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I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

jonathan.porta.codes

281–290 of 596 posts

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#282
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Windows is now essentially a personalized, cloud-based operating system with the primary interface as a personal assistant." Who wanted that for desktop computers or laptops? This is not going to fly with business customers. Microsoft has already bombed twice in the business space, with Windows Vista and Windows 8. This looks like another bomb. Windows 7 is still pretty good, and it will probably be the main Microso…

Who wanted that for desktop computers or laptops? This is not going to fly with business customers. ...nor with some private customers. Microsoft seems to be overlooking that not all nations are so happy about "the cloud" as the average American seems to be. Germany for one, where I currently live, is much more sceptical of sharing personal data -- potentially motivated by some of its 20th century history. But all th…

And yet to do your tax online in Germany you'll have to use Elster which is Windows only. Telling them I'll sign my pdfs with SHA-256 didn't help... So back to cellulose data carriers

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#283

"Send typing and inking data to Microsoft to improve the recognition and suggestion platform" "Typing data" sounds like keylogging. If it's what it sounds like, that's really emphatically not okay; that would include all passwords and the contents of all emails sent. Would someone with actual knowledge care to chime in and say what data is actually sent? If it turns out that Windows 10 really is sending keystrokes to…

I wager what that means is if you hand-write and then type the same text, Windows will/can send the typed & hand-written version to a server, where it can be used to improve the handwriting recognition, either for that specific user or for everybody everywhere.

The problem is there's no like "more info" icon you can click to get an explanation of what it means.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#284
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a Jolla. Sailfish is probably better in this respect (or at least the company is smaller). That said, all that data harvested and used to customize the interface for you is indeed convenient.

I'm using Nokia 106. Calls. Texts. Nothing else. I turn it off at 6pm and on at 9am. Doesn't have data, GPS, Bluetooth or WiFi so that's not a problem. The best it gives is rough triangulation data from cell towers but I can leave it at home and do nefarious things to my own heart's content if I so desire (not that I intend to).

Also makes decent voice calls, which seems to be more than most smartphones can manage ;-)

PS Are you sure it doesn't have Bluetooth?

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#285
post #248

It's too bad that microsoft continues to be villainized when companies like Facebook and Google have social networks and browsers respectively that have similar practices that users are even more unaware of when they use them. Computers these days have become thin clients for browsers (especially for the typical consumer). Except for the occasional open of Word or Excel, you're in your web browser browsing the web an…

Yes but it's an OS, not web services like Google of Facebook.

It is a whole new level of intrusion IMO.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#286
It looks like Microsoft has installed the "back door" that FBI Director Comey wanted.[1][2] That may be the real motivation behind these "features". The "backing up" of the local drive encryption key to Microsoft servers is one of the things the FBI specifically asks for. Any press reading this, ask Microsoft what communications they've had with the FBI regarding backdoors.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/08/fbi-chief-... [2] http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/16/fbi-director-...

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#287
post #177

You are worried your data is sent to MS and sold to advertisers? All your personal data has already been stolen by foreign hackers so why worry? Privacy is already dead. We would need to rethink an awful lot of things to get it back.

> foreign hackers

Don't drink the Kool-Aid.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#288
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using Nokia 106. Calls. Texts. Nothing else. I turn it off at 6pm and on at 9am. Doesn't have data, GPS, Bluetooth or WiFi so that's not a problem. The best it gives is rough triangulation data from cell towers but I can leave it at home and do nefarious things to my own heart's content if I so desire (not that I intend to).

Also makes decent voice calls, which seems to be more than most smartphones can manage ;-) PS Are you sure it doesn't have Bluetooth?

Yes. It's as dumb as a 3310.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#289
post #124

https://projectbullrun.org/surveillance/2015/video-2015.html... Of course MS wants to get in on surveillance-as-a-business-model. It keeps people tied to your Service as a Software Substitute, and as long long as most people are still ignorant about how technology works, they won't notice how the stalker-like nature of a lot of modern soft^H^H^H^Hmalware. As for the few nerds that notice, they can probably be shut up…

I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about this very issue, and I must go back and forth weekly. My first reaction is to want to defend the ignorant, to try to educate them and work to protect them from being taken advantage of. But when you talk to people about it, _their_ apathy and indifference is what leads me to stop caring. I've tried for years to educate friends, family, and coworkers on digital priva…

There is no hope. Simple as that.

There's a surprising connection between the reasons for people's ignorance of privacy and the complete and utter inability of an untrained person's mind to spend even just 15 minutes with itself.

Think about that.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#290

I've never understood how people can truly believe that by checking (or unchecking) a checkbox their privacy will be fully protected. Especially since we're talking about a closed-source OS. I mean I cannot possibly verify what exactly goes on in the annals of the operating system and what happens to my data, where it is logged and where it is stored and how it is sent. So regardless of the settings, I always assume…

There is some risk but it's not high. Microsoft is a huge, rich company. If it leaked they were violating their own privacy policy that blatantly, there would be the mother of all class action lawsuits. There would federal CFAA, Economic Espionage Act, etc., investigations plus antitrust abuse investigations.

How do you explain PRISM and similar revelations about surveilance and spying ?

The corporation itself might behave like an angel, but there are agencies which can force it to open or install backdoors. Given that the number of such requests is relatively small, the probability of it being detected is low and even if the victim does notice it, then the corp can always say - "they twisted our hands".

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