Where, When, And Why Microsoft Collects Your Data

[HardOCP News]

Want to know where, when and why Microsoft collects your data? This guy says that it's a little more complicated than "whenever it wants."


How does Windows 10 telemetry really work? It's not a state secret. I've gone through the documentation and sorted out the where, when, and why. If you're concerned about private documents accidentally leaving your network, you might want to turn the telemetry setting down.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Does this have anything relevant to do with that old "check online..." button for when a program crashes? Like instead of you allowing it to send data to Microsoft - Windows 10 does it without your permission? Because I have NEVER had it return anything of value. Almost always broken links to Microsoft's site. Not once has it had anything relevant to the app that crashed. For how it has not ever worked for me, I don't see how it will be of any use to Microsoft. So why are they collecting it if they aren't going to use the data they say they are getting? Maybe I'm off base here. My apologies if I am.

 

[jfreund]

"It's worth noting that the telemetry data I describe here is only a small part of the routine traffic between a Windows 10 PC and various servers controlled by Microsoft."

If everything is so innocuous, why is there no way to turn it off?

 

[heatlesssun]

"It's worth noting that the telemetry data I describe here is only a small part of the routine traffic between a Windows 10 PC and various servers controlled by Microsoft."

If everything is so innocuous, why is there no way to turn it off?

The point being made here is that a lot of the traffic people see has nothing, nada, zip to do with telemetry but just routine functionality. Like the little yellow icon that shows in the task try when there's no connection to the Internet. That process works by polling http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt which is a DNS lookup and HTTP request. Then there's time services. Just routine stuff like that that's been there forever and should have been dropped out of any discussion of privacy and security. At least dropped out by someone who knew what they were talking about.

 

[rezerekted]

Does this have anything relevant to do with that old "check online..." button for when a program crashes? Like instead of you allowing it to send data to Microsoft - Windows 10 does it without your permission? Because I have NEVER had it return anything of value. Almost always broken links to Microsoft's site. Not once has it had anything relevant to the app that crashed. For how it has not ever worked for me, I don't see how it will be of any use to Microsoft. So why are they collecting it if they aren't going to use the data they say they are getting? Maybe I'm off base here. My apologies if I am.

Same here, it has never fixed a thing for me. I'm betting it has never fixed anything for anyone else either. I'm on Win8.1pro and used GPedit to disable that "feature".

"Telemetry features aren't unique to Microsoft and there's nothing particularly secret about them. They're part of a larger trend in the software industry to collect and analyze event data as part of a shift to data-driven decision making."

Same old, same old, they are doing it so we can too. "They" are not my OS. I reject this new trend so get of off my PC now!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Facebook is free. They make money by tracking you and selling your user data to advertisers.
Google services are free. They make money by tracking you and selling your user data to advertisers.
Lot of other similar products/sites/apps are free. They make money by tracking you and selling your user data to advertisers.
Windows 10 is free. Need I say more?

It would be naive to think this is not their end goal here with all this tracking. All those ads in the start menu? They'll start being more targeted as well.

From a capitalism point of view, it's genius, really. Google and Facebook have a pretty big thing going on because of how big they are, but MS is going to 1 up them as they can track people right at the PC level, and send ads to them right on their PCs too. I'm sure this is their end goal. They are just slowly easing into it.

Personally, I'm sticking to Linux. Just have to be careful not to get hacked ISOs..... lol. (this recently happened to Linux Mint)

 

[DPI]

Windows 10 is free. Need I say more?

Well, it's $200 for a Pro key. Or requires an existing investment in a 7/8 key.

Until you can legitimately download and install 10 with no prior investment in a Windows license (and Insider Build bullshit doesn't count), 10 isn't free.

 

[M76]

Arguing semantics. All Windows PC users will have a previous windows 7 / 8.1 on their PC, so it is free to the entire Windows user base.

 

[DPI]

Arguing semantics. All Windows PC users will have a previous windows 7 / 8.1 on their PC, so it is free to the entire Windows user base.

"All", lmao. Okay I just built a new PC.. Where's my free Windows license?

 

[daglesj]

Arguing semantics. All Windows PC users will have a previous windows 7 / 8.1 on their PC, so it is free to the entire Windows user base.

Hmm still a lot of Vista users in the wild. Had to turn a few away that wanted to upgrade to 10. I don't know why MS hasn't said to those folks that they can do a totally clean install of 10, obliterating their old install (Vista wont work with the upgrade method). But I guess the problem there is that MS could put in huge red letters on the screen "YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR DATA DOING THIS! MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP!" but folks would still try to sue/complain to them for losing their data.

 

[M76]

"All", lmao. Okay I just built a new PC.. Where's my free Windows license?

Oh for the love of all that's holy. If you buy a new PC right now you're not part of the windows user base.

 

[M76]

Hmm still a lot of Vista users in the wild. Had to turn a few away that wanted to upgrade to 10. I don't know why MS hasn't said to those folks that they can do a totally clean install of 10, obliterating their old install (Vista wont work with the upgrade method). But I guess the problem there is that MS could put in huge red letters on the screen "YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR DATA DOING THIS! MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP!" but folks would still try to sue/complain to them for losing their data.

The market share of Vista is comparable to Linux, so it's not a significant gain to MS. This just proves that they're not pushing W10 upgrade for the sake of users and security.

 

[TechLarry]

Does anyone simply make a utility to quickly go in and have options, including "Turn all this shit off and leave me the fuck alone" option ? That document wants to make my head 'splode.

 

[ManofGod]

Gee, I was wondering where all the Microsoft threads had gone. Sure enough, here we are. I was getting bored too. Welp, guess all my bases belong to Microsoft now.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

Oh for the love of all that's holy. If you buy a new PC right now you're not part of the windows user base.

And right there you're wrong.

He said "build". Not "buy".

And you claimed

All Windows PC users will have a previous windows

So, if he builds a brand new PC and wants to put Windows on there, where's his free Windows license?

So, again, Windows 10 is, unequivocally, *NOT* free.

So, in cases where one has to BUY Windows 10, they're STILL stuck with all this telemetry bullshit.

And, even if they turn most of it off, they're one, unavoidable, Windows update away from having it turned back on with zero notification.

 

[M76]

And right there you're wrong.

He said "build". Not "buy".

And you claimed



So, if he builds a brand new PC and wants to put Windows on there, where's his free Windows license?

So, again, Windows 10 is, unequivocally, *NOT* free.

So, in cases where one has to BUY Windows 10, they're STILL stuck with all this telemetry bullshit.

And, even if they turn most of it off, they're one, unavoidable, Windows update away from having it turned back on with zero notification.

Ah I think I figured it out. He meant he's building a new pc to replace his old one. OK, you can't get it for free on a new pc.

But if you get a new pc, you have to buy a windows either way, so it's not in their interest to give it to you for free. Their interest is to get those over to W10 from W7, who wouldn't upgrade for years to come otherwise so they can be ready to receive their targeted ads.

 

[Ur_Mom]

So, if he builds a brand new PC and wants to put Windows on there, where's his free Windows license?

So, again, Windows 10 is, unequivocally, *NOT* free.

So, in cases where one has to BUY Windows 10, they're STILL stuck with all this telemetry bullshit.

And, even if they turn most of it off, they're one, unavoidable, Windows update away from having it turned back on with zero notification.

All Windows PC Users = PC that runs Windows. If you build a new PC, you're not running Windows on it by default. If you're running a Windows PC, it has Windows installed. Most likely 7+, so free Windows 10 license.

Not that it matters. It's still not free, in the same way that Mac OSX is not free. You're buying a license at some point. Whether it's upgraded to 10 or not, you have to pay to use Windows.

 

[KarsusTG]

I like how he made no mention of the connections to markmonitor/etc. I can think of no legit purpose for that to exist in an operating systems data gathering/reporting.