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Windows 10 Still Phones Home With Data In Spite of Privacy Settings

Posted by Soulskill on from the do-you-want-to-play-a-game dept.

Penguinisto writes: According to Ars Technica, Windows 10 will still send telemetry and other data to Microsoft-owned domains — no matter how tightly you crank down the privacy settings. Even with everything buttoned down, Cortana, OneDrive, and Web Search from the Start Menu disabled, the OS still phones home, using a random system ID that persists across reboots. It apparently also tries to bypass proxies to do it. "Some of the traffic looks harmless but feels like it shouldn't be happening. For example, even with no Live tiles pinned to Start (and hence no obvious need to poll for new tile data), Windows 10 seems to download new tile info from MSN's network from time to time, using unencrypted HTTP to do so. ... Other traffic looks a little more troublesome. Windows 10 will periodically send data to a Microsoft server named ssw.live.com. ... The exact nature of the information being sent isn't clear—it appears to be referencing telemetry settings—and again, it's not clear why any data is being sent at all. We disabled telemetry on our test machine using group policies."

5 of 316 comments (clear)

  1. Disabling telemetry only works for 10 Enterprise by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Group Policy explains if you try it on other editions it will act as if set to Basic.

  2. I've been trying to stop Win 10 telemetry on Win 7 by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Informative
    I've recently been trying to shut down Microsoft's gathering of telemetry from my Windows 7 PC. I am seeing the performance-draining results of this telemetry gathering process.

    .
    When I start up my PC in the morning, the hard drive just grinds away for about 5 or 10 minutes, and the CPU is sluggish. At first I thought it was an A/V scan, so I removed my A/V. No effect.

    Then I stumbled upon the InfoWorld article, and removed the Windows Updates that were mentioned in the article. The scanning stopped. Until I did a Windows Update earlier this week. And I had to remove once again the offending updates.

    What in the world is going on in Redmond?

  3. Re:I've been trying to stop Win 10 telemetry on Wi by ShaunC · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are a few others, and some scheduled tasks that I was surprised to find on Windows 7 machines.

    --
    Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
  4. Re:Explanation please by JazzLad · · Score: 5, Informative

    Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith believe that doing so is necessary ...

    --
    "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
  5. Re:Windows 8 is suddenly looking good .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Windows 7 is looking even better. Staying put.

    Diagnostics Tracking Service...

    Which, it should be pointed out, can be disabled on 7 and 8.

    Telemetry and error reporting cannot be effectively disabled on 10, because Microsoft refuses to make Enterprise available via retail channels.

    This AC is also remaining on 7 here. And has refused to install the offending updates (KB3068708 KB3022345 KB2952664 KB2990214 KB3035583 KB971033 KB3021917 KB3044374) from Windows Update. (Another thing that cannot be disabled in Win10.)