Microsoft: Windows 10 Downloads = Microsoft Update Silently Steals Gigabytes Of Storage Space - by Mke Brown

Microsoft has confirmed that it downloads Windows 10 files to computers just in case users decide to upgrade. The company wants to make the migration to Win10 as efficient as possible, but the files take up somewhere between 3.5 to 6GB of disk space.

The situation was first reported by an anonymous reader at The Inquirer, who found the "~BT" folder used for storing copies of Windows 10 had appeared on his system, despite the user not expressing any interest in upgrading.

"I know of two instances where people on metered connections went over their data cap for August because of this unwanted download," he said. "My own Internet (slow DSL) was crawling for a week or so until I discovered this problem."

Microsoft confirmed the problem in a statement to the publication. "For individuals who have chosen to receive automatic updates through Windows Update, we help upgradable devices get ready for Windows 10 by downloading the files they’ll need if they decide to upgrade," the statement read.

Read more: Windows 10 Downloads Secretly Onto PCs: Microsoft Update Silently Steals Gigabytes Of Storage Space

Spying is bad for business: NSA spying caused 9 percent of foreign firms to dump U.S. clouds - by Mike Wheatley

In the weeks following Edward Snowden’s revelations of the NSA’s massive web surveillance program PRISM, speculation was raised about the negative implications it could have on U.S. cloud companies.

Now, Forrester Research has taken the time to see just what kind of impact it has had, asking a host of foreign firms whether or not PRISM has caused them to scale back their spending on U.S. cloud services, and the answer makes for some uneasy reading.

A total of 1,668 non-U.S. business technology decision makers were quizzed in Forrester’s survey. The exact question asked was “In the past year, has your company explicitly halted or reduced your spending with US-based companies for Internet-based services (e.g., cloud, online service/outsourcing) due to these security concerns?”, with 26 percent of respondents answering in the affirmative.

Forrester followed up by asking the 427 who said yes what their reasons for doing so were, and found that 34 percent cited “fear of the intelligence community spying”. A quick sum of the math shows that 9 percent of foreign firms have therefore ditched U.S. cloud companies due to the NSA, not an insignificant number by any means, despite The Register’s insistence that “Snowden didn’t scare off many”.

It’s worth nothing that the respondents held, on average, only about a third of their company data in U.S. clouds anyway, so their decision to pull out may not be as significant as it first seems. But even so, U.S. cloud firms will still want to take notice of the survey, which indicates that most foreign companies simply don’t trust them all that much anyway, irrespective of the NSA. In total, 53 percent of respondents said they would not trust any of their critical data with a U.S. cloud company, end of story.

Read more: NSA spying caused 9 percent of foreign firms to dump U.S. clouds | SiliconANGLE

Netherlands: Apple rumored to be planning new European data center in Eemshaven

Apple's infrastructure team is believed to have been focused on the region as a possible expansion location for some time, according to a report from iPhoneClub.nl. The project, code named "Saturn," could bring as many as 200 new jobs to the area.

Eemshaven is a seaport in the Netherlands' Groningen province which has recently become a popular destination for international technology companies seeking an infrastructural foothold in Europe. The port is home to numerous power generating stations, including a 156-megawatt wind farm, and is also the landing point for a high-capacity transatlantic fiber optic cable managed by India's Tata Communications.

Search giant Google currently operates a 10,000 square meter facility in Eemshaven, and Microsoft has begun construction on a similarly-sized datacenter of its own in the area. Microsoft's new datacenter, which is thought to be representative of the type of facility Apple would construct, is being built at a cost of €2 billion ($2.7 billion).

Apple has been on a datacenter construction spree of late. The company completed a $1 billion facility in Maiden, North Carolia in 2012, and is currently in the process of opening similar sites in Prineville, Oregon and Reno, Nevada.

Apple will reportedly make a final decision on whether to officially add the Eemshaven site to its roster by the end of the year.

For more go to Apple Insider