alterbentzion

My one experience with id.me was frustrating and unsuccessful. I had to sign up with them to preregister for a drive-through COVID PCR test a couple of weeks ago. Their questions, and the proofs they asked for, were seriously intrusive, especially for a company I'd never even heard of before - so much so that I would only provide them with my phone number. When that proved insufficient, I decided to skip the whole business and sign up the old-fashioned way when I got to the testing center.

Three points:

1 - The functionality of the MS app store - and any apps purchased from it - relies heavily on the Windows registry, which is a bundle of hurt. Try migrating a Mac user's existing home folder (apps, etc., included) to a secondary, non-boot drive; it works, seamlessly. Then try doing the same for a Windows user who relies on MS's app store and its apps; it almost requires superpowers!

2 - There are free, third-party apps which claim to protect against ransomware, camera/mic exploitation, etc. I happen to run a couple by Objective-See, but I'm sure there are others.

3 - There are a lot of innocent, babes-in-the-woods-type users who are not at all stupid, but who are overwhelmed or intimidated by technology. People like this are especially vulnerable to socially engineered exploits.