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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

#181
post #162
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember some months ago where they only claimed fixing something minor (like, something that's not even an executable but some text-based or at least data file) in the patch and the list included also a huge amount of files including cryptwhatever.dll (not the actual name). "Backdoor time" thought I. As little as I checked however, it didn't look like a real smoking gun then. It seems a common practice somehow tha…

It would be interesting to see what someone knowledgable would report back on by taking something like zynamics bindiff onto pre- and post this KB.

[deleted]

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

#182

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…

By default, unless you log in and explicitly disable it, Windows 10 collects kids' usage activity and uploads it to Microsoft's servers. Presumably the same mechanism is disabled for adults. Presumably.

And this is legal under COPPA? If so, the law needs to be fixed sooner rather than later.

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

#183
post #130
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The list of files modified (to add telemetry hooks?) in kb 3080149 is crazy. NTOSKrnl, NtDll, Lsass, winload.exe etc... Are they really adding spyware/telemetry hooks all the way down to the kernel? What happens next time there's a security patch for the kernel, do we get an ntoskrnl with all these "optional updates" included as well?

I remember some months ago where they only claimed fixing something minor (like, something that's not even an executable but some text-based or at least data file) in the patch and the list included also a huge amount of files including cryptwhatever.dll (not the actual name). "Backdoor time" thought I. As little as I checked however, it didn't look like a real smoking gun then. It seems a common practice somehow tha…

Reminds me of this: http://www.siao2.com/2011/03/22/10144474.aspx (see comment thread)

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

#184
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Also parents who's kids accidentally stumble upon a site for predators. It's a tool that can be used for good or bad, but will depend on the parents.

Heck, mistype a website name and accidentally get a porn site (ala the old whitehouse.com) and get in trouble.

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

#185
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You know, a couple of years ago I would have written that off as paranoid ranting.

No, I think it still is paranoid. It's just now provably true as well.

I'm not entirely sure how much I believe the "MS sniffs your keyboard every half hour". However, with that kid-sniffer (search this page for imgur); that's built in. That terrifies me.

And I'm thinking of LGBT, other religions, TOR, abortions and women's health, medical searches, domestic abuse searches, and more. And the allegations that the torrent sites are levying are also insane too.

I'm glad I've been working on Ubuntu and FreeBSD for the last 12 years. Unfortunately, I'm getting a nice writeup to the 2 directors I've passed an Intel Compute Stick to with Win10, alerting them of the situation.

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

#187

I think it's time that we don't ask of users to protect themselves by reading hundreds of pages of EULAs, and then ostracising themselves from mainstream electronics use (both at home, as well as at work) because they refuse to use software that's loaded with insane levels of spyware (record and transfer all voice and every keystroke). That's a large burden. It's perhaps time this becomes a legal matter rather than p…

There are a few practical issues to solve first.

Rules must apply over time. A "turn everything off" request shouldn't be able to transform into "except these new on-by-default features added in patch 1.01".

Software has bugs, including "off switches"; as such, even if there appears to be a way to shut everything off, I always assume that these may fail. The "over time" problem applies here, too; a year from now, some poor new guy tasked with maintaining these protection switches might screw up an update and break an off-switch that used to work fine.

Information is currently too valuable. As a society we really have to get to the point where the value of bits of data is so low that leaks don't matter. We sure as heck shouldn't have ways for criminals to screw you by knowing a single number that belongs to you!

Information is inherently hard to protect. Photos are very hard to protect; even if you had a new file format, encryption, low-level hardware that was physically incapable of accessing pixels without a key, memory that could not cache plain-data versions of the image, etc. there is still an easy way for someone to take out an iPhone and snap a copy of what they see on their screen and keep it forever. True photo security would practically require what is mandated for photocopiers with respect to counterfeiting; all cameras and all displays would have to be equally mandated to use watermarked images that encode encryption keys (e.g. your camera can only take a picture of another image if the associated key is one that has granted you access). And of course, that level of assurance could also be abused.

Ideally the average citizen would be able to grant and revoke keys for any and all organizations like Facebook or Microsoft, and systems and formats would be such that information is impossible to use once a key expires or has been revoked.

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

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 exploi…

I ran Chakra for a while -- although it's been a few years -- and wouldn't recommend them to people looking to switch from Windows. Unfortunately they weren't careful enough with their rolling updates and they would intermittently break installed applications, including at one point smb. So one day I could connect to Windows shares, the next day I couldn't.

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

#189
post #183
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember some months ago where they only claimed fixing something minor (like, something that's not even an executable but some text-based or at least data file) in the patch and the list included also a huge amount of files including cryptwhatever.dll (not the actual name). "Backdoor time" thought I. As little as I checked however, it didn't look like a real smoking gun then. It seems a common practice somehow tha…

Reminds me of this: http://www.siao2.com/2011/03/22/10144474.aspx (see comment thread)

Yes, it was something like that "we changed the currency letter in Nowhereislands, list of 30 changed files includes cryptography.dll, well, why not."

The currency letters are since forever nicely separated from the code in the data NLS files, I thought I knew.

Whatever, there are enough problematic actions we're sure of, seen in the other posts here.

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

#190
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

Was about to ask for an alternate source too. Last time this was posted, people pointed out this website was not reliable at all. A nice analysis by a well-known security researcher should exist to confirm that.

Here's a nice analysis by a well-known security researcher in response to that article. He could not confirm the results.

https://systemoverlord.com/blog/2015/08/16/so-is-windows-10-...

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