Installing security updates and automating your security updates 2
is an extremely good idea for security 3
as we've already discussed. 4
But it is not necessarily compatible with your privacy 5
and anonymity. 6
This is especially true with Microsoft and Apple, 7
and other operating systems where there is a money trail back 8
to the operating system purchaser. 9
Windows 10 is not an operating system 10
for high levels of privacy or anonymity. 11
Windows 8 and 7 are a little better. 12
To maintain a degree of privacy and anonymity 13
you should update using an anonymizing service 14
like a VPN, Tor, JonDonym, 15
which we’ll discuss in more detail later. 16
This way when you're doing updates, 17
it doesn't tie you to a physical location or an IP address. 18
Also you need to consider the fact that 19
updates can be malicious. 20
For example, the IOS update mechanism 21
is device specific. 22
If Apple was forced or chose to, 23
could send a malicious update, to a specific user. 24
How all the individual update mechanisms work 25
per iOS, I don't know, 26
but it is a possible attack vector, your updates, 27
and it will be a particularly useful tool if that update mechanism 28
could be sent to a specific user. 29
Something to think about. 30
You're safer when using free or open source operating systems 31
that have no money trail back to you 32
as they have no understanding 33
of who the operating system user is. 34
Security updates are very important, 35
but just be aware of the potential privacy 36
and anonymity concerns when installing those updates.