Big brother Microsoft is making me uncomfortable. Maybe I am just paranoid. I tend to blog a lot about privacy issues these days.
I have been using MS Office 365 for many years. It’s an automatic upgrade, subscription type of complete office software suite. I don’t really need it these days as I no longer work for and with major corporations. I am just accustom (and was comfortable) using it. The fear now is I don’t know know how secure my writings are. Not that I am writing anything I should be concerned about.
I just like to believe that what I may be writing is truly private until I choose to make it otherwise.
Just after the last 365 upgrade, I am getting automatic pop-ups to “log into” an on-line document shredder! A what? Yes, an on-line document virtual shredder. I am thinking, WTF? (Well That’s Fine). The premise might be that I am placing all my secret documents in “OneDrive” cyber-storage. I assume the new “shredder” is there to purge and overwrite the documents in that storage and perhaps on my own computer drive.
Since when do I need to send my electronic documents to a shredder in cyberspace? What is going on here? I have alarm bells going off in every corner of my mind. I click the virtual “no thanks” button, but it keeps coming back asking again like a stalker. I just want it to go away.
I am no computer novice and I am aware of how documents are stored and not truly deleted on storage media until (eventually) overwritten. Now we have a document shredder. But the question is, “Why is it something I have to log into in cyberspace?”
Locally installed software for this function has been available for decades! I just don’t know if it works in cyber-storage. If “bad stuff” is being placed in the cloud, my thought is that it will be available to scrutiny forever.
I am currently using LibreOffice Writer on my Linux Box, for writing this. I can install a Windows version if I choose on that computer. It (so far) makes no Internet connection demands, never asking that I be connected to the world just to compose a document. Of course I have no real idea what reporting is going on under the hood, even with LibreOffice.
Did I mention LibreOffice and its cousin OpenOffice are free? They provide the same office document creation features as MS Office. Free is nice. I am not saying they are secure.
When connected to the Internet, just assume there is no privacy.