[dupe] Full Writeup of the Windows GDID
Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
71–80 of 170 posts
Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know people who avoid US tech and happily use Chinese or Russian tech here in central Europe. Not trusting US tech isn't new, it just gets a lot worse
I actually opened a yandex mail account 15 years ago because, since I was going to be tracked, at least it would be from people who have no friendly contact with most gov entities and companies in my society. Sad.
I heard same argument with telegram (however I wouldnt consider it to be Russian tech these days) but yes. Choose your poison, basically. And some entities definitely seem(ed) less evil to our society than others.
Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#73This goes a long way to prove that Microsoft does NOT care about your privacy, even if the header of their cookie consent claims so. They absolutely do not care, and this should be said about every big-tech vendor, not matter how lame it seems to say so. It is long overdue that we all say what needs to be said: they do not care about your privacy, your independence, or your well being. They DO NOT CARE.
Big news: Fork found in kitchen
Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#74The interesting part is not really the existence of a machine identifier. Almost every modern OS has some equivalent. The bigger question is the boundary: which components can access it, and when does a local identifier become a remote tracking identifier? A machine-id sitting on disk is very different from an OS vendor correlating it with network activity.
Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#75Well they can’t use that to track users of Linux. I was a big fan of Microsoft ten to fifteen years ago. I’ve since transitioned my whole family off Microsoft products now over to Linux, Apple, and proton. Edit: and Brave. I really thought their corporate culture would’ve changed after the late 90’s but I guess this is a good lesson for founders. The culture you build into your company will likely outlast your tenure…
Aww you missed the Ballmer Years. Chalked full of "me too!"'s and broken promises. But he was right about one thing. Developers, developers, developers...
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Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#76Android has one too. If you don't link your google account to an app, they can use your device id as your profile.
Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#77I guess we’ll see a Windows tool that sets your identifier to this suspect’s “g:6755467234350028” very soon (weird ID, by the way. 16-digits makes sense, but I would have expected it to be hexadecimal) Also, can anybody tell how “Microsoft had records showing that on May 12, 2025, at 19:21 UTC, the GDID associated with Stokes’ computer “accessed, among other ngrok pages, ' https://dashboard[.]ngrok.com/signup ,'” wor…
A non-Edge browser would give the OS the domain name from the HTTPS connection and the page title because that's what it sets the window title to. I think that would be enough to identify the URL in a lot of cases (i.e. the sign-up URL sets the title to "ngrok Sign Up".
Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> motivated adversaries. This sounds like you're referring to state actors and intelligence agencies, but really this applies to the entire advertising/surveillance industry of people trying to sell you a new flavor of soda.
Sure, but the problem then is not systemd machineid, but rather the browser reading it and making it available for such identification (don't know if there is a browser out there doing that though). Unless anonymization is provided by your browser, there is nothing you can do to prevent such identification technology run by these advertisers to build your profile, and send you targeted ads.
> Unless anonymization is provided by your browser, there is nothing you can do to prevent such identification technology
The OS could treat certain apps as untrusted and spoof or limit the access to these unique identifiers.
Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#79US Tech is fast becoming like Russia's and China's.
Why when Americans do something do we feel like we have to mention the Russians and the Chinese?
Maybe I'm just bad at PR, though. If we call this "Chinese" behavior, maybe it will appeal a particular demographic who would normally support it in order to protect them from "Black Crime."
Re: Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
#80Well they can’t use that to track users of Linux. I was a big fan of Microsoft ten to fifteen years ago. I’ve since transitioned my whole family off Microsoft products now over to Linux, Apple, and proton. Edit: and Brave. I really thought their corporate culture would’ve changed after the late 90’s but I guess this is a good lesson for founders. The culture you build into your company will likely outlast your tenure…
I remember a long time ago intel tried introducing unique IDs for their processors. People got up in arms made a big stink and intel put its tail between its legs. Many years later, the industry through a thousand little cuts has that and more with merely a whimper because it’s not a single big boogey entity but it’s diluted across hundreds of thousands of developers who deployed a myriad ways to fingerprint their users…