Linux

OK. Let's assume nobody has ever gone through it. Do you imagine that - especially in the US - lawyers of massive companies didn't wring out anything and everything about telemetry?

What is the legal mechanism they have for doing that? Microsoft is holding all the cards here.

Do you imagine companies like JP Morgan, or - famous for money laundering terrorist money - HSBC would be happily using operating systems with "spyware"?

Happily? That I can't say. But they are using Windows despite any "spyware." Likely because, like you, they deem the risks worth it.

The one you linked is the Optional Diagnostics Data, this is the one you can disable by toggling telemetry to "basic".

What percentage of Windows users (power users or otherwise) would you guess disable it? Unless it's the vast majority, the article's quote still stands.

Anyway, on the other points, I don't think we're going to come to an agreement here. You seem to be defending the questionable behavior of a massive corporation, and I'm not buying that it's all a big misunderstanding, a beta feature, just a bug, etc etc.

The fact remains that Microsoft has a long and sordid history of privacy violations and security lapses. You can choose to look past that and defend them, and that's your choice.