this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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The odds that the US Government, under the authority of Patriot Act, has not inserted spyware into the Windows kernel, I put at an even 50/50.
The US Government has the motive, the leverage (huge customer of Microsoft), and maybe even the legal authority (the Patriot Act overreaches like crazy, and arguably compels certain government officials to gather all available data).
To be clear, I've never seen a shred of evidence that there's any official sanctioned backdoor in Windows. But I can't honestly claim to be sure it's not there.
It's all a bit of a moot point though, as the vast majority of Windows installs export nearly every scrap of data to Office Cloud, and if Office Cloud doesn't have a government back door, I will eat my hat.
Source: The text of the Patriot Act. It basically outright says "we will put a listener anywhere we can reasonably fit one, on US soil."