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Microsoft's Telemetry Additions To Windows 7 and 8 Raise Privacy Concerns
WheezyJoe writes: ghacks and Ars Technica are providing more detail about Windows 10's telemetry and "privacy invasion" features being backported to Windows 7 and 8. The articles list and explain some of the involved updates by number (e.g., KB3068708, KB3022345, KB3075249, and KB3080149). The Ars article says the Windows firewall can block the traffic just fine, and the service sending the telemetry can be disabled. "Additionally, most or all of the traffic appears to be contingent on participating in the CEIP in the first place. If the CEIP is disabled, it appears that little or no traffic gets sent. This may not always have been the case, however; the notes that accompany the 3080149 update say that the amount of network activity when not part of CEIP has been reduced." The ghacks article explains other ways block the unwanted traffic and uninstall the updates.
Customer Experience Improvement Program... for those of us used to wading through the pile of sewage that is Windows in a corporate environment, it is well known and enjoyed about as much as annual performance appraisals.
https://github.com/WindowsLies...
Someone is on the case!
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
I'll just try it again without the rest of the post. Now I get "Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 38.5)." Again, fuck you Slashdot. Let's see if this line can fix it. Let's see if this line can fix it. Let's see if this line can fix it. Let's see if this line can fix it. Let's see if this line can fix it. That didn't work "Your comment violated the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition.". Try again.
ECHO OFF
REM --- remember to invoke from ELEVATED command prompt!
REM --- or start the batch with context menu "run as admin".
SETLOCAL
REM --- (as of 2015-08-26):
REM KB3012973 - Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro
REM KB3021917 - Update to Windows 7 SP1 for performance improvements
REM KB3035583 - GWX Update installs Get Windows 10 app in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 SP1
REM KB2952664 - Compatibility update for upgrading Windows 7
REM KB2976978 - Compatibility update for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
REM KB3022345 - Telemetry [Replaced by KB3068708]
REM KB3068708 - Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry
REM KB2990214 - Update that enables you to upgrade from Windows 7 to a later version of Windows
REM KB3075249 - Update that adds telemetry points to consent.exe in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7
REM KB3080149 - Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry
REM KB3044374 - W8,8.1 Nagware for W10
REM KB2977759 - W10 Diagnostics Compatibility Telemetry
REM KB3050265 - Windwos Update services update to upgrade to W10
REM KB3068707 - Customer experience telemetry point. W7,8,8.1
REM --- uninstall updates ... /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:3012973 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:3021917 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:3035583 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:2952664 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:2976978 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:3022345 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:3068708 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:2990214 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:3075249 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:3080149 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:3044374 /uninstall /quiet /norestart /b /wait wusa.exe /kb:2977759 /uninstall /quiet
echo uninstalling updates
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The funny part is that there was a man who saw all this coming back in the early 90s who nobody listened to. His name is Richard Stallman.
Stallman warned everyone that proprietary software turns on the user in the end. People are complaining that Windows now sucks, and they have all these expensive (closed source too) tools they depend on for their livelihood that can't run on any platform besides Windows. Well, I guess they're getting what's coming to them. Stallman tried to warn them, but they didn't listen because they wanted stuff to "just work". Well, Stallman's inconvenient truth can no longer be ignored.
So have fun Windows users. I hope that your short term gains were worth not solving the problem in an open, portable, way.
No, the guys who wanted more tracking took that guy out for a beer. That's the guy who killed off DoNotTrack. Like Private Browsing in Firefox or Incognito Mode in Chrome, DNT was about the balance between privacy on one hand and convenience/features on the other hand. DNT was supposed to mean that the user valued privacy more than convenience and features at the moment. Here's what was supposed to happen, what DNT was intended for:
Case 1, no DNT header:
I go to Slashdot, and have not set a specific DNT header. I therefore get the DEFAULT tracking/personalization behaviors of Slashdot, including:
I'm not redirected to Beta, because Slashdot tracks that I set "do not showme beta".
On my mobile device, I'm not redirected to m.slashdot.org, because again Slashdot tracks my preferences based on some identifier/cookie.
Case2, with DNT header:
I launch a Private Browsing window in Firefox, or an Incognito tab in Chrome.
The browser prompts "DNT: Do you want to tell web sites to avoid identifying you or tracking your preferences? Some features and preferences may not work in DNT mode."
I click "yes, send the DNT header".
Slashdot sees that I have expressed that I want a higher level of privacy than the default, that I am willing to give up personalization in exchange for privacy.
Slashdot does not set a cookie, and I get redirected to m.slashdot.org or beta.slashdot.org each time. It does not track me to know my preferences between sessions.
It's all about the balance between privacy and convenience. Much like Incognito / Private Browsing mode disables the browser history, autocomplete, and other useful features in exchange for better privacy.
In short, the purpose of DNT was to communicate the user's desire to value privacy over convenience.
By violating the spec and sending DNT as the DEFAULT, the DNT header in IE suddenly meant "the user probably wants the DEFAULT balance between privacy and convenience". Since IE sent DNT by default, it no longer provided any information about the user's priorities regarding convenience vs privacy. It therefore became completely useless for it's purpose. That guy killed DNT.
-----
Here's a concrete example. Quoting from the DNT policy:
| all user identifiers, such as unique or nearly unique
| cookies, "supercookies" and fingerprints are discarded
Do you really think that all sites are going to get rid of cookies, including "don't show me Beta" cookies, for anyone and everyone using IE? Just because Microsoft thought it was a good idea? No friggin way. If the USER chose to actively ticked the box, perhaps so. Because Microsoft's marketing team thought that "Do Not Track" sounded good and that breaking most web sites was an acceptable side effect? I don't think so.
The Internet Storm Centre (part of SANS) posts one of these fairly shortly after MS releases the patches. Here's their post for the August patch batch to give you an idea - they don't cover the optional updates at all though.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Both scripts fail to make use of a simple FOR command.
FOR %A IN (list) DO command [ parameters ]