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.

Comments

Sigh, guess no Win boxes in the lab then

[WillAffleckUW]

There are consequences to every action

suggestion to make slashdot useful again

[ihtoit]

Would the editors consider adding a section for analysis of Windows updates so we can read then decide if we want them instead of having to go on click marathons through the desktop client? Even some sort of Patch Tuesday digest just indicating which of the updates are actual security patches would do it.

Re:Firewall/Router blocking settings?

[geminidomino]

I put this in my tomato "Scripts" section. Basically grabbed all of the dig output for settings-win.data.microsoft.com and vortex-win.data.microsoft.com, cnames, and authorities for them.

Possibly excessive. I'm ok with that. YMMV.

iptables -I FORWARD -d 8.26.215.27 -j DROP
iptables -I FORWARD -d 64.4.54.254 -j DROP
iptables -I FORWARD -d 8.26.204.25 -j DROP
iptables -I FORWARD -d 198.78.199.155 -j DROP
iptables -I FORWARD -d 204.160.105.155 -j DROP
iptables -I FORWARD -d 4.23.46.155 -j DROP
iptables -I FORWARD -d 65.55.44.108 -j DROP

Re:Windows 10

[LVSlushdat]

My "last straw" occurred around 2011. I'd just retired friom supporting Windows (and some Linux) for 24 years (1991-2010). After I retired, I used Windows 7 on my home machines for a bit, and finally I decided that there was nothing I do on the computer that requires Windows, so I killed the dualboot, and switched permanently to Linux, specifically Ubuntu.. Since I'm sort of the local neighborhood "tech support", I tried out Windows 10 in Virtualbox, just to familiarize myself with it for when I'm asked to help out a neighbor.. To put it bluntly, I'd NEVER run Windows10 on any of my machines, PERIOD.. And I'll recommend to anybody who asks, that IF they MUST use Windows 10, they need to, AT A BARE MINIMUM, turn off all the privacy-removal stuff and use a local account... Yeah, I know.. keeps you from using that over-rated Cortana crap... Whupteedoo... TL:DR: People who value what little privacy they have left should stay AWAY from Windows 10, Just one man's opinion........