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Windows 10's Privacy Policy: the New Normal?
An anonymous reader writes: The launch of Windows 10 brought a lot of users kicking and screaming to the "connected desktop." Its benefits come with tradeoffs: "the online service providers can track which devices are making which requests, which devices are near which Wi-Fi networks, and feasibly might be able to track how devices move around. The service providers will all claim that the data is anonymized, and that no persistent tracking is performed... but it almost certainly could be." There are non-trivial privacy concerns, particularly for default settings.
According to Peter Bright, for better or worse this is the new normal for mainstream operating systems. We're going to have to either get used to it, or get used to fighting with settings to turn it all off. "The days of mainstream operating systems that don't integrate cloud services, that don't exploit machine learning and big data, that don't let developers know which features are used and what problems occur, are behind us, and they're not coming back. This may cost us some amount of privacy, but we'll tend to get something in return: software that can do more things and that works better."
According to Peter Bright, for better or worse this is the new normal for mainstream operating systems. We're going to have to either get used to it, or get used to fighting with settings to turn it all off. "The days of mainstream operating systems that don't integrate cloud services, that don't exploit machine learning and big data, that don't let developers know which features are used and what problems occur, are behind us, and they're not coming back. This may cost us some amount of privacy, but we'll tend to get something in return: software that can do more things and that works better."
More people will just move to Linux.
I wish. I've tried to switch to Linux on many occasions (at least 6 that come to mind). Every single time something breaks in a manner that requires a complete re-install of the entire thing, spending hours searching forums for possible causes/solutions, etc. The last attempt was thwarted by Microsoft and UEFI. One thing Microsoft does well is it makes sure that once something important breaks it has tools to recover, at least partially, so the user can continue. With Linux it's luck into a terminal fix or re-install and start over from scratch.
If i can use all my Windows programs without having to use some convoluted whatever so i can run them sure i will switch. Nothing Linux makes comes close to what is available to windows users. I want my OS to do the work, i don't have the time nor want too nor should I. That,s what a stinking computer is saposta do right? Take all the hard stuff and make it easy. You want to fiddle with your OS? more power to you. But me and a few billion others just don't want too. That,s why Linix is not popular, that's why Linux lost the Desktop OS wars. Ya telling user don't like it??change it yourself looser is going to make a ton of converts right? I hate windows 8 and 10 but i will never switch to an OS that cant even run my programs kinda ok. Gold?silver?Bronze? lol
Jack of all trades,master of none
It's funny how /. folks still don't get it. Consumers/users don't know anything about their PCs or devices, and they don't care.
It's up to us tech folks to save the day....oh, shit, that's right, everyone here works for a company that profits from collecting data from end users.
Never mind, we're all fucked.
will force MS to offer more configuration and privacy options.
HAHAHA no, another 1Billion euro EU fine will tho
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
Those that blast Windows 10 as the anti christ and how they are never going to use ... all from the comfort of their Google Chrome browser on their Google Android phones..
This is not a Android bash but just pointing out the obvious. The real question is the answer to this. As much as many here who are libertarian do you think it is time for laws to prohibit this? The free market appearently is too small to care about this.
Let's say Putin or the next Hitler comes and wants to spy on political opponents? Well it is known all these companies and phone and operating system makers have this data. Use NSA or governmental force and their oprivate keys and now you haqve what you need. Any opposition will be monitored. Kind of scary but I do not think it is too out of the realm of possibilities.
http://saveie6.com/
Haha, this is the biggest "Linux!!!!" flamebait article... Anyway, yeah, it seems fairly obvious. The trend for years has been a move back to server-side processing and services that are very heavy on collected user data.
The thing is, it's not just Evul Micro$oft spying on you with a telescope - the spying comes wrapped in services that people actually want. For many people it's a tradeoff - they know they're giving their data away, but they're willing to give up a bit of privacy for the convenience that comes with the service. I find that the average person doesn't usually have the same reverence for privacy as the average Slashdotter.
It's already been said, and it'll be said a hundred more times before we let this article go, but yes, Linux and FOSS in general are the answer. We've been going back and forth about the Year of the Linux Desktop, but really, this is where FOSS shines: as a relatively minority choice for enthusiasts. Let people make their privacy tradeoff choice in peace, it's a perfectly valid choice to make if one most of us (myself included) find highly distasteful, and the rest of us can work on and use FOSS to our heart's content.
Coming from the hardware side too, as more of an EE guy than a programmer: OSHW is getting more and more possible. Powerful hardware that is amenable to use in open designs is becoming more available every year. I can jump over to DigiKey and buy an ARM chip that is capable of running Linux and has more computing power than some of my first desktop computers for $20. The chip designs themselves tend not to be open, but they do tend to be quite well documented - the high end is almost always closed and subject to NDA, but there is little pressure to move that line backwards, and as the high end moves forward, the devices available to the OSHW developer get better and better.
I don't think this is the end of computing privacy, I think this is just the logical conclusion of computers (read: the computers in your pocket!) becoming popular, and starting to work the way Average Joe expects them to. Enthusiasts will always be here, and I think this is the start of a new era for them.
Almost that. I'm a bit tired to hear my fellow /.ers collegues refraining the same thing over and over like it matters to anyone out there. It doesn't, be acquaint to it. The lambda user just don't care about the OS, the privacy and all this stuff. Even a lot of people working in IT don't care. I even have seen bankers who don't care. This is really astonishing given how Edward Snowden is glorified by people which on another hand just don't care about a company doing much more than what NSA did few years ago. People are happy idiots.
Achille Talon
Hop!
Then you're doing it wrong. With linux, all you have to do is stick the install cd into the drive and reboot, you'll get a brand new system. The beauty of Linux is that the system is designed to cleanly separate your files from the system files, and the system partitions can be completely overwritten with a brand new system to make it work again.
You're missing the point, I don't want to waste my time re-installing my OS/reconfigure my preferences every couple weeks. When I was a kid and computers were new that was fun but I've got way too much on my plate to bother with re-installs now days. If something breaks, I want the OS to recognize it, fix it, and let me get on with my day without trashing my preferences.
More people will just move to Linux.
That's what they said in 2001 when Windows XP came out. 14 years later, it still hasn't happened.
It doesn't have anything to do with that. It has to do with the fact it clearly is persisting like malware no matter what length you go to remove it and disabling it permanently has the same impact as malware: legitimate stuff stops working properly.
The integration is a problem, though. Cortana has absolutely nothing to do with updates, and the fact that you cannot remove it without breaking shit is a sign of some pretty terrible design mentality at Microsoft.
I don't give a fuck if you have to hack the shit out of the Registry to do it, either.
That's a constant battle too. Automatic updates will be mandatory for Windows 10 users, except in Enterprise environments with Windows Enterprise edition and WSUS, etc. You used to be able to disable Google Chrome browser auto-updating with a registry tweak, then Google came back and started changing Chrome so Group Policy settings in the registry will not be honored unless your computer is actually joined to a domain, and even then the policy must be configured through a GPO that the group policy clients knows about, otherwise it will be ignored..
Same with other settings such as app-autoinstalls. Also, If you want to re-enable Java, it seems as if they intentionally made it difficult to automate such things.
Stick with 7
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that..."
He's not doing it wrong. Not even 6 months ago I installed Linux Mint on my HP envy laptop, and it took me 2 days to get it fully working. Why? Partially UEFI, partially bugs in the installer, and mainly no network driver (had to compile my own with a manual patch). This doesn't even include having to install new drivers to ensure it doesn't overheat, nor the fact that "suspend" still doesn't work.
You can read about my experience here http://forums.linuxmint.com/vi..., but quite frankly nobody cares (no replies....). Until it really is "insert CD and go" for ALL computers (is an HP laptop so weird??) then Linux will never be mainstream. Sorry.
MUCH better task manager, and resource manager. You can see what each app is doing, from network bandwidth, what ports it is using, what files it is accessing. You can see what drives are getting hit. See what apps at start up are causing a slow boot, and disable them if you want.
I'll give you that. I've wanted Linux to have something like this for years... I'm still not aware of a distro that has a decent task manager.
Multiple desktops.
Don't give a damn. I'm never liked them and Linux WMs have had them for ages anyway.
Powershell.
Who cares? And wasn't that available ages ago anyway?
Web server that supports HTTP/2.
In a consumer OS, who needs that? For developers, you can just install such a server.
Built-in support for USB 3/3.1.
Installing drivers isn't hard.
Storage Spaces (More advanced RAID).
Don't know what that is/means.
DirectX 12.
So Microsoft arbitrarily decide to prevent their latest gaming framework from working on earlier versions of Windows, to try and force people to switch. This just means MS are assholes, not that Windows 10 is fundamentally better.
Smaller memory footprint, smaller disk footprint, faster boots and sleeps.
Big deal. Win7 is quick enough for me already.
Cortana.
While this kind of thing might be useful on a mobile device, it's not that useful on a desktop OS with a proper keyboard. In fact it seems to be there as part of the whole "unified interface" approach, across PCs, tablets, and mobile devices. Which brings me to...
Universal Apps. Cleaner taskbar. Modern apps in windows.
This shit is awful. It has no place on a desktop OS and is only there because they are shoehorning mobile crap onto their desktop OS. It's a bug, not a feature... just like the awful "line art" theme that Windows 10 has. Whoever decided that doing away with full colour icons in favour of monochrome crap should be shot. Oh yeah, and calling the ability to change background colour "theming" is dumb too.
Screen casting.
You could do that before in various ways.
Forced updates. Distributed updates.
And less user control is a *good* thing?
Edge browser.
Don't care. I haven't used MS browsers for anything other than necessary testing for a long time now.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
There is a serious problem. What is one of your contacts has a seriously malicious intent? They can park a car with tinted windows across street, and then access your LAN, which is a huge privacy AND security issue. At once, this feature of Windows 10 not only compromised privacy, but also the security of your entire home LAN. There will be a million interesting ways to exploit it. In fact, you don't even need to be a friend with the target. You simply need to be friend of his friend, and all will be good as long as the friend of the target has once visited targets home and cached his wifi network password. The possibilities are limitless. Would you like to snoop around on your boss or do you want to stalk your ex? Want to snoop around on their LAN? Find unsecured PC, SMB shares, or media servers? Well now you can, thanks to Microsoft.
I think MS will be eventually sued for that.
The only way to win with Windows 10 (or any MS product) is to NOT PLAY.... Funny thing.. Linux has its faults (systemd f'instance), but other than a few VERY minor (and easily turned off) privacy gotchas (looking at YOU, Ubuntu), if you use Linux, you don't have to worry about ALL of your business becoming a large company's business.....
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
I agree about Linux being fundamentally far better for the entire world. However, it seems that everything in Linux is poorly documented. Microsoft's documentation is very poor, but Linux documentation is considerably worse. That creates a HUGE barrier to using Linux.
Not many people want to spend a week trying to discover how some Linux program works. For example, XBMC, now Kodi, media center.