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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

#81

Post by gvb »

ausjke wrote: post #66

Happy linux desktop user here, I only need windows for turbotax once a year, so I will worry about this in Feb/Mar, anyone provides a cloud-based tax filing service?

H&R Block does: http://www.hrblock.com/online-tax-filing/

Disclaimer: I have not used their online version so I don't know how well it works. I have been running their Windows version in a VM the last few years because I'm not wild about putting any more of my tax information "in the cloud" than I have to.

I would expect TurboTax to support online filing too, but did not see it on a quick search.

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

#82

Post by [deleted] »

jahewson wrote: post #50

This looks like a deliberately misleading and overblown claim to me. Looking at the knowledge base articles, we see that the diagnostics tracking service is enabled only for users who already participate in the customer experience program (a very clear option when setting up Windows for the first time: - KB3080149: "The diagnostics tracking service collects diagnostics about functional issues on Windows systems that…

[deleted]

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

#83

Post by Xylemon »

ionised wrote: post #43
rocky1138 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are over 1,900 games on Steam that run in Linux. https://steamdb.info/linux/

Many of the games I have in my library do not run at all unfortunately. Sometimes I like to go back and play old stuff too.

Wine is always a viable option, especially for older games. With DirectX 11 support coming later this year, almost every Windoze only game should hopefully work.

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

#84

Post by kardos »

morganvachon wrote: post #55
scott_karana wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could always just do that in Windows' hosts file, too.

You can, and I'm sure most would. There may come a time, however, when a future Windows update rewrites or works around the hosts file for telemetry. Doing it at the router or external firewall avoids that possibility.

Such an update could also add new data harvesting hosts, which would bypass your router's blacklist.

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

#86

Post by rbx »

kb3075249 - "...adds telemetry points..." (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3075249)

kb3080149 - "...Telemetry tracking service..." (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080149)

kb3068708 - "...Telemetry tracking service..." (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3068708)

kb2976978 - "...performs diagnostics on the Windows systems that participate in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program..." (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2976978)

kb3021917 - "...Telemetry is sent back to Microsoft..." (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3021917)

kb3035583 - "...installs the Get Windows 10 app..." (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3035583)

kb2952664 - "...ease the upgrade experience to the latest version of Windows..." (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2952664)

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

#87

Post by RaleyField »

mizzao wrote: post #68

People who use their google accounts and Chrome ubiquitously already get spied on by GA at a much bigger scale through all the sites they visit in their browser. Why is it a big uproar when it happens at the OS level? Seems like it's pretty much the same thing. We always have the option of using Linux if we don't like it.

> Why is it a big uproar when it happens at the OS level?

Because you paid for it and because it's a tradition and because it's the way it should be™. Chrome is bad enough with url bar suggestions, sign in for syncing is equally bad, but at least you are aware of it and you didn't pay for it. But Chrome being bad isn't a reason Windows should become bad as well.

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

#88

Post by kstrauser »

0x0 wrote: post #48
jsingleton wrote: post #3

Site seems overloaded. Here are the KB links from an earlier discussion ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10110316 ). Thanks vetinari. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3068708 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3075249 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3080149 Also found: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/2976978

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?

Pretty much, yes. As I mentioned elsewhere, they enable spying on kids by default if they're logged in through a Microsoft account. If they're going to spy on kids, adults get the same mechanisms installed.

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

#89

Post by morganvachon »

kardos wrote: post #84
morganvachon wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can, and I'm sure most would. There may come a time, however, when a future Windows update rewrites or works around the hosts file for telemetry. Doing it at the router or external firewall avoids that possibility.

Such an update could also add new data harvesting hosts, which would bypass your router's blacklist.

That's a given. The rabbit hole goes as deep as Microsoft is willing to dig it. Like any other vulnerability, there will always be security researchers out there who find and report on new ones.

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

#90

Post by inevitable2 »

Here is a more in-depth analysis of windows 10 and what is sent to MS

http://aeronet.cz/news/analyza-windows-10-ve-svem-principu-j...

For those who don't speak Czech: -It sends all text you type anywhere (not just into search) every 30 minutes to MS. If you type about a holiday to your blog, next day you'll see holiday ads.

-Every 30 minutes it sends your geo-location and network information.

-If you type a telephone number into Edge it sends it to MS after 5 minutes.

-If you type anywhere in Windows a name of some movie, Windows will start indexing all your media files after a while and will send it to MS after 30 minutes of your inactivity.

-After installing W10, it will send about 35MB of data once.

-After turning on your webcam for the first time it sends data to microsoft once.

-Everything you say is transferred to MS, it works even if you disable and remove and uninstall cortana. Parts of Cortana are needed for the core of the OS to run.

-Voice is transferred every 15 min, 80MB of data.

-After 15 minutes of your inactivity or when screensaver is on, network activity ramps up and everything else is being sent to MS.

-Blocking in hosts doesn't work, IPs are hardcoded into their code and DLLs.

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