From the perspective of a person whose standard for an operating system is "zero invasion of privacy", there's nothing particularly inflammatory about the article.
It's fine if your expectations are less rigorous; you simply aren't part of the article's intended audience.
I know ubuntu, osx and windows 7 phone home for certains scenarios. Until you are running some *BSD box, you aren't getting that "zero invasion of privacy", you just think you are.
It's fine if your expectations are less rigorous; you simply aren't part of the article's intended audience.