Windows 10 Is Spyware

New American Magazine ^ | 13 August 2015 | C. Mitchell Shaw

[george76]

If you are currently a Microsoft user running either Windows 7 or 8, you are eligible for a free upgrade to the "new and improved" Windows 10. But before you upgrade, be aware that it's free as in price, not as in liberty. Many of the new features and settings of Windows 10 have been deemed spyware by computer security experts. It's one thing to have programs and applications spying on you. It's another thing altogether to have your operating system designed to do it.

When Microsoft announced the "free" upgrade, many were left wondering why the Redmond giant would give away licenses to use the new operating system. Now it appears that the reason is simple: greater data-mining opportunities. Windows operating systems have long included security weaknesses that leave users vulnerable to spying and data-mining from others. What is different with the newest iteration of Windows is that Microsoft is directly involved in that spying and data-mining and has built the entire operating system in such a way as to allow it.

To install the Windows 10 upgrade, users must agree to the Microsoft Services Agreement and its accompanying documents. Few will ever read the terms of these documents since they span some 40,000 words and would run 110 pages if printed. As is to be expected, most of the terms are written in legalese and are not overly easy to understand. There are some parts of the terms that users need to be aware of, though, because agreeing to them grants Microsoft the right to .. share anything stored on or accessed using .. any computer using Microsoft products or services.

...

That data includes the user's name, e-mail address, postal address, phone number, passwords, password hints, age, and gender, as well as other personal information

[Ray54]

I guess I thought that we were talking about operating systems and computers, and stuff like that. I didn't realize that we were talking about abortion.

But there are a lot of things that I don't realize. Because after all, I'm not as smart as you think you are.

So I'll tell what, I'll keep using Windows, if that's okay with you, and you can stick Linux where the sun is not likely to shine, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. Because once again, very few, if any are as smart as you seem to be.

[ShadowAce]

LOL!

[dayglored]

> ping

Hoo boy.... thanks!!

Here's your Nth warning. If you use Windows 10, turn off the spy features ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

[dayglored]

> "Intel Inside"

LOL. Good one.

[tacticalogic]

Yes, he obviously has a financial angle to warning people about Microsoft products. He must make a lot of money off of Linux or something.

Don't discount the possibility he might just be an asshole.

[usconservative]

So just to be clear, it looks to me that someone accepting Windows 10 without disabling these two items gives Microsoft remote access to their computer camera and microphone so they can view you and hear you without your knowledge. Is that correct?

That is what some people believe to be true. (I do not.)

The purpose in developing that list of services is so that those people with those concerns will know what to disable to "secure" their Windows 10 Systems.

Disabling some of those services will impact how users will interact with their computers, so disabling all the services in that list will have consequences.

For example, disabling any of the Location Awareness services will mean for example:

"Cortana, I'm hungry. Show me all the restaurants in my area" will not work well.

"Cortana, I'm hungry. Show me all the restaurants in Chicago Illinois" will work.

Similarly, using Bing to show all restaurants near you will not work.

Using Bing to show all the restaurants in your zipcode or City will.

[usconservative]

I saw that article. Have to say, I don't think the author got it exactly right on what still "talks to Microsoft" vs. what doesn't even with the services I identified above turned off.

For example: ... even with Cortana and searching the Web from the Start menu disabled, opening Start and typing will send a request to www.bing.com to request a file called threshold.appcache which appears to contain some Cortana information, even though Cortana is disabled. The request for this file appears to contain a random machine ID that persists across reboots.

In the above example, disabling Cortana and location awareness isn't going to stop the basic Search function from Microsoft looking on your local hdd and out to Bing. That's built into Search.

What does happen is your location and other potentially "sensitive" information that people don't want to share will not be sent to Bing across the web. The appcache file that is created as a result of the search is useless. A randomly generated machine ID is all the file contains. The user still is not disclosing their location, which is the intent of disabling location awareness.

Sometimes these articles written by these so-called "experts" really aren't useful. I personally don't trust arstechnica as a source of technically correct information. Here's one example why from the same article:

Some of the traffic looks harmless but feels like it shouldn't be happening. For example, even with no Live tiles pinned to Start (and hence no obvious need to poll for new tile data), Windows 10 seems to download new tile info from MSN's network from time to time, using unencrypted HTTP to do so. While again the requests contain no identifying information, it's not clear why they're occurring at all, given that they have no corresponding tile.

So on the one hand, the author says the traffic "looks harmless" (and it is) and then goes on to point out other (harmless) behavior while claiming the behavior shouldn't be happening at all.

Sensationalistic. Scare people first with sensational titles, then have the article be completely useless because most folks never move beyond the sensationalistic title.

Arstechnica? Meh.......

[Excellence]

It’s short for application, which is what a program is.

[Excellence]

Don’t you have your restore disks?

[Ray54]

Unfortunately no. This is a Toshiba laptop that my son gave to me after he bought a new one. He doesn't remember if he made recovery discs, and if he did, he doesn't know where they are at.

It's not a huge deal to me. I don't use the laptop all that much. My desktop has Windows 7 and I will keep it that way.

It was just kind of aggravating that it said that you could revert back to 7, but when I tried, it would not allow me to do so.

[Excellence]

I had to send to Toshiba for mine. They were easy to order and came quickly, but cost $40.

[CedarDave]

This article appears to be a detailed guide on how to turn off the spy functions in Windows 10 and is good to save for later if or when you decide to update to it. However, it cannot be posted on FR due to copyright restrictions so I’m only providing a link:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10-doesnt-offer-much-privacy-by-default-heres-how-to-fix-it/

[Ray54]

Thanks for the info. I might look into that.

[Still Thinking]

There are some parts of the terms that users need to be aware of, though, because agreeing to them grants Microsoft the right to .. share anything stored on or accessed using .. any computer using Microsoft products or services.

How could such an agreement be enforced, given that much of the information you access is not your property, and thus you have no legal ability to grant them right to it?

[Still Thinking]

You’re right, but the most secure, private configuration should be the default so that you have to opt IN to screwing yourself, rather than the opposite. (I realize, not a Microsoft problem per se; EVERYONE has the improper default)

[Still Thinking]

Couldn’t you just do some work on HOSTS so all the spyware reports are just wrong numbers?

[Still Thinking]

Get another hard drive, and image your existing one to it. Then roll one of them back to Win7 before the 30 days is up, and you’ll have one of each. Actually, the way I trust MicroShaft’s intentions and competence, I’d have done the drive image BEFORE installing W10.

[mrsmith]

All done.
Only surprise was my TV I use for a monitor was locked up during the install.

Used the https://fix10.isleaked.com/ setting recommendations.

Sure am glad to see the last of that Charm Bar!

[EveningStar]

Disable Windows Defender

Any recommendations for an anti-virus anti-spyware program if Windows Defender is not acceptable?

[usconservative]

I personally use AVG and Malware Bytes.

I've seen a number of folks here on FR over the years express their preference for Avast and Kaspersky.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the above.

I do recommend that you combine an AntiVirus program of your choice along with Malware Bytes. One's anti-virus, the other is malware protection.