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

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."

14 of 316 comments (clear)

  1. Comparable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Microsoft has about as much trustworthiness as Hillary does.

  2. Re:Guessing at a partial explanation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They said they'd used group policies to enact this change. If group security policies don't encompass the entirety of the OS, how could you ever be secure in the first place?

    Additionally, "Response Times" are not the king for people who *do not want this*.

  3. Meet the New Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Same as the old Microsoft.

  4. once again demonstrating that... by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 2, Insightful

    there's nothing more expensive in life than free.
    never underestimate the creative ability of corporate amerika to extract profit out of free.

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  5. What were you expecting? by koan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wasn't auto update, upgrade the give away clue?

    Watch as time goes by how much worse it gets, from broken apps (due to auto upgrades) to massive security fails.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  6. Re:Influence from Skype by drooling-dog · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...it's the momentum that keeps people choosing this crapware.

    Unfortunately true. It causes most people a great deal of anxiety to acknowledge there's a problem and that there are things they can do to mitigate it, because that means they have to learn about those things, which they fear will be outside their experience and abilities. As long as they're in the same boat as their friends and family, they feel the safety of numbers and can ignore the issue. The FUD mantra against Linux has always been that you have to be an elite geek to install and use it; of course that's nonsense but people believe it. It creates a lot of fear and trepidation that they'll be in over their heads if they even try, and so they don't.

  7. Re: Windows 8 is suddenly looking good .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Similar to IBM, MSFT could easily charge $50 for Windows XP maintenance PER YEAR AND SEAT. Since XP, there has been NO CUSTOMER VALUE ADDED. Actually, they destroyed lots of customer value by permuting things so that they could call it "new".

    Many customers know this and it has burned their business.

    The next step in their suicidal plan is to continue charging for their Permuted XP versions, but at the same time collect and sell data like Google. Now, that sounds like an excellent plan to destroy the modicum of trust and relationship they have with their long term customers.

  8. Re:Windows 8 is suddenly looking good .. by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm waiting until I stop seeing a deluge of shit like this before I un-hide the update to upgrade to windows 10, from windows 7. Remember how Microsoft went goddamned insane when they released the latest Xbox? Remember how they eventually fixed the incredibly privacy-raping idiocy? Still waiting. Gonna keep waiting. If they never come around, that's OK. Windows 7 should keep working for me for some time.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  9. Re:Disabling telemetry only works for 10 Enterpris by Blue+Stone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Windows 8 was a fuck up because of the UI.

    It looks like Microsoft said, with 10, let's just go deeper and fuck up the user's privacy instead.

    The more I hear about 10, the less it looks like a saviour to Windows woes and the more it looks like an even bigger disaster.

    --
    Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  10. Re:Probably just not optimized yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    It's either have an insecure desktop that the hackers already own (Win7), or something newer that has an at least usable GUI that the hackers may have not caught up with yet (10).

    What a load of idiocy. I'm not saying you're an idiot, but you say idiotic things.

  11. Re:Influence from Skype by yodleboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not FUD... Whatever the year of the Linux desktop people want you to believe, it's just not that easy for most people to switch. The skepticism you have "Windows 10 is free, what's the catch?", is the same thing I hear when I tell people about Ubuntu. "It's free, how could it possible be good if it's free?" Then you tell them that it will change the look and feel of a computer they've used for years. Then you have to admit that their Windows apps won't work. Then confess that they will have a much smaller selection of software available to them. yeah, sign me up right away, is not the response you should expect.

    Despite huge improvements, Linux desktop is still NOT for the average user. It's for the average user that has a knowledgeable friend to help them setup things, to install Windows apps under WINE when possible, to help them find replacement apps for all the things they use, and to help them get used to the quirks of Linux. I've got my mother in law's laptop running perfectly under Ubuntu and she loves it, but there's no way on earth she'd ever have done it herself, even if her future self could send a note back in time and tell her how much better it was.

    WE don't think it's that hard or intimidating because we play with this stuff all the time and tend to forget we've grown along with the Linux desktop and take a lot of acquired knowledge for granted.

  12. Re:Probably just not optimized yet by cfalcon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No. It's not PEBKAC. Go fucking research. To stop Windows from talking, you need several privacy toggles, some of which won't toggle all the way. Then you need a registry workaround, because Windows is so about user friendliness that you need to modify DWORDS in their shitted up binary fuckfest. Then you need to disable like three services, and remove two binaries. Then you need a big hosts file, and that's becoming an issue because Windows will actually work around a hosts file in some cases, using a list of known IPs specifically to circumvent that. So for now, you can block them on your external firewall.

    Eventually, you'll need a dedicated Application Firewall to block all that plus the mandatory Windows Update- you obviously don't want to allow Windows Update unless and until the Application Firewall has updated rules, because we can assume Microsoft will sidestep them weekly if allowed to. The advantage of that approach is that Microsoft can't beat it- it's not on their computer- and further, that you can eventually deep packet inspect and sanitize, allowing the use of Cortana with just the information YOU want to share with her.

    Again, really, we need to get off Microcock. This level of drama- needing a second computer to use your first computer- is absolutely insane. But for those that want all those lesser applications that only have Windows support, this will be the option.

  13. Re:This is starting to get annoying by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which are you annoyed at?

    The fact that it's getting posted, or the fact that Microsoft is acting like such major assholes?

    Everything about Windows 10 seems to be saying "we don't give a fuck about you peons, we'll do any damned thing we want".

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  14. Those who believe enterprise version is safe ... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... are idiots

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

    There is one thing about the masses - they believe in whatever they were told, such as "Users of Enterprise version of Win 10 can disable spying"

    Just because they say the enterprise version can disable spying does not mean:

    1. It is true
    _and_
    2. It will always be true

    Remember this thing - Windows 10, unlike prior versions of Windows, is an "in progress" project, which means, Microsoft gets to add it, or take out, any function/feature it wants.

    The hundreds of millions of users of Windows worldwide used to be the customers of Microsoft, used to be, because as of now, they have become Microsoft's product, to be packaged and sold to Microsoft's new crop of customers - the ad agencies, spook agencies, data miners, and so on, and so forth ...

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !