Windows 10 data mining has been caught

kilroy67 said:
I understand people concerns about privacy and its a valid concern. But really I think Windows 10 is low on the list of problems when its comes to privacy. Take the NSA for one example, or all the hacking being done to places like Home Depot, Target, the IRS and many more. My sons SS number and other personal information was stolen in a hack of a affiliate of Blue Cross, my Home Depot account was compromised by hackers. All these breeches of security took place long before Windows 10. If anybody thinks that by not using Windows 10 your privacy is safe, think again, chances are someone out there, maybe Russia, North Korea, China and possibly even here in the USA has your information. These days it seems the only way to truly protect your information/privacy is to live in a cave.
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You sound like a quitter.

Protect what you can seems like a reasonable policy to me.
 
So question to everyone who has been looking and or attempting to capture traffic with this proprietary info in it. What version of W10 are you running? I have seen on some other discussion threads around the web that this might be a W10 Home thing and not pro?

I am using WIN 10 Pro x64
 
Monkey God said:
You sound like a quitter.

Protect what you can seems like a reasonable policy to me.
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Quitter?? I don't know how you come away with that analysis of what I posted but what ever, care factor minimal. In 20 years I have had 0 viruses, very little spam or malware, and my systems have never been compromised. I think by now I know what I'm doing.
 
does no one really care any more about Windows 10 telemetry crap?
 
Savi said:
does no one really care any more about Windows 10 telemetry crap?
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Apparently not. The tinfoil hat crew did a poor job of showing results from their speculation and then not even using the released version of Windows.
 
Savi said:
does no one really care any more about Windows 10 telemetry crap?
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It's not a matter of not caring, it's a matter of looking at it realistically and honestly. I have smartphones, use OneDrive, DropBox, Gmail, Outlook.com, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Safari Online (online tech book service), Nook, Kindle, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and I know there's left out here.

If people are truly honest about privacy concerns rather than just bashing Windows 10, there's MUCH more to think about. I like these services, I use them all of the time and I've never had any significant problems with them. But I'm not under any allusion that all this stuff is totally private and that all of these services know tons about me and indeed part of how they work is leveraging personal information.

If Windows 10 is bad then all this other stuff is too and indeed the way consumer tech works is fundamentally bad. But do reject the idea that Microsoft is uploading data from hard drives for the purposes of spying and to report back to the NSA or RIAA or whomever at least as a matter of routine. There'd be nothing to gain for Microsoft other than the collapse of a multi-hundred billion dollar company if it was ever discovered that they were doing stuff like this.
 
I tread an article some time ago about how AV companies snoop the files on your PC...
 
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I have Win10 Home installed on my desktop, and I use VLC to play videos. I have everything off in Privacy, deleted two services associated with spying, set the registry entry to 0 on Telemetry, and have a list of sites blocked on my router. When I play a video, a file gets written to c:\users\myname\local\microsoft\smartscreen, it is in the form ARCxxxx.tmp. I opened some of them up and was shocked to see the filenames of the videos I played with VLC. There are <Rq></Rq> tags surrounding Filename tags <Fn></Fn> and then the name of the file.

Didn't think much of this, but left Win10 running for about 15 minutes, already deleted some of the .tmp files but two more were created. I come back, the hard drive activity light is on, move the mouse, the HDD light stops, and those two files are now gone from that folder. I didn't delete them. I wonder if this is something getting sent to MS.

Now I know why MS says it is the last version of windows, because after people find all this out, they will never use windows again.
 
Dk975 said:
I have Win10 Home installed on my desktop, and I use VLC to play videos. I have everything off in Privacy, deleted two services associated with spying, set the registry entry to 0 on Telemetry, and have a list of sites blocked on my router. When I play a video, a file gets written to c:\users\myname\local\microsoft\smartscreen, it is in the form ARCxxxx.tmp. I opened some of them up and was shocked to see the filenames of the videos I played with VLC. There are <Rq></Rq> tags surrounding Filename tags <Fn></Fn> and then the name of the file.

Didn't think much of this, but left Win10 running for about 15 minutes, already deleted some of the .tmp files but two more were created. I come back, the hard drive activity light is on, move the mouse, the HDD light stops, and those two files are now gone from that folder. I didn't delete them. I wonder if this is something getting sent to MS.

Now I know why MS says it is the last version of windows, because after people find all this out, they will never use windows again.
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Welcome to 2012, when Microsoft introduced Smartscreen filtering at the desktop level in Windows 8 to better prevent malware infections. This is not new to Windows 10. You can turn off Smartscreen if you want to.
 
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evilsofa said:
Welcome to 2012, when Microsoft introduced Smartscreen filtering at the desktop level in Windows 8 to better prevent malware infections. This is not new to Windows 10. You can turn off Smartscreen if you want to.
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Apparently people would rather get malware than have their PC take basic steps to protect them. I am amazed at how some people made it this long with evil anti malware applications literally scanning the contents of their files!!!
 
We had a major university president as a guest speaker come in today for one of those motivational talks about technical innovation. Very solid tech credentials, PhD in CS etc. and he talked at length about this mobile first, cloud first, personal data driven world. Another gentlemen and I asked him some questions about security and privacy and I specifically asked him if he thought these issues would slow down or change the trajectory of the proliferation of these things. hile he readily admitted the privacy and security concerns particularly when addressing financial services he said he expected all of this to accelerate and that privacy and security concerns weren't going to change that.

Of course like any issue that's even somewhat controversial some opinions aren't going to change no matter what but this not only the new normal it's not yet really even begun.
 
heatlesssun said:
We had a major university president as a guest speaker come in today for one of those motivational talks about technical innovation. Very solid tech credentials, PhD in CS etc. and he talked at length about this mobile first, cloud first, personal data driven world. Another gentlemen and I asked him some questions about security and privacy and I specifically asked him if he thought these issues would slow down or change the trajectory of the proliferation of these things. hile he readily admitted the privacy and security concerns particularly when addressing financial services he said he expected all of this to accelerate and that privacy and security concerns weren't going to change that.

Of course like any issue that's even somewhat controversial some opinions aren't going to change no matter what but this not only the new normal it's not yet really even begun.
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I don't think for a second that privacy issues will really slow down the adoption of these new services either. I don't think it's right that all this tracking is being done, but here's the kicker. We're not tied to any of this. If we really didn't want this, then we should vote with our wallets (or our clicks) and not sign up for any of this stuff.

It's like they (collective - not Microsoft alone) sprung the trap on us long ago by creating "free" services. Now that we're hooked, we're willing to buy Operating Systems that have all of this tracking built in from the ground up. We're gladly forking away our privacy for some cool new toys.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
I don't think for a second that privacy issues will really slow down the adoption of these new services either. I don't think it's right that all this tracking is being done, but here's the kicker. We're not tied to any of this. If we really didn't want this, then we should vote with our wallets (or our clicks) and not sign up for any of this stuff.

It's like they (collective - not Microsoft alone) sprung the trap on us long ago by creating "free" services. Now that we're hooked, we're willing to buy Operating Systems that have all of this tracking built in from the ground up. We're gladly forking away our privacy for some cool new toys.
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It's more complicated than this though. A lot of these things actually need all of this data to function and improve. So even if we all "unplugged" from the data collection we'd lose functions that leverage this data. And that might be the thing we aren't willing to live with and regret simultaneously.
 
heatlesssun said:
It's more complicated than this though. A lot of these things actually need all of this data to function and improve. So even if we all "unplugged" from the data collection we'd lose functions that leverage this data. And that might be the thing we aren't willing to live with and regret simultaneously.
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So, it's for the greater good?
the-greater-good.jpg
 
Frobozz said:
So, it's for the greater good?
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Not necessarily but it is inevitable. One of the primary purposes we use computers for is to store and recall information. It was inevitable that we would extend these capabilities to leverage that information beyond simple recall.
 
Say tomorrow, Microsoft comes out and says that they are going to rip out all of the "spyware" from Windows 10. No Cortana, no Windows Store or OneDrive or Microsoft Account. Just local files and Win32 apps forever and always. I'm sure there's a number of people that would welcome this. But is it anywhere near realistic?
 
The tension between security and utility has always existed, long before the information age. You have to strike a balance; perfect security is no fun at all and perfect utility results in the world getting blown up by anyone who wants to. Life is best somewhere between the bunker and the apocalypse.
 
Um guys, the massive amount of data collection mentioned in the first post applies to the preview/insider builds or if you have your windows set up to receive insider builds, then yes that level of data collection is happening.

If you are using the RTM build and NOT set as an insider in the windows options, then this level of collection is not occurring.
 
extide said:
Um guys, the massive amount of data collection mentioned in the first post applies to the preview/insider builds or if you have your windows set up to receive insider builds, then yes that level of data collection is happening.

If you are using the RTM build and NOT set as an insider in the windows options, then this level of collection is not occurring.
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Not to hard to turn off in any case right? To me O&O ShutUp10 is pretty handy;)
 
primetime said:
Not to hard to turn off in any case right? To me O&O ShutUp10 is pretty handy;)
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How legit is this software? I tried NoSpy and it was a adware/spyware infected piece of shit making you go through multiple add on software installations to ignore just to install the fucking thing. Then when trying to uninstall it it you ask you if you wanted to install that same software again. Russian garbage is what that was. Ended up writing to zeros and doing another fresh install because of that shit.

Please tell me this is better? I dont want to manually add these hosts one by one in my router's firewall to block all of this crap.
 
heatlesssun said:
Say tomorrow, Microsoft comes out and says that they are going to rip out all of the "spyware" from Windows 10. No Cortana, no Windows Store or OneDrive or Microsoft Account. Just local files and Win32 apps forever and always. I'm sure there's a number of people that would welcome this. But is it anywhere near realistic?
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All MS has to do is make that shit optional. Ensure and *guarantee* there is no data mining. The only time my PC should talk to Microsoft is when I am downloading updates. That's it. End of fucking story.

As long as Microsoft continues trying to emulate Apple with their walled garden model, they can keep their "OS as a service" to themselves.
 
Monkey God said:
All MS has to do is make that shit optional. Ensure and *guarantee* there is no data mining. The only time my PC should talk to Microsoft is when I am downloading updates. That's it. End of fucking story.
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The only thing that's been confirmed from a mainstream source that I know of is from Ars Technica that reported some encrypted data along with a some type of machine ID that did occur with local searches with a local account within Cortana, with Cortana's options turned off. And there is some diagnostic information that get's set error reporting is set to Basic. Microsoft claims that this is all diagnostic info with no real personal data attached. Not saying that's true but in this configuration no reputable source so far has indicated otherwise. And I know that this isn't good enough for you and others. But if this is all diagnostic info with no personal data attached beyond a machine id, it's use for any type of security breach of personal information is very low.

Monkey God said:
As long as Microsoft continues trying to emulate Apple with their walled garden model, they can keep their "OS as a service" to themselves.
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The Windows Store now with the coming ability to distribute Win32 apps, repackage Android APKs and even Objective-C doesn't sound so much like a walled garden that just another distribution mechanism. If the idea is to get more and more apps on Windows this seems like a better idea than simply say "Just write a Win32 app if you want to be on Windows." Which is still an option.
 
50Cal said:
How legit is this software? I tried NoSpy and it was a adware/spyware infected piece of shit making you go through multiple add on software installations to ignore just to install the fucking thing. Then when trying to uninstall it it you ask you if you wanted to install that same software again. Russian garbage is what that was. Ended up writing to zeros and doing another fresh install because of that shit.

Please tell me this is better? I dont want to manually add these hosts one by one in my router's firewall to block all of this crap.
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I haven't tried ShutUp10, but I've been using https://github.com/10se1ucgo/DisableWinTracking on my machines at home.
 
ShutUp 10 seems promising, at least it's from a known entity with a track record for PC utils. http://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Nice that the one click privacy tools for Spyware 10 are finally emerging. Figured it was just a matter of time, and yet another cottage industry that MS boneheadedly creates by their shortsightedness, just like all the third party start menus that were so popular for Windows8.

It'll be a cat and mouse game for sure as MS is likely to continue to make adjustments via forced auto updates to the way the spying is done as measures get thwarted and suppressed by third party tools and reg hacks; hopefully these programs can stay on top of it so we don't have to go looking all over the net continually for manual methods.
 
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lmao @ this thread.

The "Tech Journalists" stirring this up are just that, dumbass tech journialists riling people up. That PCWorld article has been copied and pasted at least 100 times in the past week and passed as some sort of expose. Look into Office Telemetry. They have been doing this for 10 years.

Also, if you own a smartphone, you lost the "privacy" battle years ago.
 
schizrade said:
Also, if you own a smartphone, you lost the "privacy" battle years ago.
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That oft-parroted excuse is about as braindead as it gets. My PC isn't a smartphone. Two wrongs don't make a right. The existence of smartphone spying doesn't mean it's okay for a $200 paid OS.

And crying about tech journos is futile, because their voice and platform is louder than yours. The bigger picture here is MS is allowing a perception problem to fester by remaining silent and insisting that everyone "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". If the spying is as benign as the apologists want people to believe without evidence, then not being more transparent is going to cost MS.
 
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DPI said:
That oft-parroted excuse is about as braindead as it gets. My PC isn't a smartphone. Two wrongs don't make a right. The existence of smartphone spying doesn't mean it's okay for a $200 paid OS.

And crying about tech journos is futile, because their voice and platform is louder than yours. The bigger picture here is MS is allowing a perception problem to fester by remaining silent and insisting that everyone "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". If the spying is as benign as the apologists want people to believe without evidence, then not being more transparent is going to cost MS.
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So has anybody proven personal information is being sent in the collections, thus spying? All I have seen is proof that they collect what they say they collect, anonymized telemetry data to futher develop their software.

Normally the people leveling the charges need to prove them, not the accused.
 
For all the effort people are putting into Windows 10 and disabling all this so-called privacy invading or data capturing nonsense, realize that - as I and many others have pointed out in the recent past - Windows 10 is Microsoft's product, not yours aka the end user and at any point they can push an update that may or may not claim to do one thing and end up re-enabling all of this stuff in one fell swoop.

As of about a week ago, Microsoft even went so far as to state publicly that in the future they will put out some updates to Windows 10 (and potentially Windows 7 and 8/8.1 now too) and not tell anyone what's in some of the update(s) - no details, no information, no nothing, just that it's an update of whatever kind (optional, critical, and so on).

You're sweeping a dirt floor, folks, seriously, but if doing all this just to use that abomination known as Windows 10 is what squeaks yer sneakers, well then by all means, squeak away. ;)
 
Tiberian said:
For all the effort people are putting into Windows 10 and disabling all this so-called privacy invading or data capturing nonsense, realize that - as I and many others have pointed out in the recent past - Windows 10 is Microsoft's product, not yours aka the end user and at any point they can push an update that may or may not claim to do one thing and end up re-enabling all of this stuff in one fell swoop.

As of about a week ago, Microsoft even went so far as to state publicly that in the future they will put out some updates to Windows 10 (and potentially Windows 7 and 8/8.1 now too) and not tell anyone what's in some of the update(s) - no details, no information, no nothing, just that it's an update of whatever kind (optional, critical, and so on).

You're sweeping a dirt floor, folks, seriously, but if doing all this just to use that abomination known as Windows 10 is what squeaks yer sneakers, well then by all means, squeak away. ;)
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I am glad as I get older I have less and less interest in games, because its only games that keep me on windows at all. Once there is evidence that Microsoft is starting to do as you suggest, that will just push more people away to alternatives.

edit: I guess will no longer install updates on Win7.
 
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Tiberian said:
For all the effort people are putting into Windows 10 and disabling all this so-called privacy invading or data capturing nonsense, realize that - as I and many others have pointed out in the recent past - Windows 10 is Microsoft's product, not yours aka the end user and at any point they can push an update that may or may not claim to do one thing and end up re-enabling all of this stuff in one fell swoop.

As of about a week ago, Microsoft even went so far as to state publicly that in the future they will put out some updates to Windows 10 (and potentially Windows 7 and 8/8.1 now too) and not tell anyone what's in some of the update(s) - no details, no information, no nothing, just that it's an update of whatever kind (optional, critical, and so on).

You're sweeping a dirt floor, folks, seriously, but if doing all this just to use that abomination known as Windows 10 is what squeaks yer sneakers, well then by all means, squeak away. ;)
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Monkey God said:
I am glad as I get older I have less and less interest in games, because its only games that keep me on windows at all. Once there is evidence that Microsoft is starting to do as you suggest, that will just push more people away to alternatives.
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I have already installed Linux Mint on my wife's computer and have been using it as a test system. Surprisingly its come a long way and I am even able to play a good amount of games on it.

Its Microsoft attitude that bothers me most, take what we give you and shut up.
 
If data is being gathered for marketing purposes, it's just stupid. I mean, how much are 'they' prepared to spend on infrastructure that will improve drainage of money?

I don't know about you guys in the Americas, but over here it's a race to the bottom.
Yes, people will buy the iPhone because marketing. Then what? Was it really worth it all?
The massive intertubes congestion, the frustration, the constant cat and mouse battle with service providers to avoid their methods.

You're already giving the EU heartburn prompting moronic twitch-like reactions like reminding me I can actually replace a piece of software bundled with my OS with another. I'm talking about the browser screen. It's a f**g http interpreter FFS. Not our fault it's also a major marketing vector. Product placement happens in songs as well, I guess it's a matter of time till we have to choose a music player as well?

Noone I know buys software with their Windows or Android phones. Few people buy console subscriptions. You can hire people to follow me around with billboards and it won't make my empty wallet any less empty.
 
techie81 said:
I have already installed Linux Mint on my wife's computer and have been using it as a test system. Surprisingly its come a long way and I am even able to play a good amount of games on it.

Its Microsoft attitude that bothers me most, take what we give you and shut up.
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I just downloaded a Linux Mint to try. What flavor did you get? If it works out I'll go the dual boot route and only use 10 (when I get it) for games, they can spy on my games all they want (or not, I won't have to worry). But agree with you I don't like the way all the power user options are getting cut out. And not a worry for many but for those of us with slow connections all this data, anonymous or not, makes them even slower.
 
I tried Linux Mint running off a usb stick last week and it would only boot into compatibility mode so I tried Fedora instead and that booted fine.
 
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