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I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

jonathan.porta.codes

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Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#421

Post by ricree »

phjesusthatguy3 wrote: post #182
MichaelGG wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah there should definitely be a "Hey Cortana, off the record,..." query mode. I'm a bit conflicted now. My girls are 7 & 9 and they've been using Microsoft Accounts. With the final Win10 build having all this (none of these settings worked a few months ago), it looks like I've got a lot of reading and explaining to do for them.

If you don't have any Windows-only applications keeping your younger-than-double-digit children on Windows, well then now is your chance to put them on anything-other-than-Windows. My own children are still using computers with Windows 7. They play Spore (Windows only), Sims 3 (Windows only) Minecraft (Java, so playable anywhere), Osu! (no idea, really), and a couple of other games. I have no intention of upgrading W…

I have no idea about the Sims, but I've run Spore under Wine without noticable issue.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#423

Post by pdabbadabba »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #338
matthewmacleod wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate what you're trying to say, but ultimately... Sucks to be you. If you don't want others to share that data, you'll have to stop interacting with them.

Do you hold such a hard line stance on the moral correctness of revenge porn, I wonder? After all, if you don't want others to share the data, you shouldn't interact with them.

There is a clear moral distinction to be drawn between people who use Windows 10 knowing that it might be sharing some data with Microsoft, so its algorithms can streamline certain everyday tasks and those who maliciously upload their exes' sex tapes to the Internet without their consent.

There are huge differences here on at least three crucial dimensions: intent of the sharer, the audience with whom it is shared, and the sensitivity of the data shared.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#424

Post by throwaway125 »

batou wrote: post #307
Zarel wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And let me guess, they don't have your phone number memorized; they probably save your phone number in their phone's contacts list alongside your name, which is automatically backed up in the cloud in either Google Contacts or iCloud depending on what phone they use. Expecting your friends not to use cloud services seems a bit unreasonable and unenforceable. Are you really going to tell all your friends they should w…

No as that information is public. What we talk about isn't.

While your name and phone number are public, the list of people who have your phone number saved is not public. These companies can effectively map who you associate with only by looking at other people's phones. They can profile you by association, and that is very wrong.

At some point privacy is no longer a choice, not a real choice anyway. You get to chose between participating in society or keeping your privacy. It shouldn't have to be this way, but it is.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#425

Post by vmay »

batou wrote: post #306
juliangregorian wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you really are as charming in real life as you are online, people might indeed accede to your quaint insistence on anachronistic media, until they don't . Personally, I require that all my so-called friends communicate with me in morse code over short wave radio. It works a treat.

I was a QRP operator so that's actually quite funny.

I like CW too :)

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#426

Post by jsz0 »

Animats wrote: post #167
ewzimm wrote: post #20

Windows is now essentially a personalized, cloud-based operating system with the primary interface as a personal assistant, so I expected to see all these things as defaults. The advanced features just couldn't work without it. I'm glad there's at least an opt-out, but I do think that Windows needs an OS-wide incognito mode, just a simple switch to record or not record data. I generally use that on my browser for whe…

"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…

> This is not going to fly with business customers.

If businesses fall too far behind adopting modern software/features their employees are familiar with using on personal devices they will have to accept reduced productivity.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#427

Post by rando3826 »

autoexec wrote: post #365
natmaster wrote: post #198

I find it shocking how people readily accept Google's far worse policies, and yet are so concerned about an easy opt out. For instance, in Android, Google tracks with GPS accuracy your whereabouts constantly. This isn't just what IP your desktop is attached to. Furthermore, there is no prompt telling you this happens with a very easy way of undoing. In fact even if you knew about this it is very hard to find a way to…

> I find it shocking how people readily accept Google's far worse policies, and yet are so concerned about an easy opt out. For me it's because I control my interaction with Google. I don't use their search for things I don't want them recording, I don't use gmail for conversations I expect to be private. Once your talking about the private files I store on my hard drive and access with the OS, the keystrokes I enter…

And MS made it hard to change operating systems. On linux, you get live oses, and easy multi-os with a boot menu. With msft making it hard/impossible to change oses with secureboot, it's just not possible to suspend disbelief that your interests have any reasonable parity with msft's own interests.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#428

Post by efiftythree »

Animats wrote: post #167
ewzimm wrote: post #20

Windows is now essentially a personalized, cloud-based operating system with the primary interface as a personal assistant, so I expected to see all these things as defaults. The advanced features just couldn't work without it. I'm glad there's at least an opt-out, but I do think that Windows needs an OS-wide incognito mode, just a simple switch to record or not record data. I generally use that on my browser for whe…

"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…

Business customers still retain all the capabilities of managing the deployment and activation of Windows features, settings, and updates.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#430

Post by kctess5 »

pdkl95 wrote: post #419
jimrandomh wrote: post #52

"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…

> what data is actually sent? It's important to remember that it doesn't matter what MS is doing today. What matters is what the force-updated version will do in the future. Or did everybody forget that you cannot prevent updates in this version?

Think about this... If more things forced auto-updates, we might not have been forced to support ie6 for so damn long. It's a trade off. Instant security patches, instant support for new standards, etc, all without having to worry about all of those users who just will not press that "update" button. Sounds like a pretty decent plan to me.

I would be fairly surprised if Microsoft didn't re-display TOS after each update, so feel free to keep an eye out. If you really really care about this kind of thing, then I might suggest avoiding products that are tightly integrated with private entities as a general rule.

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