New Windows 10 privacy controls: Just a little snooping – or the max

[Delicieuxz]

New Windows 10 privacy controls: Just a little snooping – or the max

 

Excerpt:

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Microsoft has built an online dashboard of privacy controls in an attempt to soothe lingering anger over Windows 10 and its ability to phone home people's private information.

 

The new web portal lists some of the personal data that is collected from PCs and devices and sent back to Redmond, and allows people to somewhat limit the snooping. Meanwhile, Microsoft will also tweak Windows 10's built-in privacy controls, giving Home and Pro users a choice between some system surveillance or full-blown system surveillance.

 

It's the software giant's way of dampening last year's outcry over its silent slurping of telemetry data from people's machines. The changes are also a result of Switzerland's data protection watchdog threatening to prosecute Microsoft for allegedly breaking Swiss privacy law with its Windows telemetry. Redmond promised to modify its software worldwide to avoid any trouble, and that has satisfied the Swiss: the privacy regulator this week dropped its investigation.

 

"We are continuing this commitment to make it as easy as possible for you to make informed choices about your privacy with Windows 10," Terry Myerson, executive veep of Microsoft's Windows and Devices group, blogged on Tuesday. "With that in mind, in the Creators Update, we are making some changes by simplifying the privacy settings themselves and improving the way we present the privacy settings to you."

 

...

 

"Basic" is the lowest those two editions can go. Right now, it includes the state of your hardware and its specifications, your internet connection quality, records of crashes and hangs by software, any compatibility problems, driver usage data, which apps you've installed and how you use them, and other bits and pieces. According to Redmond, the new "basic" level of snooping will cover:

 

"Full", on the other hand, sends over the "basic" level of slurping plus the old "enhanced" level and then even more information about your system. The "enhanced" level includes records of events generated by the operating system, bundled applications and devices, and some crash dumps.

 

This "full" mode will also give Microsoft your "inking and typing data." Engineers, with permission from Microsoft’s privacy governance team, can obtain users' documents that trigger crashes in applications, so they can work out what's going wrong, from people's machines running in "full" mode. The techies can also run diagnostic tools remotely on the computers, again with permission from their overseers.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't think that Microsoft is very honest and up-front about much, but a revamp of their privacy controls is welcomed, even if it is being done under legal investigatory duress. I hope that the improvements and recognition of Windows license-owners' sovereignty over their own systems doesn't end here, but eventually grows to encompass complete freedom from Microsoft's e-fingers, as well as full recognition that the data a person's owned hardware and setup generates represents work, and cannot ethically be taken or used apart from having the system-owner's explicit permission, and fair compensation being given.

 

In the meanwhile, there are programs such as Spybot Anti-Beacon, and O&O Shut Up 10, to more thoroughly manage non-authorized data flow in Windows 10, and this guide can also be followed to try to disable data-collection.

 

[m0k]

on top of disabling all that crap

i will still always use O&O Shutup + Spybot Anti-Beacon

[Devin92]

8 minutes ago, mok said:

on top of disabling all that crap

i will still always use O&O Shutup + Spybot Anti-Beacon

Can you elaborate on the difference between the two software? why will you need both of them. Also, if I use the software do i still need to go thru the guide mentioned in OP?

[m0k]

3 minutes ago, Devin92 said:

Can you elaborate on the difference between the two software? why will you need both of them. Also, if I use the software do i still need to go thru the guide mentioned in OP?

I primarily just use Spybot

But O&O has a lot of additional options you can toggle on and off

I used O&O to just toggle off a few things a while back i cant remember what it was - it was nothing critical

 

[Scruffy90]

As long as this update doesnt revert all my settings back again (wishful thinking at this point), I will probably end up disabling all that crap anyway.

[Sniperfox47]

13 minutes ago, Scruffy90 said:

As long as this update doesnt revert all my settings back again (wishful thinking at this point), I will probably end up disabling all that crap anyway.

It was fixed in the insider previews after the Anniversary update, so it will be wiped one more time moving to the Creative update, but will be maintained properly after that.

 

And on a personal note I'd like to see them offer a no telemetry option to pro users if nothing else. It's not a big thing for me personally, even if I have the option to turn it off I'll turn telemetry on for the same reason I'm in the Insider program, but it would help ease the tensions while offering another differentiator for the pro version.

[jagdtigger]

12 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

It was fixed in the insider previews after the Anniversary update, so it will be wiped one more time moving to the Creative update, but will be maintained properly after that.

 

And on a personal note I'd like to see them offer a no telemetry option to pro users if nothing else. It's not a big thing for me personally, even if I have the option to turn it off I'll turn telemetry on for the same reason I'm in the Insider program, but it would help ease the tensions while offering another differentiator for the pro version.

No-no, every user has the right to disable it not just the "money bags"...

Edited January 12, 2017 by jagdtigger

[PlayStation 2]

welp

[Sniperfox47]

7 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

No-no, every user has the right to disable it not just the "money bags"...

Apparently no user has the right to disable it xP They should have the right, but apparently they don't xP

 

My comment was more just that at least it would be meeting us in the middle. "You want to keep your information private, we want to make money, let's find a compromise!"

[NumLock21]

I don't get how those can be new settings, when I've seen them plenty of times during Win10 install. Does anyone not bother to customized their setup and just click on "Express Setup" where they let MS decide what's best for them? And then bitch about their privacy?!

[jagdtigger]

1 minute ago, Sniperfox47 said:

Apparently no user has the right to disable it xP They should have the right, but apparently they don't xP

 

My comment was more just that at least it would be meeting us in the middle. "You want to keep your information private, we want to make money, let's find a compromise!"

We can have our privacy, but that means a white listing firewall which is tedious to set up . Or we can run it on linux in a vbox and white list only origin and steam(or whatever you are using).

[79wjd]

16 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

No-no, every user has the right to disable it not just the "money bags"...

It's private software that you dont have to use. You have no right to privacy. 

[Sniperfox47]

4 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

We can have our privacy, but that means a white listing firewall which is tedious to set up . Or we can run it on linux in a vbox and white list only origin and steam(or whatever you are using).

Is this where I'm supposed to do a plug for unraid, so you can run it in a VM and still get native graphics performance?

[jagdtigger]

8 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

It's private software that you dont have to use. You have no right to privacy. 

We have  a right but we cant enforce it since most of the population is sheep ...

BTW there are two things that forces me to use windows, coedu(its related to my studies) works only in IE and games.

 

@Sniperfox47

IDK, a little performace loss is still better than the alternative IMHO...

Edited January 12, 2017 by jagdtigger

[Delicieuxz]

16 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

I don't get how those can be new settings, when I've seen them plenty of times during Win10 install. Does anyone not bother to customized their setup and just click on "Express Setup" where they let MS decide what's best for them? And then bitch about their privacy?!

The presentation of data-collection settings has been revised to be more clear, and the article also says that some settings have been simplified.

[NumLock21]

3 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

The presentation of data-collection settings has been revised to be more clear, and the article also says that some settings have been simplified.

I'm looking at the 2 pics that's in your OP and I don't see anything that's revised to be more clear or setting have been simplified.

 

 

[79wjd]

19 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

We have  a right but we cant enforce it since most of the population is sheep ...

BTW there are two things that forces me to use windows, coedu(its related to my studies) works only in IE and games.

 

@Sniperfox47

IDK, a little performace loss is still better than the alternative IMHO...

No. You have no right. Period. End of discussion. We can want it and we can demand it, but at the end of the day you CHOOSE to use Microsoft's operating system and therefore you CHOOSE to deal with whatever Microsoft wants to do.

 

Those are both reasons you CHOOSE to use Windows. But again, no one is forcing you to play games. No one is forcing you to study something that specifically requires IE or even a computer for that matter. It is 100% your CHOICE.

[Delicieuxz]

16 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

I'm looking at the 2 pics that's in your OP and I don't see anything that's revised to be more clear or setting have been simplified.

The description of settings is clearer, and look at the second picture in the OP: When the settings are disabled, there is more information regarding what effect it actually has.

 

Also, it looks like the last 3 items in your image have been condensed into a single option, "Tailored experiences and diagnostic data," and there is also now the "Speech recognition" setting.

 

I think the revision is still woefully lacking in clarity, as it frames the settings in a very biased 'advantage vs disadvantage' manner, rather than actually informing a person of the data they'd be sending Microsoft, but it is a bit more coherent, IMO.

[Scruffy90]

1 hour ago, Sniperfox47 said:

It was fixed in the insider previews after the Anniversary update, so it will be wiped one more time moving to the Creative update, but will be maintained properly after that.

 

And on a personal note I'd like to see them offer a no telemetry option to pro users if nothing else. It's not a big thing for me personally, even if I have the option to turn it off I'll turn telemetry on for the same reason I'm in the Insider program, but it would help ease the tensions while offering another differentiator for the pro version.

That is annoying. I dont have the time to go back and make a bunch of custom changes for the third time since windows 10's release. Looks like i'm blocking the creator update until I have time to waste.

[NumLock21]

6 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

The labeling of settings is clearer, and look at the second picture in the OP: When the settings are disabled, there is more information regarding what effect it actually has.

Also, it looks like the last 3 items in your image have been condensed into a single option, "Tailored experiences and diagnostic data," and there is also now the "Speech recognition" setting.

 

During the initial setup phase, when you click on customize setup, these are just some of the choices. There's a bit more, but I can't find anymore screenshots.

Anyway, IMO, I just don't see how those new setting is any different then what it's already there. If it comes as a surprise to some, then basically those people don't really care about their privacy in the first place.

 

 

 

[LAwLz]

Still not satisfied. This is not what people are asking for.

Most (if not all) of these options are already available. What I want is a "fuck off" option, which actually disables things. For crying out loud, some of the privacy related buttons in Windows doesn't actually turn things off. Like how turning off Cortana should stop it from intercepting what you writes, but it still calls home to Bing whenever you do a local search on your computer.

 

This seems like Microsoft putting lipstick on a pig.

[Nowak]

1 minute ago, LAwLz said:

Still not satisfied. This is not what people are asking for.

Most (if not all) of these options are already available. What I want is a "fuck off" option, which actually disables things. For crying out loud, some of the privacy related buttons in Windows doesn't actually turn things off. Like how turning off Cortana should stop it from intercepting what you writes, but it still calls home to Bing whenever you do a local search on your computer.

 

This seems like Microsoft putting lipstick on a pig.

Check the Group Policy Editor under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication settings. There's a policy that disables the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program, which is where a lot of privacy issues stem from. The requirements haven't changed since Vista, either, which is nice. What isn't nice though, is that it's hidden in the Group Policy Editor rather than an easy toggle in the Control Panel like under Windows Vista, 7 and 8.x.

[LAwLz]

2 minutes ago, Daring said:

Check the Group Policy Editor under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication settings. There's a policy that disables the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program, which is where a lot of privacy issues stem from. The requirements haven't changed since Vista, either, which is nice. What isn't nice though, is that it's hidden in the Group Policy Editor rather than an easy toggle in the Control Panel like under Windows Vista, 7 and 8.x.

I don't trust that it actually turns things off, but it's worth a try.

[Nowak]

2 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I don't trust that it actually turns things off, but it's worth a try.

The requirements haven't changed since Vista, so maybe it does? idk.

[LAwLz]

9 minutes ago, Daring said:

The requirements haven't changed since Vista, so maybe it does? idk.

That might just mean that it only disables whatever info they could collect in Vista, but leaves all the new Windows 10-exclusive data harvesting enabled even with the GPO turned on.