Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#61

Post by jand » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:33 PM UTC

analog31 wrote: post #56

Ask HN: Could Win10 data leaks be managed by some kind of firewall or parental-control software? I mean, if we know what sites are being accessed, just block those sites.

There are numerous sites (eg [1]) which claim to provide a list of FQDNs associated with Windows 10 telematics. These sites usually advise you to reroute those FQDN to localhost via the hosts file.

To my point of view this is a endless game of cat-and-mice... finding the (changing?) telematics FQDNs and updating the hosts file. By design this cannot be a permanent solution.

[1] http://news.softpedia.com/news/blocking-these-domains-stops-...

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#62

Post by KaterKarlo123 » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:33 PM UTC

x5n1 wrote: post #13

Basically M$ adoption of this strategy is the death knell for any semblance of privacy on the PC. It's amazing how far we have come to accepting such draconian measures in order to further marketing. There is still time people, come on over to Linux, the privacy here is still fine and will continue to be fine. And if you come over, then all the desktop software makers will port their software to Linux and all the col…

I've deactivated all reporting and services that call back home (at least which I was aware of). In addition I've installed glasswire to check the network activities.

So far I can assure you: Compared to my Android phone Windows 10 is absolutely mute. There're no noticeable differences compared to Windows 7.

You seem to be more driven by your hatred towards Microsoft than by real privacy concerns.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#63

Post by r3bl » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:34 PM UTC

admax88q wrote: post #53

datalist wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$? (and no, I dont mean the shell's exit code) The 90s called and would like to have their hatred back. As for privacy issues in your recommendation -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_%28user_interface%29#Pri...

He said use Linux, not "Ubuntu" There are plenty of linux distro that _do_ respect your privacy.

Yeah, like every single other Linux distro. I think Ubuntu is actually the only one doing this and yet, even in Ubuntu, it takes literally two or three clicks to turn this feature off.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#64

Post by AlexandrB » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:35 PM UTC

analog31 wrote: post #56

Ask HN: Could Win10 data leaks be managed by some kind of firewall or parental-control software? I mean, if we know what sites are being accessed, just block those sites.

Yes, but the lists I've seen look huge [1]. It also requires 3rd party software/hardware to block since the name resolution for many of the endpoints seems to be hardcoded into dnsapi.dll. There's also no guarantee that some security update will add additional server names that Windows can talk to. Basically you end up in a security arms race with your OS provider - which is hard if not impossible to win.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-w...

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#65

Post by Crito » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:36 PM UTC

datalist wrote: post #28

rbanffy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that, unlike Windows, you can turn it off.

Except for telemetry (and that you can turn off in the Enterprise edition as well) you can turn off all these features.

How many clicks and keypresses does it take to turn it all off?

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#66

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:37 PM UTC

Gladdyu wrote: post #35

x5n1 wrote: post #13

Basically M$ adoption of this strategy is the death knell for any semblance of privacy on the PC. It's amazing how far we have come to accepting such draconian measures in order to further marketing. There is still time people, come on over to Linux, the privacy here is still fine and will continue to be fine. And if you come over, then all the desktop software makers will port their software to Linux and all the col…

"port their software to Linux". The main issue there is that there is not one single linux, the market is very fragmented. Getting the binary format right (which is the same across distros) is the trivial part, just set the proper compiler backend. The hard part would be getting all dependencies and especially IO sorted out. The wide range of display managers, audio drivers that needs to be supported to simply "port…

[deleted]

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#67

Post by x5n1 » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:37 PM UTC

KaterKarlo123 wrote: post #62

x5n1 wrote: post #13

Basically M$ adoption of this strategy is the death knell for any semblance of privacy on the PC. It's amazing how far we have come to accepting such draconian measures in order to further marketing. There is still time people, come on over to Linux, the privacy here is still fine and will continue to be fine. And if you come over, then all the desktop software makers will port their software to Linux and all the col…

I've deactivated all reporting and services that call back home (at least which I was aware of). In addition I've installed glasswire to check the network activities. So far I can assure you: Compared to my Android phone Windows 10 is absolutely mute. There're no noticeable differences compared to Windows 7. You seem to be more driven by your hatred towards Microsoft than by real privacy concerns.

Hatred for Microsoft? I have none. I do hate the fact that we have an absolutely free operating system that works just fine but thanks to Bill Gates 90s shenanigans and aggressive and illegal market and business tactics we're stuck with a proprietary system that is totally unnecessary and as it continues that system becomes more and more invasive. And that system is a black box that you can't trust.

Google started engineering features that were supposedly opt-in but they were so convenient that most people opted in anyway. Google forced people to divulge their data, for instance location, for navigation. It did not actually need the level of data it collects to provide navigation, it was just a way to steal their location privacy to increase its marketing reach and to improve the service not necessarily for the user but for its own business needs. How long before Microsoft starts employing the same tactics. You know you have a choice but it's a totally false choice!

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#68

Post by aikah » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:37 PM UTC

Amezarak wrote: post #31

mtgx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not overkill when a company scans every single file you have in your PC, keeps those logs on its servers, and then eventually can and likely will share that information with others, from law enforcement to MPAA or even advertising companies. Microsoft has already admitted in its "privacy" policy that it can and will do such thing: > “We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (su…

You left out the circumstances under which they will share your data. > comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies; > protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone; > operate and maintain the security of our services, includin…

> That seems perfectly reasonable

No that's not , and what is shocking is that you find it "perfectly reasonable".

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#69

Post by r3bl » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:40 PM UTC

KaterKarlo123 wrote: post #62

x5n1 wrote: post #13

Basically M$ adoption of this strategy is the death knell for any semblance of privacy on the PC. It's amazing how far we have come to accepting such draconian measures in order to further marketing. There is still time people, come on over to Linux, the privacy here is still fine and will continue to be fine. And if you come over, then all the desktop software makers will port their software to Linux and all the col…

I've deactivated all reporting and services that call back home (at least which I was aware of). In addition I've installed glasswire to check the network activities. So far I can assure you: Compared to my Android phone Windows 10 is absolutely mute. There're no noticeable differences compared to Windows 7. You seem to be more driven by your hatred towards Microsoft than by real privacy concerns.

I have a license for like every single Microsoft's product (Windows 8.1, Office 365, Dreamspark account, 1 TB of data on OneDrive, some Skype premium minutes) and yet, I completely agree with him. I love Microsoft's products and I'm using them when I need to use them, but Windows stopped being my primary operating system ever since that whole Snowden scandal.

People just automatically assume that I hate Microsoft because I'm using Linux as the only operating system on my primary laptop. That's not even remotely the case.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#70

Post by fredoliveira » Mon, Aug 24, 2015, 12:42 PM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #29

datalist wrote: post #15

What does that even mean? How would they ban Windows 10 users from trackers? A bit of more details wouldnt be bad.

Bittorrent clients send something equivalent to a user-agent. I haven't looked into it, but I'd guess that typically includes the operating system?

They typically report a name, version number and sometimes the operating system. Normally, they wouldn't report enough information to let the tracker know if it's actually a windows 10 machine running the client.