Microsoft will answer in court for data loss when upgrading to Windows 10

Users of the Windows 10 operating system filed a class action lawsuit in the Chicago District Court against Microsoft, according to the British publication The Register. The lawsuit for filing a class action lawsuit ( PDF ) was launched by three Americans who lost important data due to an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

In a statement, users said they considered Windows 10 to be a defective product and that the manufacturer did not openly disclose the risks of installing it. As a result, the plaintiffs suffered from the actions of the company and lost valuable information due to the upgrade to Windows 10.

Lawyers say that their clients represent only a small part of the people who lost their data due to the upgrade policy to Windows 10. In addition, users noted a deterioration in the performance of their PCs after switching to a new OS.

One of the requirements put forward in the statement of claim is to provide a guarantee for the operating system for a period of 30 days after it is installed / updated from earlier versions of Windows.

Concerns about the policy of Microsoft regarding updates are expressed in Europe, writesReuters Thus, EU regulators have expressed their concern about the default settings for Windows 10 and the lack of obvious tools for managing the processing of personal data. The working group requires detailed explanations from Microsoft for what purpose these or those data about users of Windows 10 OS are collected and processed.

“In light of the foregoing, including due to the separate results of the proceedings at the national levels regarding Windows 10, the working group on “It is still concerned about the level of protection of personal data of OS users,” the statement said.

In Windows 10, there are five degrees of system processing of personal data that the user can select. Representatives of the EU are not satisfied that in case of giving consent to the processing of data in one form or another, the user is still unaware of exactly what information the company collects about it and how it disposes of it in the future.

“Microsoft must clearly explain what personal data is processed and for what purpose. Without such information, consent to the processing of personal data cannot be considered as an informed user, that is, it is invalid, ”the statement of the working group says.

Earlier, Microsoft made some concessions in its update policy, which often led to conflicting situations with forced reboots. So, in the upcoming major update of Windows 10 , new features will be added to plan the installation of updates, which will allow users to more finely control this process.

At the same time, Microsoft "gives with one hand, and takes with the other." Recently, software maker artificially limited the compatibility of the latest processors from Intel and AMD Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, thus forcing to install Windows 10. Such attempts Microsoft back in 2016, but then a wave of criticism forced the giant step back from users.

However, now the company is faced with other problems: distrust of EU regulatory authorities and dissatisfaction of users of the most popular Windows 7 operating system. Given that Microsoft is actively campaigning for abandoning Windows 7 and switching to Windows 10, a resonant story with the loss of personal data during the upgrade may nullify their efforts.