged that Microsoft’s Software License Terms allowed the company to delete pirated files from Windows 10 computers.

One of the torrent trackers to ban Windows 10 over privacy concerns, iTS, told TorrentFreak that Microsoft’s lack of transparency over what data the operating system collects and how it is used has driven the block.

“Unfortunately Microsoft decided to revoke any kind of data protection and submit whatever they can gather to not only themselves but also others. One of those is one of the largest anti-piracy company called MarkMonitor,” a spokesperson for iTS said.

“Amongst other things Windows 10 sends the contents of your local disks directly to one of their servers. Obviously this goes way too far and is a serious threat to sites like ours which is why we had to take measures,” they added.

Trackers BB and FSC are also considering a ban on Windows 10. “We have also found [Windows 10] will be gathering information on users’ P2P use to be shared with anti piracy group,” BB staff told its users. “What’s particularly nasty is that apparently it sends the results of local(!!) searches to a well known anti piracy company directly so as soon as you have one known p2p or scene release on your local disk … BAM!”

In the same vein, FSC informed users, “As we all know, Microsoft recently released Windows 10. You as a member should know, that we as a site are thinking about banning the OS from FSC. That would mean you cannot use the site with the OS installed.”

If you use torrents, it might be expedient to ditch Windows 10.

Thank you TorrentFreak for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of ITPro.