I think MS is getting a bit shifty in how it coerces you to have an MS account.
It's finding more and more ways to get you on the inside. One example of many...Diagnostics collected about your device and how you use it.
By default,this diagnostics collecting is turned on. When you discover this, information has already been collected about you.
You opt to turn off this collecting. MS tells you that you can view the collected data by turning on the Diagnostics Data Viewer. When you click on this option, you are told you will need a new app to open this ms-windows-store link. (and of course, you will need an MS account to get that link).
Surely, having an MS account is not such a bad thing, but the methods MS uses to get your membership, in my opinion, is.
I was not required to have an MS account in order for MS to collect this data. Why should I be required to have an account to see that collected data?
This tactic reminds me of the MyLife scheme where it collects data on you and assigns you a reputation score. Then, you are asked to pay to have that low score changed to a higher score.
I will have little faith in MS as long as it relies on the assumed ignorance (and in many cases, complacency) of its customers to achieve many of its goals.
MS:
"Optional diagnostic data also includes information about the websites you browse",
Required diagnostic data. "This data is transmitted to Microsoft and stored with one or more unique identifiers that can help us recognize an individual user on an individual device"..
