Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

jonathan.porta.codes

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 596 posts

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#261

Post by iambitjelly »

freehunter wrote: post #212
iambitjelly wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This: https://twitter.com/GazTheJourno/status/626736454610366465 According to these screen shots, this guy got skincare product ads in his start menu. I can't verify because I noped out of anything that smelled like ads right from the get-go. Also, classic shell. !!!EDIT: I know it looks shopped, which is why I said I couldn't verify it. Windows Store app ads are quite real though.

If you know it's fake, why would you bother posting it or even bringing it up? "Its awesome living in a mansion! According to this picture, this is what my mansion looks like" "!!!EDIT: I know I don't own a mansion, but other people do and this is what it would look like if I had one."

Because the windows store app ads are themselves real, so the principal point stands. There's no need to get up in arms over it.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#262

Post by twerkmonsta »

niyogi wrote: 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…

Facebook and Google don't log all of my keystrokes across my entire operating system. As far as I know, Google doesn't even log keystrokes within the browser.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#263

Post by sudioStudio64 »

pjc50 wrote: post #149
sudioStudio64 wrote: post #3

Of course you did. Large companies have no vested interest in building systems that do the "right thing" for you as defined by tech types like us who are arguably more sensitive on this subject than most people. They are building services that take your information and try to do something interesting enough with it to make it worthwhile...and why is it on by default? Because they want to make money off of the new fea…

I suspect people are downvoting your cynicism.

That's the thing, though. I find the constant kvetching about privacy the most cynical thing. None of these posts are news, new information, or even a new take on existing information.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#264

Post by batou »

bpodgursky wrote: post #251
quadrangle wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not consent to you and others giving Microsoft (or Google or Facebook etc…) all the personal information this necessarily reveals about me when you accept their terms and have any electronic interactions with me.

That's not your consent to give. If you tell me your name, I'm free to repeat that to whoever I want. If you aren't ok with public information being re-broadcasted, don't go outside.

Actually in the UK it is covered by the Data Protection Act. Interesting times ahead. If you knowingly or unknowningly give personal information away without my consent this is illegal.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#265

Post by [deleted] »

twerkmonsta wrote: post #262
niyogi wrote: 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…

Facebook and Google don't log all of my keystrokes across my entire operating system. As far as I know, Google doesn't even log keystrokes within the browser.

[deleted]

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#266

Post by TeMPOraL »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #257
TeMPOraL wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not nearly as fast as cloud recognition has. How is that? Desktop systems respond quickly, cloud systems often respond after a second - it takes time for data to do a round-trip over crappy mobile connection. Mobile latency is a big thing. I agree wrt. Cortana (and Siri, Google Now) - most of the things you use them for will require Internet access. But there are still a lot of things that you could do with voice t…

I was referring to the improving part. joosters said desktop recognition has been improving, I meant that cloud has been improving faster. Which is true, all the big companies are focusing on cloud-based recognition. The improvements might eventually come to desktop recognition systems, but even that's not a guarantee given where the focus seems to be.

Fair enough. I didn't realize that you were just referring to that. And I agree with your assessment about relative speed of improvement.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#267

Post by sudioStudio64 »

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…

Businesses actually have very different privacy arrangements than individual consumers. Its a function of how much they spend.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#268

Post by scholia »

ctdonath wrote: post #128
venomsnake wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PGP solves all of those. Encrypt on device and prevent the cloud operator of seeing anything.

IIRC, that's what Apple is trying to do: they'll provide all kinds of cloud services, but in a way that they know as little as possible about the content beyond what's vital to providing the relevant service. Apple is trying to sell hardware, which a robust encrypted cloud experience tied to that hardware will do. Microsoft is trying to make money from the operating system; since they're giving it away for free, they…

Not actually true. Windows 10 is not free, and Microsoft is not giving away the operating system.

What Microsoft is doing is giving consumers a free upgrade on Win7/8 PCs where the operating system has already been paid for.

This is basically the strategy already used by Apple and Google (Android): once you have bought the OS (bundled with the hardware) then you get updates free.

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#269

Post by niyogi »

twerkmonsta wrote: post #262
niyogi wrote: 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…

Facebook and Google don't log all of my keystrokes across my entire operating system. As far as I know, Google doesn't even log keystrokes within the browser.

How do you believe auto-suggest works?

Re: I noticed some disturbing privacy defaults in Windows 10

#270

Post by pmelendez »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #250
pmelendez wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do people seem to gloss over the fact that we can implement these technologies without losing privacy? e.g. voice recognition has been possible on home computers for decades now. You don't need the cloud for it. The experience is not quite the same. We have voice recognition since at least late 90's but you have to spend long hours training (> 20 hrs) in order to have a decent result (not even comparable). The…

I had better results in late 2000s with less than an hour of training MS Speech API than I have with Google Now today. Either off-line speech recognition isn't that bad or my English really sucks.

I don't know about Google Now. But Cortana does have way better results than local MS Speech API. My english does suck, so it is very impressive to me that Cortana got me right most of the time.
Post reply on HN