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A Breakdown of the Windows 10 Privacy Policy
WheezyJoe writes: The Verge has a piece on Windows 10 privacy that presents actual passages from the EULA and privacy policy that suggest what the OS is capturing and sending back to Microsoft. The piece takes a Microsoft-friendly point of view, arguing that all Microsoft is doing is either helpful or already being done either by Google or older releases of Windows, and also touches on how to shut things off (which is also explained here). But the quoted passages from the EULA and the privacy policy are interesting to review, particularly if you look out for legal weasel words that are open to Microsoft's interpretation, such as "various types (of data)", diagnostic data "vital" to the operation of Windows (cannot be turned off), sharing personal data "as necessary" and "to protect the rights or property of Microsoft". And while their explanations following the quotes may attempt an overly friendly spin, the article may be right about one thing: "In all, only a handful of these new features, and the privacy concerns they bring, are actually in fact new... Most people have just been either unaware or just did not care of their existence in past operating systems and software." Even pirates are having privacy concerns and blocking Windows 10 users.
If you're running automatic updates on 7 or 8 you already have the same "telemetry" components as well. Check for installation of 3035583, 2952664, 2976978, 3021917, 3044374, 2990214, 3022345, 3068708, all of which are windows 10 related components. It seems that the last two are the diagnostics/telemetry ones with the others having more questionable intent.
Microsoft describes these updates (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3068708) as honoring the CEIP choice and only doing the spying if the user has opted in. At least at this time however the server that microsoft identifies (vortex-win.data.microsoft.com) will have active connections even on machines where the CEIP choice was set to opt-out.
I'm sure once this gets some more media attention Microsoft will claim that they're storing the data just in case you change your mind, and that they wouldn't think of abusing it until then.
Swiss Pirate Party initiated an inquiry into Windows 10 privacy policy.
The end result of which (if it does not pass Swiss scrutiny) would be an official recommendation to prohibit purchase.
Two articles I found since yesterday that contradict statements in the summary:
* previous versions of Windows now spy on you becuase of recent MS updates: http://www.hakspek.com/securit...
* They still spy on you after you turn the "features" off: http://arstechnica.com/informa...
I'm not even interested in going over the details of what exactly is wrong with Microsoft's new plan to leverage their market power for greater control over the users. This is just the latest in a long line of abuses from every singly company that has ever gotten any market power in the industry.
Flash was pretty bad. People hated how slow and crashy it was. They demanded something else, so now we have DRM in the web browsers, with the CEO of Mozilla fired over some political contribution because he refused to play ball, and new HTML and Javascript tech that can force the videos into the webpages.
In retrospect, Flash was good for freedom, because it was Adobe's, and having Adobe fighting with Microsoft, Apple, and Google was better than putting Microsoft, Apple, and Google in control.
Users, make no mistake about this as companies and technologies come and go. Either you control your computer, or someone else does. IT's been this way since the '70s and '80s.
That someone else wants to control your computer to harvest your personal data and show you ads, to segment the market and force you to pay $$$ for the privilege of running third-party or your own programs, to force you to use their software and services for everything, store your documents in their formats, read your documents and insert ads or let the SJWs know what you wrote in a text message five years ago, and make it illegal to fix the systems you pay for.
That someone else has, at various times, been IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and anyone else manufacturing computers or writing operating systems. They want control because lock-in gives them more revenue. The individuals at these companies like freedom, but they also like jobs, which are paid for with revenue.
The best they can do is post anonymous rants on Slashdot.
Microsoft gives Windows to Dell for free to install on their systems, since every Windows user is a potential Internet Explorer and Cortana / Bing user. Dell packages McAfee for free or maybe even for a small payment from McAfee; McAfee sells updates. McAfee is obnoxious, but maybe it's better for users than a Microsoft antivirus that would collect data about every single file on your system and tells Microsoft about them.
If the users can't figure out how to demand freedom or merely pit the companies against each other and get freedom in between them, the computing landscape will go from being one where anyone can write, run, share, and sell their own programs, to not only one where you, the user or third-party developer or backend programmer, must pay the manufacturer to write, run, share, or sell programs, but one in which writing your own software or modifying system settings on your own is almost unthinkable and seems scandalous.
No! This was explained over and over again, if you upgrade in the first year your Windows 7/8 key becomes a permanent Windows 10 key for that device. You won't have to install Windows 7/8 before installing Windows 10 again.
Look under Settings/Privacy
There is a switch, which reads 'Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future'
This the collection of keystroke data. They can do anything they want with this. Definitely makes it even more creepy to log in to someplace else on a Windows 10 box.
Another thing which is standard practice is to list all kinds of serious and unlikely reasons they'll use your data, followed by 'or any other legal purpose' which does not mean for some 'legal' matter, which it's meant to sound like, but for ANY purpose which is not SPECIFICALLY ILLEGAL. Which means anything.
You can turn off the keystroke thing, but Microsoft routinely resets preferences, including privacy preferences, when you run an update. So you have to keep checking it and make sure it's off. However, I doubt very much if it matters. You're sending EVERYTHING to Microsoft and they can use it for any purpose.
The Swiss data protection agency is now investigating windows 10's data sharing.
(Link in French) http://www.lematin.ch/economie/berne-lance-procedure-concernant-windows-10/story/29192122
No, I think his point is that Windows XP and Vista users aren't eligible to upgrade to 10 for free. And now I've explained the joke and it's no longer funny.
Microsoft stores your hardware configuration on their servers as a hash after the free upgrade to Windows 10. After that you can clean install any time you want as long as you have the same motherboard. They call this hardware based digital entitlement. I've already done a clean install of Windows 10 and it activated within a few minutes. When installing cleanly make sure to click on "skip" then it asks for a product key or the install will be borked. Even when MS makes things simple they overly complicate them.
Remove the following updates (if installed already)
KB971033 Description of the update for Windows Activation Technologies
KB2952664 Compatibility update for upgrading Windows 7
KB2990214 Update that enables you to upgrade from Windows 7 to a later version of Windows
KB3021917 Update for Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program
KB3022345 Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry
KB3035583 Update installs Get Windows 10 app in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 SP1
KB3044374 Update that enables you to upgrade from Windows 8.1 to a later version of Windows
KB3068708 Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry
KB3075249 Update that adds telemetry points to consent.exe in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7
KB3080149 (update for CEIP and telemetry)
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run cmd as administrator
sc stop Diagtrack
sc delete Diagtrack
*Task Scheduler Library:
Everything under "Application Experience"
Everything under "Autochk"
Everything under "Customer Experience Improvement Program"
Under "Disk Diagnostic" only the "Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticDataCollector"
Under "Maintenance" "WinSAT"
"Media Center" and click the "status" column, then select all non-disabled entries and disable them.
*services.msc:
"Remote Registry" to "Disabled" instead of "Manual".
Actually Windows 10 is a lot more modern than 7.
Power wise there is a HUGE difference between 8.1/10 vs 7 on a laptop. Like double the battery life as MS has tweaked the kernel and services to be more mobile friendly.
Windows 7 was awesome and finally good similar to Windows 2000 in my opinion. However, it is dated now after 6 years. It's EFI mode is terrible and you need to go into the bios and disable it or put on CSM (compability support module) and emulate 1981 technology via the bios to get it to work?!
You can't have more than 4 primary partitions without a hack and more than 2 TB due to 1981 bios technology required. Some new pcs will let you use UEFI partitions via emulated drivers.
It boots slow due to bios limitations and CSM options. With it off on 8 and later your pc will boot in freaking seconds!
Security is much improved. Windows 7 scrambles ram so no injections without guessing where the other .dll files are running as administrator ... however you can still guess with a workaround :-( Windows 10 uses a better algorithm. Windows 10 has secure boot to prevent rootkits. Windows 10 has a better kernel level sandbox for IE, Chrome, and other apps to use and more separation of privileges.
With Onedrive and cloud all my settings are synced with my surface and desktop and Office defaults to save it on Onedrive which means I get all my copies on my Android phone, surface tablet, and pc.
Only problem with 8/10 I see is I find it ugly :-) I am typing this on 8.1 as I needed Hyper-V so 7 had to go. I got used to the lack of aero. Being flat is the new thing regardless of OS as every OS on the planet is following this new thing of turning it into a cell phone. Windows 10 update 1 redstone will have the option to change colors again for the title bar thankfully which I find ridiculous.
Other than that yes it is an upgrade and 7 feels and looks pretty dated now with its skuemorphic UI and slow speeds and bios dependencies.
No I am not a fanboy as I do not have 10 yet due to hyper-V being too different for my exams I am studying for (server 2012) so I am waiting until the holidays to upgrade. I am just saying if you need office work done and a few win32 apps Windows 10 is certainly an upgrade over 7 even if I like the look and simplicity of its UI. I could go on too from a technical viewpoint on using dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth instead of doing a re-image but that is another topic
http://saveie6.com/
Really? You are comparing Gnome 3/kde 4.x to a modern working start menu?
I'm not comparing Gnome3 to anything; Gnome3 sucks. KDE has a proper "modern" start menu, it's the way the Windows start menu should have been all along. The "menu" (which isn't a menu at all) in Metro is bullshit.
Is it crap because it is inferior?
Yes. It's absolute garbage. It's ugly, it's confusing, it even has two separate control panels for some stupid reason (there's a metro control panel, but it doesn't have much stuff in it, so you have to go find the hidden Win7-style control panel to actually change things). There is nothing good about it. It's obviously designed for tablets, but I'm not using a tablet. And if I were, it'd still be ugly as hell. WTF is with the ugly graphics and colors? It's like the Pontiac Aztek of UIs.
These applets you hate you do not have to use.
You still have to use the Metro interface any time you click on "start", unless you install some 3rd-party workaround software.