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Microsoft Finally Reveals What Data Windows 10 Really Collects (theverge.com)
Starting today, Microsoft is updating its privacy statement and publishing information about the data it collects as part of Windows 10. From a report: "For the first time, we have published a complete list of the diagnostic data collected at the Basic level," explains Windows chief Terry Myerson in a company blog post. "We are also providing a detailed summary of the data we collect from users at both Basic and Full levels of diagnostics." Microsoft is introducing better controls around its Windows 10 data collection levels in the latest Creators Update, which will start rolling out broadly next week. The controls allow users to switch between basic and full levels of data collection. "Our teams have also worked diligently since the Anniversary Update to re-assess what data is strictly necessary at the Basic level to keep Windows 10 devices up to date and secure," says Myerson. "As a result, we have reduced the number of events collected and reduced, by about half, the volume of data we collect at the Basic level."
... of course, is that we have to wait for Microsoft to "inform" us about that in the first place.
Finally, since January. They revealed this in January when they pushed the update to Insiders Build. They introduced the disclosure as part of compliance with EU regulations.
Link to the actual list, not an article about the list: https://technet.microsoft.com/...
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I don't need the OS to tell me what to do, sorry MS. You did have your chance with win 7.
Or dissembling, or not revealing everything, or employing standard journalistic deception, or lying by omission, or one of them. You can be sure of it. After all, what does Microsoft gain from telling the truth?
"Better controls"? You can bet that disabling the data Microsoft wants will result in important system features not working any more. MS has seen what Google has done and wants their own. It's the future of their company, not selling operating systems but selling the data those operating systems collect.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
that this list is really complete and conclusive? Or is this just what MS is saying is the complete list?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Why can't we turn it off entirely? I can troubleshoot my own PC and don't need it "phoning home" - EVER.
So still no choise of Dont spy my shit...
oh /. it's sad to see how far you've fallen...
the verge? really?
the summary title should read 'MS finally reveals SOME of the Data Windows 10 really collects'
FTFY
We all know that without the source, it is impossible to verify their claims.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
"Our teams have also worked diligently since the Anniversary Update to re-assess what data is strictly necessary at the Basic level to keep Windows 10 devices up to date and secure," says Myerson. "As a result, we have reduced the number of events collected and reduced, by about half, the volume of data we collect at the Basic level."
I wonder what they felt they needed to remove before they were willing to publish the disclosure.
It's weird to see people get all bent out of shape about Windows collecting data, but then totally ignore the open source projects that really aren't any better.
Just look at how much data Firefox collects and sends to Mozilla or others.
Or consider the data that Homebrew collects and sends off.
Some open source supporters will make claims like "But they're being transparent!" or "But you can opt out!" or some other nonsense like that.
But guess what? None of that matters!
The real real problem, which you missed, is that it's possible for this software to collect and transmit such data to begin with.
Disclosure and "transparency" don't matter. Being able to opt-out doesn't matter.
Getting rid of any and all software support for such data collection is what matters!
Until open source projects like Firefox and Homebrew totally remove all support for any and all data collection, we cannot consider them to be any better than Windows, or conversely, we can't consider Windows to be any worse than projects like Firefox and Homebrew.
How about you don't 'collect' anything on anyone for any reason, you bastards?
The Tech Net article lists the diagnostic data. Is any non-diagnostic data collected?
Private Industry shouldn't be able to just bypass our Charters of Rights and Freedoms to make a buck without at least giving users a choice in the matter.
The Canadian Government is not allowed to do so, so they just outsource it to their friends in the U.S. intelligence establishment, who gain it through either access to data in transit or with their 'Witting Industry Partners' as the C.I.A. leaks have shown us.
They are transparent about the Creator's Update. But they have reduced the telemetry by about half, saying that they realized they didn't find all telemetry useful. So you don't really know what they *have been* collecting prior to the Creator's Update. For all we know they've removed a bunch of more onerous details that could have *upset* us.
"Sperm Count" (listed on page two) seems unnecessary.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Look at the f*cking thing and see how reasonable it is:
https://technet.microsoft.com/...
It's completely ridiculous. Windows 10 is basically spyware disguised as an OS at this point.
Any company can publicly change policies overnight and then change them back the next day quietly and worse than ever.
If EULA's are actually legal then we need to regulate them so that it's not a one sided contract with no measurable benefit to the customer.
Is "reduced by half" anything like "increased by a factor of 2"?
Excuse me nice gentlemen. I don't mean to interrupt but, I've been searching news articles trying to find my cat. Have you seen my cat?
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/configure/windows-diagnostic-data
Unless Microsoft brings back the Windows 7 UI in Windows 11 I think I will either move on to a Mac or Lunix distribution for my next computer. They will also need to scrap the data collection and advertising features in Windows 11.
"Why should I believe you?"
Time and again we have been lied and misled by Microsoft. Give me one good reason I should believe this.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Bing to upload the stuff. I block bing at my firewalls and the logs constantly show my Win10 laptop trying to connect to Bing.
You should look into the msdn historical edit article where they showed that microsoft removed verbiage on it's MSDN page about collecting even worse information such as your documents and allowing microsoft employees investigating any crash reports sent by your machine to actually remotely access your machine and view your documents and run your programs.
Not trolling either. It was a link passed around here awhile ago and microsoft even sent a takedown to the wayback machine which previously had the edit but now does not. Yet on a different microsoft site that lists wiki-style diff's of it's pages, it's still there.
Someone find it please. They are backpedaling so hard on this it's sad.
Good thing Microsoft isn't an ISP or Americans would be freaking out.
We're rolling out Windows 10 in a very low-bandwidth environment, and in some cases a no-bandwidth environment. (Yes, they still exist today!) Turning off telemetry was one of the reasons we upgraded the OEM licenses from Pro to Enterprise -- there's just no need to use precious connection time sending usage data to Microsoft. And yes, that means "paying twice" for the OS, once to the OEM and once for the Enterprise subscription.
In my opinion, Microsoft did a very poor job of communicating what the difference between Home, Pro and Enterprise was. Basically, anyone with Home and Pro is getting the OS for "free" in exchange for telemetry data and information they can sell to marketers, period. Pro is Home with the ability to join a classic AD domain. This is very different from the days of Windows 7, where Pro had enough features to make it the default OS for business deployment. What Microsoft is doing is pulling more and more features under Enterprise, including the ability to opt out of constant feature changes. The result is that most large companies are buying Enterprise upgrades and getting on the subscription treadmill.
I think the best thing they could do right now is to let anybody buy the Enterprise version as a one-off, or make a complete shut-off of the telemetry available but slightly difficult to find in every edition of the OS. Even if they made the telemetry controllable by a few hard to find registry keys, the vast majority of consumers wouldn't touch any of the default settings and they'd still be getting data from them. Microsoft just got done "giving away" Windows 10 to millions of Windows 7 and 8 users in the form of the free upgrade, and the indication is that they will be on the same major release forever from now on, just releasing big update packages once or twice a year. Enterprise customers are subsidizing this development by still paying license fees in the form of subscriptions -- those millions of PCs that were upgraded for free only have the revenue stream of the marketing data coming in until they're replaced. And if Microsoft sticks to their promises, there will be no more revenue for traditional boxed software upgrades either -- no Windows 11 release they can ship out on DVDs to stores is coming.
Do I like being a product for marketing companies to mine data on? Not really -- and I do think Microsoft should be transparent about why they're doing what they're doing. I think all the companies doing this (Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc.) are going to have to find a new way to operate once the social media and advertising bubbles pop too...right now all of them are subsidizing their phone OS development with the fact that they have access to very personal data on a device you carry with you 24 hours a day.
Z0MG they collect UR privacy settings before and after upgrades!! They must want to make sure your privacy settings have been successfully forgotten.
Fields.TelClientSynthetic.PrivacySettingsAfterCreatorsUpdate.PreUpgradeSettings
Fields.TelClientSynthetic.PrivacySettingsAfterCreatorsUpdate.PostUpgradeSettings
HKLM_SensorPermissionState.SensorPermissionState
HKLM_LocationPlatform.Status
HKCU_LocationSyncEnabled.AcceptedPrivacyPolicy
HKLM_AllowTelemetry.AllowTelemetry
HKLM_TailoredExperiences.TailoredExperiencesWithDiagnosticDataEnabled
HKLM_AdvertisingID.Enabled
I will still install Linux for family members who need a new laptop, or are just stuck with broken M$ Windows/Winblows/Windoze installations.
No one is listening, but here is what I'm saying:
MS really, really, f'd this up. I will not tolerate my OS phoning home with any data at all, unless I tell it that I want that. Which I won't do.
As a result, I have side-loaded or fully loaded Ubuntu Mate on all the machines I am using. And you know what? I don't need Windows. I don't have time for games, and that's the only reason I can think of that I might want to use it.
So, I'm gone, and I'm never coming back.
Never, possibly unless this crap goes away entirely, with a guarantee that it will never be re-introduced.
Which won't happen.... so, I'm gone, and I'm never coming back.
Question: I will be forced to use Windows 10 at work soon. Is there any reasonable way to browse the internet on the platform, without giving data to MS? Or should I just bring in a linux laptop?
A bit over 220 KB of text in just shy of 3800 lines to describe what they collect in "basic" form? GFY, MS. Too late. I will continue doing my part in (somewhat futile, but oh well) limiting the spread. This sort of horse shit is perhaps 40% of the reason why I will never voluntarily use your operating system.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
As a result, we have reduced the number of events collected and reduced, by about half, the volume of data we collect at the Basic level.
Better compression algorithm combined with consolidating events?
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
I'm getting tired of people who keep mentioning Apple doing the same things. Either post a link with some proof or STFU. Stop dragging apples name thru the mud with these other advertising companies.
I can't find the "number of times user opens task manager and tries to kill something he doesn't launched"
W10privacy & Spybot Antibeacon take care of all of this.
The justifications offered by MS are as ridiculous as they are hilarious.
"Activity for run of the Transient Account Manager that determines if any user accounts should be deleted for devices set up for Shared PC mode to help keep Windows up to date. Deleting unused user accounts on shared devices frees up disk space to improve Windows Update success rates"
Seriously so you have to know how many local accounts, when I add, change and remove them. When they first login and their sids I keep on my own machine because there is some insanely comical correlation between local accounts and available disk space?
It's not like you are not already explicitly stealing volume information via Census.Storage and SetupPlatformTel.SetupPlatformTelActivityEvent. And who the fuck installs software without check for available disk space first? Is the success rate of an action really undeterminable prior to taking it because disk space? I don't think even Microsoft is stupid enough to believe their own BS.
Also love the generic key/value data access schemes where the full list of available keys that can be transmitted are not specified anywhere.. Only the top level interface to transfer the data.
FieldName - Retrieves the event name/data point.
Value - Retrieves the value associated with the corresponding event name
If your going to be transparent don't be transparently slimy. You may impress end users with better things to do with reams of context deprived technobabble but there are plenty of people in the world as smart or smarter than the people who compiled this crap.
A fantastic list of what is collected in the diagnostic category.
A list of categories of the rest of the data collected would be nice.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'd like to know who Microsoft are sharing/selling my data to please!
one solution is to use blackbird to turn off all telemetry and uninstall builtin spy/adware. be warned, though, i had some basic things break (like start menu search) after running it.
Did you even look at what data Firefox sends?! You must not have to have made such an incorrect statement as you just made.
Their page clearly lists various types of identifiers and browsing history, including such things as: "IP address", "location", "phone number", "email address", "URLs", "information about visited sites", "terms you type in the Awesome Bar or Search Bar", "website domain", "Google advertising ID", "active URL at time of crash" and "personal information".
In case you don't believe me, let's look at some examples from their page:
"Once per day, Firefox sends the following info to Mozilla when it checks for browser updates: your Firefox version information, language preference, operating system, and version."
"Firefox contacts Mozilla once per day to check for add-on information to check for malicious add-ons. This includes, for example: browser version, OS and version, locale, total number of requests, time of last request, time of day, IP address, and the list of add-ons you have installed."
"Firefox sends Mozilla a monthly request to look up your location at a country level using your IP address."
"Some Mozilla sponsored snippets are interactive and allow you to optionally share your phone number or email address. For example, you can enter your phone number to receive an SMS to install Firefox on Android. Your information is received and handled by our email and mobile marketing vendor."
"This data includes, for example: device hardware, operating system, Firefox version, add-ons (count and type), timing of browser events, rendering, session restores, length of session, how old a profile is, count of crashes, and count of pages."
"Firefox may send metadata, including URLs associated with the downloaded file, to the SafeBrowsing service. "
"Firefox that sends Mozilla usage, performance, and responsiveness statistics about user interface features, memory, and hardware configuration. Your IP address is also collected as a part of a standard web log."
"When Telemetry is enabled, certain short-term experiments may collect information about visited sites."
"Firefox sends to Mozilla data relating to the tiles such as number of clicks, impressions, your IP address, locale information, and tile specific data (e.g., position and size of grid)."
"Firefox sends Mozilla a request once to look up your location at a country level using your IP address."
"Firefox may send the terms you type in the Awesome Bar or Search Bar to your Default Search Engine to retrieve suggestions"
"Firefox may send “Referral Data” such as the website domain"
"Firefox sends Referral Data to our mobile analytics vendor, and also includes a Google advertising ID, IP address, timestamp, country, locale, operating system, and app version."
"Firefox records and sends Referral Data to Mozilla as part of Firefox Health Report. "
"Firefox may use several pieces of data to determine your location, including your operating systems geolocation features, Wi-Fi networks, cell phone towers, or IP address."
"This report contains technical information for us to improve Firefox including why Firefox crashed, the active URL at time of crash, and the state of computer memory during the crash. The crash report we receive may include personal information."
"Firefox sends information to Mozilla, including the list of add-ons you have installed, Firefox version information, and your IP address."
I have:
Set the settings to Basic.
Disabled it in the registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection
added the keyword AllowTelemetry and set it to 0.
Changed the Group Policy level to Disabled:
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Data Collection And Preview Builds\Allow Telemetry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection
Disabled the services, and killed the processes:
- Connected User Experiences and Telemetry Service.
Connected User Experiences and Telemetry process
dmwappushsvc process
Rebooted the machines
And the Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry still shows up once and awhile.
And this has happened on several machines.
So its still there and still comes back and its still collecting data.
Whataboutism justifies nothing.
Guilty.
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adds more interesting by choosing to share your advertising ID tells me this is not just spyware but addware as well. How about a LMTFA option on by default (leave me the fuck alone). Why is an operating system displaying adds to begin with. Not an OS I want anywhere near me for any reason. Microsoft is far from getting it.
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At the very least, they admit that they:
- Uniquely identify you, your device, and your location/network.
- Record what you navigate and search on the internet.
- Record what you watch, listen to, and read.
- Record your purchase history.
Any citations for these (like field names in that huge list) that you could provide? I searched for some keywords to find anything related what you mentioned (ex: web, browse, history, internet, purchase, etc) and could not find anything as nefarious sounding as your summary. Perhaps I'm not looking closely enough and it's a huge list, so citations would be appreciated. I really would like to know if they are collecting the info you listed. Thanks.
I'm an Win10 insider receiving Win10 6 months early. Reading it's TOS I never installed or wished to be part of Win10. The way it read, if connected to another's system it was free game for data collection as well.
Gaming won out, just last week I purchased Win10 Pro (for it's grpedit.msc (group editor)).
This change only requires me to disable licensing to install what I want now (a very old and proven version of Comodo firewall).
My trust was broken as far back as Vista. I've been using nothing but UNIX based operating systems ever since and though it's been quite a learning experience to say the least, the headaches evolved are entirely my own fault for "playing around" rather than being caused by a corporation forcing them on me. I have a laptop that's about 9 years old running Linux kernel 4.10 32-bit PAE (for more RAM access) just fine with new software, no lag, and no weird privacy agreement because it's not only Linux, but because I made the distro myself. https://theouterlinux.com/psyc.... It does have a EULA though, but so does everyone else. It's OpenSUSE 13.2 based so please make sure to run the Upgrade script if you do install it (yast --> live installer). I'd correct the ISO by default, but SuseStudio killed OpenSUSE 13.2, so I had to make a script to fix repos and other things.
I think Microsoft is not trustworthy, because as long as the telemetry has been implemented, it can probably be abused.
Having telemetry implemented as an idea even, is most worrisome of it all.
Besides, given that USA is a warring faction, Microsoft corp is this.. *holds up thumb and index finger* ..close, to being an immediate threat, should such telemetry data be made available to the US military, in any way shape or form.
https://technet.microsoft.com/...
Doesn't return content anymore.
What fresh hell is this.
Anyone have a copy of the list before they took it down to scrub/reword?
Such is the nature of proprietary software. Users are at the mercy of whatever proprietors grant.
Other problems with this:
Regardless of the PR, regardless of the labels on the settings, regardless of whether you're using the GUI to make changes or setting registry values, regardless of whether you're using one variant of proprietary software ("Basic" edition, "Home" edition, etc.) or another (perhaps an enterprise or "professional" edition) the relationship to power does not change how proprietary software works: With proprietary software users' privacy is never really under their control. Users who don't understand how computers work or why software freedom matters may read articles like theverge.com's article and come away thinking they're better off now. They won't realize proprietary software user are still facing the same problems as before with nothing of substance altered.
Digital Citizen
They're listening to your microphone (speech data). Capturing everything you're typing (typing data). Watching every app you use. Giving you a unique ad id. Tracking your location data. Touch screen data. What else would a spy agency want?
Fuck you submitter and editor, here is the real link https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/04/05/windows-10-privacy-journey-continues-more-transparency-and-controls-for-you/#
Holy crap what a load of shit. "Diagnostic data". Really? You're spying on us for our own good? So, we should thank you for your invasion of our privacy, I suppose?
Go fuck yourselves MS! May you all die a very slow and painful death.