Hello,
Today I just about had a heart attack when I received an "Upgrading to Windows 11?" system notification, shortly after closing my Firefox browser session.
I value my privacy greatly and this is part of why I have been sticking with Firefox for almost 2 decades now (and keep converting people to using it), so I have taken considerable effort to protect my system from malicious Microsoft updates.
This is very important to me because Microsoft has been abusing Windows Updates to force Windows 11 updates on people which essentially act as trojans and have been reported to actually replace people's entire operating systems without their consent. There have also been reports of them sneaking some of the spyware components of Win11 into existing Win10 systems. The company can no longer be trusted but some software can not be immediately migrated to Linux, so for now a locked-down Windows 10 system is the only option.
For a moment, I thought Microsoft had somehow broken through/disabled my firewall and compromised my machine.
For some people, and in some countries, keeping your personal information safe literally means keeping you and your family safe, so this is not just some minor annoyance.
Thankfully it appears to have been Firefox itself springing a massively unappreciated jumpscare on me and not an actual system compromise. I checked the currently active studies and one called "Windows 10 EoS Sync Messaging" was active and completed.
Needless to say I was relieved, but I will not be allowing Firefox to run any studies or submit telemetry in the future.
