China Banned Windows 8 Due To Fears Of US Spying, After All

interview, Ni Guangnan, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences has said that the government might have banned Windows 8 due to fears that the United States could use it as a spying tool. It is not the operating system per se, that troubled authorities in China. But rather the built-in tools like Windows Defender and Windows SmartScreen, the two security solutions that receive updates and improvements from Microsoft. The Chinese government was afraid that these could be used to install backdoors on their computers, thereby accessing the data stored on these devices and networks. Obviously, Redmond does not agree with such claims and have refuted them multiple times. However, the Chinese government has already kick started the development of a nationwide Linux based alternative, which they hope to refine in such a way that it resembles Windows 8 in the look and feel department. Be interesting to see what they come up with.]]>