>>>By giving away "free" updates to Win10 to existing 7+ users, I suppose MS is in line with the old saying that if the software is free, the user is the product.
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>Right. I've decided not to move to Windows 10. No point, especially after Windows 8 finally is admitted to be a dog (despite the usual happytalk by MS familiars) and the consensus is that at this point, 10 offers nothing compelling for those lucky enough to have stayed on 7. Better the Devil you know.

Win7 EOL is in 2020, not that far off. Also if you have to test on Win10 you'll need at least a VM, or if you have to test on the Edge browser etc.

>>>It's harder to swallow that from this date forward users are effectively paying (via new OS license fees) to get their data slurped, regardless of which version they choose.
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>Agreed. FWIW I was persuaded to load Instagram onto my phone. Imagine my surprise to be offered names of people from a "contacts" list on the phone. How did Instagram get those? Apparently it was agreed when the app was installed. It seems that data flows like water and Resistance is futile.

LinkedIn is also promiscuous that way e.g.
https://community.linkedin.com/questions/29749/how-can-i-stop-linkedin-from-mining-my-email-conta.html
https://community.linkedin.com/questions/60461/linkedin-plucking-my-email-contacts.html

>>>I think users should be aware that this stuff is going on. Everyone will make their own value judgments. To many, the cost of change is too high so they'll hold their nose and stick with MS.
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>What's the bet that MS has just made itself target for the hacker community that no longer needs to hack Windows authentication but will turn its sights on blocking the slurp.

Heh. Evil minds think alike. If MS is using a fixed/hard-coded URL or IPv4 address for the slurp sink, that can easily be blocked at one's router/firewall. Even though it's HTTPS one could let it through but corrupt it. OTOH if MS is evil as well they'll make it so Windows won't work without access to that sink.

Other individuals more talented than I might consider DDoSing the sink.