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

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

#151

Post by kardos »

[deleted] wrote: post #137
kardos wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is any of this verified? During a previous posting of this it was largely dismissed as propaganda [1]. If someone has reproduced these findings that would be very interesting. What would be even more interesting would be for someone to intercept the spying data that is being sent back so we know for sure what's being sent. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10053420

[deleted]

Yes, it does. A fictitious list presented as fact does not contribute to the discussion. We know that Win 10 transmits lots of data to various hosts, and their recent privacy policy outlines a plausible, yet vague description of what is being sent. It is quite possibly deliberately incomplete/vague, and legitimate account of what is being sent would contribute greatly.

As for being safe and maintaining privacy, it is well established that the solution is to move to an open system.

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

#152

Post by kstrauser »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #147
kstrauser wrote: post #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…

Abusive parents are going to love this. (And that's terrifying.)

I know, right? A kid thinks they're safely researching things that are important to them, but that's not at all true.

Statistically, it's almost certain that a kid somewhere has been beaten because of what their parents read in that report. When we're developing new features, we have to take into account ways they'll be twisted and abused. If anyone evaluated this before its development, and they were intellectually honest with themselves, these consequences had to have been dismissed as collateral damage. That makes me sad.

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

#153

Post by kefka »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #147
kstrauser wrote: post #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…

Abusive parents are going to love this. (And that's terrifying.)

Better hope the kid isn't GLBT in a right winger christian family.

That would not go over well.

"Microsoft outed me, and now I'm homeless", says 17 year old.

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

#155

Post by kefka »

kstrauser wrote: post #119
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that's insane! And I'm glad you're an awesome parent. You should post a anonymised screenshot of that email sometime if you can, this is pretty ridiculous.

Ask and ye shall receive: http://imgur.com/eeBtcIw Bear in mind that it's nearly empty because we'd only just recently upgraded to Windows 10, but note that it has an entry for "Latest searches". Wouldn't that be one hell of a way for a kid to come out of the closet to his parents, or for someone to find out their daughter's pregnant? Consider that this data is linked to each kid's email address. When this database i…

No.

The schools provide laptops to the kids. And then make them "kid accounts". Then the school process all of those reports and punishes based on them... or sells them to advertising firms.

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

#156

Post by anonbanker »

Achshar wrote: post #102
inevitable2 wrote: post #90

Here is a more in-depth analysis of windows 10 and what is sent to MS http://aeronet.cz/news/analyza-windows-10-ve-svem-principu-j... For those who don't speak Czech: -It sends all text you type anywhere (not just into search) every 30 minutes to MS. If you type about a holiday to your blog, next day you'll see holiday ads. -Every 30 minutes it sends your geo-location and network information. -If you type a telephone…

Shit, that may just have changed my opinion on this. Is the first one really correct? Anything we type on a PC anywhere? So if I open up tor and load a site it's basically useless because any url I type in tor will go to ms anyways? WTF? Each and every one of those is completely unacceptable. Anyone know about any good unix distros that wont be too much of a culture shock to someone who has used windows his entire li…

KDE is the closest to windows. Start with Chakra[1] or KaOS [2] if you want it to "just work" (both are Arch-based). If you want to tinker, go Manjaro KDE.

If you want to have to earn back every single piece of hardware in your computer, and end up becoming a Linux superhero when you're done, install Gentoo.

If you're concerned about privacy or rights, avoid Ubuntu and Redhat distros, as they have a history of exploiting both users and the free software licenses they purport to honor.

The most software-compatible is Debian, but games/steamOS run on all x86-based distributions.

1. http://chakraos.org/

2. http://kaosx.us/

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

#157

Post by rasz_pl »

nly wrote: 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.

Windows internal firewall blocks everything just fine. So far there are no secret allow lists present.

Enable 'Deny all outgoing' and start adding your own Egress filtering rules.

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

#158

Post by zurn »

rileyteige wrote: post #25

If I could figure out my wireless card/GPU drivers, I'd swap to Linux in a heartbeat. Plug-n-play drivers is the only reason I'm still on that closed-source OS. Just don't have the patience to hunt down third-party drivers.

Just get the right hardware with good Linux support, it all just works then. You won't find any lasting happiness by digging deeper into the third party drivers swamp. (all-Intel for wifi and graphics is the safest bet)

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

#159

Post by kardos »

McGlockenshire wrote: post #132
kardos wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're posting FUD. Those permissions are required in the context of Cortana, so Cortana can work. Keep Cortana off and turn off the services, and nothing gets transmitted. It's literally no worse than the conditions you agree to when using Siri or Ok Google / Google Now.

If you'll allow Wikipedia to define FUD [1],

> FUD is generally a strategic attempt to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information.

What part is dubious or false? Do you need me to quote the Win 10 privacy policy?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt

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

#160

Post by kefka »

throwaway77632 wrote: post #92

No wonder they intend to no longer describe what's in an update... Only using Windows in a VM still. Just set the network connection host-only. Didn't really need internet there anyway, and given these circumstances, I might as well get rid of it completely. I guess any inclination I had to think Microsoft is on the way up just vanished again. Too bad it also means I'm probably going to throw away my plans of diving…

If you want to get into functional programming, check out Haskell or Erlang.

Both run well on Linux.

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