As discovered by a few sites on the internet on Friday, the Windows 10 Technical Preview is not only looking issues and asking for feedback. If the EULA is accurate it is actively monitoring the applications you install, the types of files you access and potentially logging the keystrokes and commands you input into the operating system. This level of monitoring is more than a tad excessive as it is information that Microsoft does not need to ensure that Windows 10 works well.

Now, we all know that the EULAs dropped into the software that we buy are not accurate and in some cases are not even enforceable. However this does not appear to be a boiler plate issue (where common verbiage is reused). Instead the wording appears to be deliberate and aimed at the copy of Windows that is being downloaded by a large number of people. It also raises concerns that these monitoring tools will follow Windows 10 right out into the consumer market.

Although we cannot currently confirm the existence of an active keylogger in Windows 10, we did find that the feedback utility popped up when we tried to run certain commands or search strings in Internet Explorer. This behavior is certainly suspicious and is sure to make the news now that the consumer market is hypersensitive to any type of surveillance or monitoring. There are already jokes and meme that paint Windows 10 as Windows NSA edition, this is not a good sign for the future commercial success of Microsoft’s next operating system. It also does not bode well for the security of the OS as we all know that any monitoring tools can be used by the “bad guys” to get information as well.

We will be sure to keep an eye on this one and let you know what we find out.

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