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Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

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Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#121

Post by Amezarak »

cookiecaper wrote: post #115
Amezarak wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I understand that there are legal barriers around it per the privacy policy but the fact that someone at Microsoft can just decide that they need file X off my laptop and then fetch it is way beyond the pale. If someone wants the files off my laptop, they can get a search warrant and successfully convince my lawyer that I am legally obliged to decrypt.

There is no evidence that Microsoft currently has the ability to arbitrarily fetch files from your computer.

If your argument is that they could implement such a capability, that's always been true for any OS, including free operating systems, unless you audit the code and compile it yourself.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#122

Post by weland »

mbq wrote: post #43
Gladdyu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

This can be solved by containers.

This has been solved for ages. Containers can help in some particular scenarios, but they're neither the only, nor the perfect solution, by far.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#123

Post by pdkl95 »

kuschku wrote: post #71
AlexandrB wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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://…

Can’t we remove them from dnsapi.dll? Decompile dnsapi.dll, remove all hardcoded hosts, replace and protect to a nonexistent group so that windows can’t even override it during an upgrade.

Then watch all that hard work get undone the next time Microsoft forces an update and bundles a "fixed" dnsapi.dll with some other important security fix.

Are you going to verify that there isn't a new backdoor in every single update that works around your changes? Or are you going to bypass that impossible task by not installing any future security updates?

Workarounds that try to make a hostile OS "safe" is doomed always having to play catch-up, and Microsoft can probably add problems faster than you can find them.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#124

Post by mbrutsch »

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.

Are you using 10 on a daily basis? My primary work machine is begging me to update, but I keep seeing reports of slowdowns and lockups.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#125

Post by skrowl »

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.

You you provide us with a powershell script or app that you used to disable all the call home stuff? It would be nice to have it all in one place.

FWIW, https://fix10.isleaked.com/ is what I've been going off of so far

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#126

Post by microtonal »

weland wrote: post #113
cletus wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing about Linux on the desktop "works fine". It's horrible. UI seems to be one area that benefits--almost demands --a central planning authority. I'm reminded of Supported Features [1]. There is some great open source software out there. But I'm struggling to think of great open source software with a good UI. Not that I'm saying Windows is good mind you. My personal preference would be OSX, which you can view as…

I have no love for the direction in which Linux desktop seems to be heading today, but engineering concerns aside, it's been working fine for a long time.

No, it's not. Besides driver problems, missing support for newer OpenGL standards, fragmentation of desktop environments and a dozen of other problems, it doesn't even have GUI isolation (meaning that any X11 application can sniff your keyboard input):

http://www.hackinglinuxexposed.com/articles/20040705.html

http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.de/2011/04/linux-security...

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#127

Post by r3bl »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #76
r3bl wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bec…

> but Windows stopped being my primary operating system ever since that whole Snowden scandal. Snowden released nothing specifically about Windows. No backdoors, no specific cooperation, only the NSA's bespoke malware (but they also have malware for everything under the sun, Linux, uEFI, RAID firmware, cell modems, etc). Sure, the NSA were spying on Microsoft by hooking the fiber lines between Microsoft's data center…

That whole PRISM thingy was the reason why I tried Linux. I didn't continue using it because I was scared for my privacy. I continued using it because it was awesome and satisfied every single one of my needs.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#128

Post by userbinator »

roosterjm2k2 wrote: post #112

So... Microsoft wants to stop piracy by trying to read users contents (or so they say) .. So in response, torrent sources help them by stoping them from downloading... So torrent sites are giving MS what they want?

Indeed, I can see this turning into a "if you don't use Windows 10 you must be a pirate/have something to hide" sort of argument. Ten years ago, when filesharing was the awesome new thing, that would've been almost a compliment; but given how the population's view of piracy seems to have changed now, I don't think that will be the case anymore.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#129

Post by Mithaldu »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #95
cletus wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing about Linux on the desktop "works fine". It's horrible. UI seems to be one area that benefits--almost demands --a central planning authority. I'm reminded of Supported Features [1]. There is some great open source software out there. But I'm struggling to think of great open source software with a good UI. Not that I'm saying Windows is good mind you. My personal preference would be OSX, which you can view as…

Linux on the Desktop works stunningly for me. Seeing as you're an OS X fan I'm going to link you to this HN thread so we can go ahead and stop pretending that trash OS "just works": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10010395 As far as OSS interfaces go, I wouldn't be surprised if you're using an open source browser right now, seeing as the closed source alternatives don't compare. Windows has nothing to show for t…

In terms of UI speed, stability and conscientious use of memory without leaks, Opera 12 on Windows is still unbeaten.

Re: Windows 10 users are being banned from torrent sites

#130

Post by jsf666 »

Beltiras wrote: post #25
jsf666 wrote: post #17

Shouldn't the built-in botnet/spyware push all major companies and goverments away from Windows? I don't know how they would be ok with all they're data sent/shared with them (and probably a dozen of US agencies). It's like buying a rooted by design system

The Enterprise version (reportedly) can disable the call-home "feature". Even that is in contention thou. Yes. I think this is a massive mistake on Microsoft's part.

Or alteast you think it does. The thing is as I said with a rooted box, after it's rooted you can never be sure there ain't no backdoor left. It doesn't need to regularly communicate with an external server, it can probably dump data at some odd dates so it's much harder to track. The thing is there is no damage control with a botnet client by design like Windows 10
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