Live data from Hacker News

Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

hakspek.com

71–80 of 289 posts

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#71
post #66

Happy linux desktop user here, I only need windows for turbotax once a year, so I will worry about this in Feb/Mar, anyone provides a cloud-based tax filing service?

Doesn't turbotax provide just that? I did my taxes with them last year and never left the browser.

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#72
post #68

People who use their google accounts and Chrome ubiquitously already get spied on by GA at a much bigger scale through all the sites they visit in their browser. Why is it a big uproar when it happens at the OS level? Seems like it's pretty much the same thing. We always have the option of using Linux if we don't like it.

Because the pressure should go in the opposite direction -- they should have to find users that want to be spied on, we shouldn't have to find operating systems that don't spy on us.

I wouldn't otherwise have used Windows had I known they'd be shoving their telemetry reporting down my throat.

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#73
post #22

Easiest way to block this for sure is probably going to be harvest a list of hostnames and/or IPs microsoft are using and block them at your border gateway/router. I've recently considered setting up a separate wifi SSID where everything outbound except DNS, and tcp 80/443 is blocked, as well as TLS SNI and plain HTTP logging just so this sort of thing can be monitored.

That's a fragile solution at best. One update could change the IP/hosts of the data harvesting servers.

Surely the data will be transmitted using TLS or equivalent; HTTP logging won't do you much good unless you can (a) MITM the TLS setup, or (b) extract the keys that the spyware is using.

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#74
post #67

I have a question that I can't seem to get a straight answer anywhere. If I were to use Win 10 Enterprise edition, could I theoretically disable all the spying and telemetry? It also now seems like we need two computers. One that is open for "spying" so the government looks at my usage and white-lists me as a "good citizen" and another computer that basically is encrypted and hides anything I don't want anyone to kno…

Or just one that runs open software...

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#75
post #61
post #2

2016 is the year of desktop linux. For the kind of people who care about this sort of thing. Also puts "Scroogle" into perspective.

It's since 2006 that every year is gonna be the year of linux on the desktop. Except it never happens.

I guess you haven't witnessed Corel Linux, Wordperfect for Linux or Loki Entertainment. It's been predicted way longer than 2006.

Ps. Sorry for the accidental downvote :(.

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#76
post #64
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Navarr is fully aware of the Linux desktop meme. It's clearly tongue-in-cheek

Yes, thank you. Though honestly the people who really do care about this will see the coming year as year of the Linux desktop. And to me it seems like a lot of HNers care that Windows is sending all this telemetry. (Aren't we the same group that is obsessed with A/B tests and recording analytics on everything a user does on our website?)

Agree. There seem to be hundreds of analytics services. Use of those is totally correct, obviously. The more specific the merrier.

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#77
post #68

People who use their google accounts and Chrome ubiquitously already get spied on by GA at a much bigger scale through all the sites they visit in their browser. Why is it a big uproar when it happens at the OS level? Seems like it's pretty much the same thing. We always have the option of using Linux if we don't like it.

Because it is easier to switch a browser then a OS and many just can't switch to linux.

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#79
post #68

People who use their google accounts and Chrome ubiquitously already get spied on by GA at a much bigger scale through all the sites they visit in their browser. Why is it a big uproar when it happens at the OS level? Seems like it's pretty much the same thing. We always have the option of using Linux if we don't like it.

Chrome -- as far as we know -- doesn't transmit all of your keystrokes to Google, nor does it transmit the contents or indexes of your local filesystem(s) back to Google.

Re: Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy on You Like Windows 10

#80
I submitted a story to Boing Boing (at http://boingboing.net/2015/08/10/windows-10.html) about the weird experience I had after upgrading my son's laptop from Windows 8.1 to 10. We did this on a Saturday, and Monday morning I had a "family safety report" email from Microsoft detailing which websites he'd visited, which apps he'd used (and for how long), etc. since the upgrade.

According to Microsoft's Family Safety FAQ (https://account.microsoft.com/family/faq/):

> On Windows 10, you’ll need a Microsoft account in order to use Microsoft family whether you’re a part of a family as an adult or a child. When kids are added to a Microsoft family with a Microsoft account, any time they sign in to a Windows 10 device, their settings will be applied and their activity will be reported to the adults in their family. Adults can always turn off activity reporting or remove kids from the Microsoft family at account.microsoft.com/family.

By default, unless you log in and explicitly disable it, Windows 10 collects kids' usage activity and uploads it to Microsoft's servers. Presumably the same mechanism is disabled for adults. Presumably.

I definitely didn't enable it, and I'm sure my son didn't check any "narc me out to my parents" checkbox.

Edit: we already had a family account set up for our Xbox. I suspect that's how Microsoft determined that the emails should go to me.

Post reply on HN