New Windows 7/8/8.1 updates spy on you just like Windows 10

[silberdrachi]

From my understanding though, what they collect is not personal data. The might know that user X has visited these sites and downloaded this content and likes to watch this kind of porn (went too far but whatever), but they don't know who user X really is. Is it right, or am I living a lie?

 

Sure they dont know your name directly, but with enough data points inferring that information is relatively easy. Basically instead of sending back a registered name its sending back a GUID value that they can tag any transactions to. Its similar to what they do with tracking cookies on websites. Sure they dont know your name, but based on the patterns of sites you go to, and what you look for, they can accurately guess a lot of information about you.

 

There was an article a while back about Target "guessing" that someone was pregnant based on their purchase habits and automatically sending out special coupons to people.

 

With enough data, you dont need names to make some scary predictions.

[othertomperson]

I really don't care about the whole spying thing. As long as it doesn't go too far I don't care.

 

inb4 privacy whores hate on me

 

Why would we hate on you? We love jacking off to you having a shit

 

What? I thought you had nothing to hide...

[NeatSquidYT]

Why would we hate on you? We love jacking off to you having a shit

 

What? I thought you had nothing to hide...

I didn't say that I had nothing to hid. Why do people misread and misinterpret everything I say?

[othertomperson]

I didn't say that I had nothing to hid. Why do people misread and misinterpret everything I say?

 

Oh I'm sorry I interpreted "I really don't care about the whole spying thing" as you saying that you didn't care about the whole spying thing. How silly of me.

[Misanthrope]

extremely doubt that many people know how to do this let alone want to

they are an extremely small minority

or just not updating would solve this

Not updating doesn't works with automatic updates you can't turn off in the case of 10.

[StareX]

Again.. if anything happens to me, I'll know where to go. 8)

[jaggysnake57]

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

 

but is spying evil?

[EChondo]

From my understanding though, what they collect is not personal data. The might know that user X has visited these sites and downloaded this content and likes to watch this kind of porn (went too far but whatever), but they don't know who user X really is. Is it right, or am I living a lie?

I know where you're trying to go with this, but everything I do on my computer is personal to me. So for them to say they don't collect personal data means jack all. They are collecting information about my computer that I put into it, whether it's certain hardware, software, or changes I've made to the OS, all of it is personal to me and I do not like it being collected and documented without my consent/knowledge(I know ToS).

[Leonard]

For those that so paranoid plz try read any Eula with a paranoid mindset, i bet you won't install anything anymore after.

 

 

Why ? they don't collect personal data.

Or so they let us believe.

[LAwLz]

but is spying evil?

Good question, and you will get different answers from different people as well as what kind of spying is being done.

It is not really relevant to the discussion though. The person I responded to seemed to agree that Microsoft's spying is bad, but has decided to not fight against it.

[brownninja97]

equality right there.

[Nielips]

Why even bother bring stuff like this up, you either like it or lump it.

[Solkia]

They can watch me not buy their products anymore.

[RH00D]

The funny part is you all get worked up about "spying", while using the internet and Android phones.

 

The NSA is literally tapping the internet fiber lines. It doesn't matter what OS or software you use.

 

Don't want your information collected? Don't use the internet. Period.

 

No amount of FOSS will protect you.

 

By the way, these updates appear to just be for diagnostics/telemetry data so that's no big deal really. I love how overly dramatic people are that diagnostics and telemetry is now "spying".

 

Bring on the hate.

[Solkia]

Bring on the hate.

 

You know ending a statement with what is essentially "u mad bro" is really annoying. It tells me you aren't interested in anything other than baiting people.

[LAwLz]

The funny part is you all get worked up about "spying", while using the internet and Android phones.

 

The NSA is literally tapping the internet fiber lines. It doesn't matter what OS or software you use.

 

Don't want your information collected? Don't use the internet. Period.

 

No amount of FOSS will protect you.

 

By the way, these updates appear to just be for diagnostics/telemetry data so that's no big deal really. I love how overly dramatic people are that diagnostics and telemetry is now "spying".

 

Bring on the hate.

You sure love the Google red herring don't you?

Here is my response:

Just because one company does something bad doesn't mean everyone else should be free to do that bad thing too.

A lot of clothing companies have children working for them in sweat shops. That doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to all but the biggest company who does it.

[Misanthrope]

The funny part is you all get worked up about "spying", while using the internet and Android phones.

 

The NSA is literally tapping the internet fiber lines. It doesn't matter what OS or software you use.

 

Don't want your information collected? Don't use the internet. Period.

 

No amount of FOSS will protect you.

 

By the way, these updates appear to just be for diagnostics/telemetry data so that's no big deal really. I love how overly dramatic people are that diagnostics and telemetry is now "spying".

 

Bring on the hate.

Captain here, delivering hate cargo: This is a very old and tired argument: oh no security system is perfect so it doesn't matter, let me just leave the door to my house wide open then right?

No, wrong. Why should we pay to have the privilege of making it extra easy to Microsoft to spy on us?

[FabulousOtter]

Just because one company does something bad doesn't mean everyone else should be free to do that bad thing too.

A lot of clothing companies have children working for them in sweat shops. That doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to all but the biggest company who does it.

 

Although I agree with you that yes, just because some person does something it doesn't make it right or ethical for others to follow along with them, the whole child slave labour and sweatshop analogy is kind of an extreme comparison with what Microsoft is doing.

 

Spying and data collection is inevitable and we will never be in a world where we as everyday people aren't farmed for our online browsing habits, interests and whatnot so that advertising agencies can try to sell us things we don't really want or need. It's an irreversible turn that the internet has taken and the only way to stay truly 'private' is to go live in a cave for the rest of your life deep in an inhospitable jungle. Im not at all condoning any form of personal data collection at all, but there's literally nothing we can do about it other than to just stop using the internet.

[Nineshadow]

Collecting user information != spying

 

Some services actually require information about the user. Some just use it to improve themselves. That's okay. I remember some people being mad about Cortana asking if it/she could access the device's contact list. It's pretty obvious that it needs to do that for you to be able to say commands like "Call John". The developers might want to know information about the user's device, how he uses the service it provides, etc. That's good.

 

However, Microsoft is being too vague about what data they actually collect, and that's the issue at the moment. They could be collecting only the necessary information they need, or they could be truly spying. It's too vague to determine which case it is. There's also the problem of how well secured is all the collected information.

[othertomperson]

Although I agree with you that yes, just because some person does something it doesn't make it right or ethical for others to follow along with them, the whole child slave labour and sweatshop analogy is kind of an extreme comparison with what Microsoft is doing.

 

Spying and data collection is inevitable and we will never be in a world where we as everyday people aren't farmed for our online browsing habits, interests and whatnot so that advertising agencies can try to sell us things we don't really want or need. It's an irreversible turn that the internet has taken and the only way to stay truly 'private' is to go live in a cave for the rest of your life deep in an inhospitable jungle. Im not at all condoning any form of personal data collection at all, but there's literally nothing we can do about it other than to just stop using the internet.

 

It's only inevitable because so many people take this bullshit attitude.

[Nowak]

Remember, people. Microsoft doesn't give a shit about files locally on your PC. They only care about files stored on their servers. Don't want that? Then don't do anything important that involves their servers in some way, like store important or confidential files on OneDrive.

[RH00D]

Captain here, delivering hate cargo: This is a very old and tired argument: oh no security system is perfect so it doesn't matter, let me just leave the door to my house wide open then right?

No, wrong. Why should we pay to have the privilege of making it extra easy to Microsoft to spy on us?

 

Tell me more about how Microsoft cares about what porn you watch. Guess what, they don't. They collect information for diagnostics/telemetry and information that is directly needed to provide a service such as Cortana features.

 

You honestly think they're just harvesting data because they care about what you're up to? You're not that special. None of us are.

[Murdoch]

The funny part is you all get worked up about "spying", while using the internet and Android phones.

 

The NSA is literally tapping the internet fiber lines. It doesn't matter what OS or software you use.

 

Don't want your information collected? Don't use the internet. Period.

 

No amount of FOSS will protect you.

 

By the way, these updates appear to just be for diagnostics/telemetry data so that's no big deal really. I love how overly dramatic people are that diagnostics and telemetry is now "spying".

 

Bring on the hate.

 

You miss an important point here though. As things stand people have relatively little influence over Government policy, however if people (en masse) moved away from services that "spy on people" and moved towards those that don't. That would directly hurt the bottom line of the big players, which would then encourage them to change their practices, and either move towards better methods of protecting user data, or as we have seen in some situations, lobby the government to change their actions.

 

If you just shut up and take it, nothing will change except further "surveillance creep". Inaction is literally the worst advice.

[TheRisingMyth]

Good thing Windows 7 users have full control over which updates gets installed on their computers. If you have accidentally installed this spyware then you can easily uninstall it from the control panel.

 

 

Everyone don't care about privacy as long as "it doesn't go too far". The thing is that everyone has different opinions of what "too far" is.

 

The last part of your post is just stupid though.

First you insult people who are fighting for your rights and protection, and then you go "they will hate me". Of course they will hate you if you call them stupid names first. Don't get surprised if you get hated if you throw the first rock.

 

 

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

 

 

That's a stupid argument and you know it. If you got nothing to hide then give me all your passwords right now.

 

 

Just because one company does something bad doesn't mean everyone else should be free to do that bad thing too.

A lot of clothing companies have children working for them in sweat shops. That doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to all but the biggest company who does it.

 

 

So you think it is good that Microsoft are making their older products worse? Why? Why do you want people to enjoy Windows 10 but you don't want them to enjoy Windows 7?

This won't make people enjoy Windows 10 more. It will just make people enjoy Windows 7, and Microsoft in general, less.

 

I'm surprised at how many people liked this post. Your logic is immensely flawed throughout the whole post.

[FabulousOtter]

It's only inevitable because so many people take this bullshit attitude.

 

Either take it or are completely oblivious. We're only a miniscule percentage of the internet's user base; the overwhelming majority have no idea what 'internet privacy' means. They can't get information from everyday news outlets because most are owned by huge corporations and politicians who profit from collecting and selling personal data and have no urge to go out of their way to research what's happening because it doesn't impact their everyday lives in any way.

 

It's going to take something absolutely MASSIVE to get people to start caring and protesting about the increased collection of data which will never happen. Even the whole Ashley Maddison leak isn't going to scratch the surface and that involved hundreds of thousands of people.