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Security Analyst Concludes Windows 10 Enterprise 'Tracks Too Much' (xato.net)
A viral Twitter rant about Windows 10 Enterprise supposedly ignoring users' privacy settings has since been clarified. "I made mistakes on my original testing and therefore saw more connections than I should have," writes IT security analyst Mark Burnett, "including some to Google ads." But his qualified results -- quoted below -- are still critical of Microsoft:
- You can cut back even more using the Windows Restricted Traffic Limited Functionality Baseline but break many things.
- Settings can be set wrong if you aren't paying attention. Also, settings are not consistent and can be confusing to beginners.
- You are opted-in to just about everything by default and have to set hundreds of settings to opt out, even on an Enterprise Windows system. Sometimes multiple settings for the same feature. Most Microsoft documentation discourages opting out and warns of a less optimal experience... But you can't completely opt-out. Windows still tracks too much.
- Home and Professional users are much worse off due to limitations of some settings and lack of an IT staff... I'm not saying ditch Windows. I'm saying let's fix this. If we can't fix it, then we ditch Windows.
You are opted-in to just about everything by default and have to set hundreds of settings to opt out, even on an Enterprise Windows system. Sometimes multiple settings for the same feature. Most Microsoft documentation discourages opting out and warns of a less optimal experience... But you can't completely opt-out. Windows still tracks too much.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this essentially the definition of "defective by design?"
The increasingly hostile and draconian moves by Microsoft simply serve to prove that the majority of Microsoft customers are in a co-dependent relationship with Microsoft: afraid that no matter how bad things are with Microsoft, they will be worse without Microsoft. It must suck to live like that.
I know, I know. Some people cannot ditch Microsoft, but most people can and it would cost them only marginally more effort (and probably less in many cases) than they expend dealing with all the crap Microsoft is throwing at their customers these days.
The problem isn't Windows. The problem isn't even Microsoft.
The problem is that we don't have strict laws governing the protection of user data. There needs to be serious and utter consequences for pulling this sort of shit. The sort of consequences that would make any shareholder board go "holy shit, let's not fucking do that". Until that happens, absolutely nothing is going to change. You might be able to pressure Microsoft into releasing a patch or two that appears to offer some sort of reprieve, but then they'll get back to doing exactly what they've been doing before, and probably torque down the screws just a little bit tighter while they're at it.
Unfortunately, with the USA now gunning for net neutrality, I doubt anything like this would ever happen. Corporations have too much money and nobody gives a shit about the user. As long as the users keep paying for stuff (because they "have no choice" or don't want to slightly inconvenience themselves), nothing will ever change.
So you better get used to it, because Windows 10 is just the start.
The problem with optimal experience is that Microsoft means their own experience not that of the users. Optimal for them means that the customers are eyeballs for advertisers and with easy to access to data for analytics. Optimal experience for the actual users means that they can turn off Microsoft's control, nothing ever defaults to opt-in, and they don't get tracked or advertised to.
It's call Linux and it's vastly superior in almost every way to Windows. Don't worry about Windows 10, just switch to the worlds best Desktop Operating system.
We already know it's unfixable. What's the delay in ditching Windows?
I think that, for many people, if running Windows required the user to endure an electric shock, they would still not ditch it. They have such little imagination that an alternative is possible.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
" If we can't fix it, then we ditch Windows."
"We" can't fix MS Windows, only Microsoft can.
Any one think they will?
Or keep Windows nicely tucked away in a VM.
My business runs entirely on Linux. So does NASA. Those cute little Rovers that we have on Mars right now, Linux. Oil companies use special security Hardened versions of Linux to run the oil wells. If all these organizations are running Lenox just fine, the problem must be with you. :-)
WTF are you talking about? Linux works perfectly fine. Seriously. It really does.
The problem with Linux isn't that it doesn't work, it does, and usually quite reliably. The problem is, and I think that this is what the OP meant, that it just isn't user friendly.
Installing drivers are not automatic, like the are for most devices under Windows today. Finding applications to take place of existing Windows applications, including financial apps, are much more difficult. Granted, as more companies provide web based apps this becomes less of a concern. Finally, Linux still doesn't have major gaming support. If you want to play the latest high end games then you need a PC running Windows (Yes you can buy console systems, that's a different discussion).
Hahaha I had to do the same thing.
A coworker went a step further by requiring his customers to order and pay for their replacement parts through Best Buy so he can pick them up. No money comes out of his pocket for the replacement parts and he doesn't get stuck with a $300 video card because someone cancelled the job.
Yep, linux linux linux... all us geeks can rant about the virtues and advantages, but at the end of the day, the rank and file want to run office and a web browser. MS Office is the lock-in that sells Windows... and while Wine promised to solve that it's way too complex for most people. Enter PlayOnLinux, which makes common Windows software installation just as simple as on Windows. Point, click, install. Holy $#%@ it just works, and ALL that Windows telemetry is gone, because Windows is gone. And I don't miss it.
To keep it short: I set up Linux Mint and ran updates (about 10 min total install time, from bare metal), installed PlayOnLinux (about three clicks into the Software Manager app), then used that to install MS Office (including Visio), registered and all. The Cisco VPN works (of course), the browsers are faster (of course) and work well with corp apps, and MS Office just works. Tons of other stuff Just Works(tm). Corp IT never hears from me, all the tools just work, everything's much faster, and I didn't have to do ANYTHING at the CLI -- in fact, it was easier and much faster than typical interminable Windows setup processes. It's beyond me why people still put up with the stress of Windows, or insist that it's easier (it's not) or more secure (*snort*).
I think not...(*poof*)
Unfortunately it is well documented that Windows 10 ignores the hosts file for "telemetry"
You should be saying ditch proprietary software precisely because nobody but the proprietor (the very party you can't trust) is legally allowed to fix this (where the word "fix" is a fix from the user's perspective, of course, since the software already works as the proprietor has programmed it to work). That's what proprietary software means and that power over the user is why proprietors distribute their software without respecting a user's freedoms to run, share, and modify the software at any time for any reason. The system's behavior can change at any time, so even if someone monitors what a particular variant of a non-free, user-subjugating OS does now that can change later. Perhaps the software only does something bad under conditions one doesn't typically reach, or maybe an update changes how the software behaves. Furthermore, said software updates don't have to come through an updating program which seeks a user's approval before installation (such as Windows Updates).
The GNU Project has no shortage of proprietary Microsoft malware and that includes universal backdoors, snooping on user's activities, ignoring user's settings on so-called 'privacy' settings, and sending identifiable data to Microsoft and third parties ("even if a user turns off its Bing search and Cortana features, and activates the privacy-protection settings").
Digital Citizen
While the guy might not be a world-class IT specialist, he does report the truth. Window 10 does track too much, and you can't even opt out of it.
Unfortunately, the last sentence of the summary is delusional. There is only one company that can "fix" it, and they refuse to.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I've found the opposite to be true. Linux ships with 99% of the drivers you'll ever need, on Windows part of the install is traditionally using another machine to search vendor sites for drivers. Also many things that are trivially simple on Linux, like channel bonding, are hard or impossible on Windows depending on vendor and hardware support.
Unfortunately it is well documented that Windows 10 ignores the hosts file for "telemetry"
Source?
It is well documented that Windows 10 ignores the host file for a list of "vital" MS services like Update. I have been unable to find any evidence the the telemetry urls get ignored too.
In fact they seem to be perfectly blockable by the hosts file.
Spybot abti-beacon fixes mst of it, even if it can't kill cortana.
https://www.safer-networking.o...
Yes, only Microsoft can fix Windows, but they won't do it unless they feel threatened.
When the PS4 and Xbox one were about to be released Microsoft revealed that the Xbox would require constant connection to the Internet to play. They players revolted and Sony said they wouldn't do it. Microsoft (correctly, IMO) sensed that could be a fatal blow to their console and backtracked really fast.
Something of that caliber would have to happen for they to remove all the spying in Windows. What could that be? I can only think of mass migration of governments and big companies. Alas, that is very unlikely to happen.
In the end this is just another thing that shows how bad monopolies can be (In this case is a monopoly in the sense of "OS that can run Windows software and drivers", ReactOS could theoretically be an alternative but realistically they'd need billions of dollars to get close to Windows).
Window 10 does track too much, and you can't even opt out of it.
True, you can't opt out of it within Windows which is pretty much unethical in my book. There are third party tools available (like Spybot Antibeacon) where you really can turn it off.
Know what the problem is? Remember all that talk about big data being the next big thing? It's here and all this "telemetry" data is being sold because it is considered very valuable.
We'll make great pets
Spybot Antibeacon is decent, but best paired with W10Privacy.
Here's the thing about Win10 though: changing general settings, registry keys, and group policy settings isn't enough. You also have to block many domains and ip's of various Microsoft telemetry servers! The thing still spits out data even with every conceivable setting and tweak utilized!
W10Privacy includes adding firewall rules and hosts file entries to achieve this. I suggest copying those entries and blocking them at the gateway as well. Even then, every time a new MS patch comes out, I discover yet another process sending out unfocumented data to yet another telemetry server. It's fucking ridiculous.
The one advantage of closed source over open source is it lets the IP owner keep things broken that would otherwise be fixed by the community.
The *REAL* problem is you can use the Antibeacon tool to turn off the spyware aspects of Windows, but every time you get another "update" or new version from MS, they default those spyware aspects back on, so you're playing an endless game of "whack-a-mole" trying to keep MS's nose of your bidness.. I used/supported Windows for 20 years as a sysadmin, and never really trusted MS, but since Windows 10 came out, ANY trust I may have had for MS has evaporated. When I retired in 2010, I moved all of my computers over to Linux and thats where they'll stay..
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Wrong. Windows 10 is quite usable in a VM for business and even programming tasks. Sure gaming probably isn't a go. But everything else works fine. I use Windows 10 in a virtual machine quite often, running Visual Studio.
easy, just fork the code and remove all those tracking bits...
what is that? you can't do that?
well then there is nothing you can do to fix it, so ditch windows.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.