Slashdot Mirror
Windows 10 Privacy Changes Appease Watchdogs, But Still No Data 'Off-Switch' (zdnet.com)
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced several privacy changes in Windows 10, but it didn't give users an option to completely opt-out of data-collection feature. The announcement came at a time to coincide with a statement by the Swiss data protection and privacy regulator, the FDPIC, which last week said it would drop its threats of a lawsuit after the company "agreed to implement" a string of recommendations it made last year. The news closed the books on an investigation that began in 2015, shortly after Windows 10 was released. Though the Swiss appear satisfied, other critics are waiting for more. The French data protection watchdog, the CNIL, was equally unimpressed by Microsoft's actions, and it served the company with a notice in July to demand that it clean up its privacy settings. In an email, the CNIL said that the changes "seem to comply" with its complaint, but it's "now analyzing more in [sic] details Microsoft answers in order to know whether all the failures underlined in the formal notice do now comply with the law." ZDNet adds: Microsoft still hasn't said exactly what gets collected as part of the basic level of collection, except that the data is used to improve its software and services down the line; a reasonable ask -- but one that nonetheless lacks specifics. Microsoft said it wants users to "trust" it. And while the likelihood that the company is doing anything nefarious with users' information is frankly unlikely, the running risk is that the data could somehow be turned over to a government agency or even stolen by hackers is inescapable. That risk alone is enough for many to want to keep what's on their computer in their homes. While changing the privacy controls is a move in the right direction, it's still short of what many have called for. By ignoring the biggest privacy complaint from its consumer users -- the ability to switch off data collection altogether -- Microsoft has favored the "just enough" approach to appease the regulators. Without a way to truly opt-out, Microsoft's repeated pledge (eight times in the blog post, no less) to give its users "control" of their data comes off as a hollow soundbite.
what ever the NSA or their EU equivalent asks for and more just in case they need to ask for more in the future.
stop using windows if you want any semblance of privacy.
Apparently Microsoft uses the word "Trust" in the same way Apple uses the word "Courage". I still haven't figured out what either one means... only that neither correspond to what's in the dictionary.
Where have you been for the last two years? MS uses hard-coded IPs to avoid any messing around with DNS.
This CAREER IT TECHNICIAN, will NEVER recommend it. Currently, we Recommend its REMOVAL from all workstations, and a regression to a safer, less intrusive, more compatible OS, that isn't able to uninstall things to make way for its own broken updates... Win 10 has uninstalled the following applications from our Users systems WITHOUT permission or ANY user interaction required... 1. Quickbooks. 2. Sage Accounting 3. Wintac (HVAC CRM) 4. Connectwise (IT CRM) All uninstalled from multiple systems, without permission, causing DAMAGE to several of our Business Class Environments, and taking 4 clients networks DOWN, as they primarily used Quickbooks. When its down they cannot function. It also damaged the Wintac Database, by uninstalling it WHILE IT WAS OPERATING! Win10 is by far and wide the VERY WORST thing ever produced and sold as an OS!
Why bother with any OS? Oh yeah, that's where my software lives
So much software is Windows only or works on Windows "best" (emulation is spotty and under-performing on avg)
It's a platform some of us have to live with
I will simply refer you to my comment in last week's discussion on "Microsoft To Enhance User Privacy Controls In Upcoming Windows 10 Update": here
Bottom line: Microsoft's only objective was "get people to quit trashing us openly". Of course, the current state very well could have been their desired end goal and they went extreme from the outset to give them room to appear to compromise. Either way, whether or not it was planned, they make themselves look (comparatively) like the good guys.
Microsoft said it wants users to "trust" it.
I hear that a lot from companies and people -- like some newly elected officials -- and it always makes my ass twitch.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
ZDNet adds: ... And while the likelihood that the company is doing anything nefarious with users' information is frankly unlikely ...
This quote is a case of somebody writing something to just fit a grammatical template, rather than thinking about what they're writing. Substantiate that wild speculation, ZDNet, or turn in your beard-stroking license asap.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Microsoft: We know what our users want!
...
Users: How? You haven't asked us about anything.
Microsoft: Oh, we know--trust us
-------
All Power to the NT Overlords!
Is that too much to ask? I'd like to pay some money in exchange for software to abstract my hardware into a platform and allow application to run. That is of course the kernel and drivers as well as the libraries and services necessary for applications.
I don't want advertisements, data mining, or even a bundled web browser. I do want security updates and timezone updates, please don't stop updating timezones with the excuse that an older operating system version is "unsupported".
If this were a free market, we could pay money in exchange for the goods and services we want. Assuming we can agree on a price, but I doubt even a million dollars would could get Microsoft's attention.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
> "But that tracking can be easily disabled!" or "But that tracking is off by default!"
These are perfectly reasonable mitigations.
Also, it is not reasonable to pretend that a thing that Ubuntu did is somehow "Linux", even if they were still doing it. You know what spies on you? Red Star Linux. But that's not a very reasonable thing. If you don't like the Ubuntu/Amazon thing, then leave it off or turn it off, or just simply don't use Ubuntu. Arch doesn't have that problem. Or Fedora, or Debian, or or or or or or
And that's the trick. It's easy to block all the telemetry by simply blacklisting all the MS servers at the firewall. The issue is that also blocks updates.
Pick your poison....
Of course you ask what /.ers do. They don't run Windows in the first place!
I don't think there's anything illegitimate about it. It's just that he's mentally ill, and that the software in question really doesn't work where an OS or software manufacturer hard codes callback IP addresses. I went to his page about six months ago, and was fascinated to see screenshots from what was either XP or Server 2003, which said a lot not only about the software, but about APK's state of mind. He's also made a number of posts over the years that suggest he's a good old fashioned netkook, maybe the last of that ancient breed. So, like all good netkooks, he has a fixation, which in his case is his obsession with the hosts file.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Simple: Do not use Win10 or never connect it to a network. Anybody else that thinks they can reliably "turn of telemetry completely" in the face of missing documentation and forced updates is just kidding themselves. There is a good reason no well-known security researchers have come up with reliable recipes to do it, they know and understand this. It is also extremely telling that there are no good analyses of what actually gets sent out there: It is both difficult to do and the data could change completely on the next forced update.
So, no, at this time it is not reliably possible to block telemetry and still have updates over the net. Of course, this is also designed by MS to not be easy and the only way to ever get this is if MS is forced legally to make it possible or forced to give the LTSB version (where they make assurances in this regard) gets general availability. The current changes are a good first step, but the process is far from completed. They need to be kicked where it hurts a few more times.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.