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Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#5

Post by jinst8gmi »

"44.5 billion minutes spent by users in the Microsoft Edge browser across Windows 10 devices"

I wonder how much of that was spent downloading Firefox or Chrome?

"30% more Bing search queries per Windows 10 device versus previous versions of the OS"

I can't imagine that this is due to anything other than the OS and browser defaults?

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#6

Post by tomswartz07 »

Here's a 100% serious question:

If you 'absolutely must' use Windows 10, would it be possible to firewall off every outbound port from this machine to prevent this sort of tracking? Or does it just use Port 80, piggybacking on the normal http traffic?

Has anyone done a comprehensive analysis of exactly how this info is being sent?

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#7

Post by mikegerwitz »

Let's start gathering statistics on how many times people open their refrigerator, or use the toilet, or take a shower.

What's more concerning about these data aren't these specific numbers, but what other data that implies that they have, what they can do with it, and what they can infer about you from it. Privacy and anonymity aren't (reasonably) possible on a Windows 10 operating system.

Any entity knowing that I have even turned on my PC---without explicit action to notify someone of such, such as posting this message or sending e-mail---is a privacy violation.

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#8

Post by akerro »

jinst8gmi wrote: post #5

"44.5 billion minutes spent by users in the Microsoft Edge browser across Windows 10 devices" I wonder how much of that was spent downloading Firefox or Chrome? "30% more Bing search queries per Windows 10 device versus previous versions of the OS" I can't imagine that this is due to anything other than the OS and browser defaults?

Aren't Bing searches included when you search for local files?
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