Wired Lists 'The Windows 10 Privacy Settings You Should Check Right Now' (wired.com) 35
"If you're at all concerned about the privacy of your data, you don't want to leave the default settings in place on your devices -- and that includes anything that runs Windows 10," warns a new article in Wired, listing out the "controls and options you can modify to lock down the use of your data, from the information you share with Microsoft to the access that individual apps have to your location, camera, and microphone."
Long-time Slashdot reader shanen calls the the article "a rough estimate of the degree to which my privacy can be intruded upon," adding some particularly pessimistic additional thoughts: Not just Microsoft, of course. It's safe to conclude that there are similar capabilities embedded in the software from Apple, the google, Amazon, and Facebook (and others...)
[T]here is no real boundary between the software that does the privacy intrusions, the software that controls the intrusions, and the software that tells me the state of the intrusions. Have I actually disabled that particular abuse of my privacy? Or is the software still doing it and lying to me and claiming it isn't doing it...
Or maybe it's the NSA, GRU, FBI, FSB, DHS, MSS, CIA, or any other governmental agency with a secret legal power to compel intrusions that you can't be told about...
Long-time Slashdot reader shanen calls the the article "a rough estimate of the degree to which my privacy can be intruded upon," adding some particularly pessimistic additional thoughts: Not just Microsoft, of course. It's safe to conclude that there are similar capabilities embedded in the software from Apple, the google, Amazon, and Facebook (and others...)
[T]here is no real boundary between the software that does the privacy intrusions, the software that controls the intrusions, and the software that tells me the state of the intrusions. Have I actually disabled that particular abuse of my privacy? Or is the software still doing it and lying to me and claiming it isn't doing it...
Or maybe it's the NSA, GRU, FBI, FSB, DHS, MSS, CIA, or any other governmental agency with a secret legal power to compel intrusions that you can't be told about...
O&O Shutup10 (Score:4, Informative)
O&O Shutup10 (Score:2)
O&O Shutup10 [oo-software.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Is this the correct link? O&O Shutup10
No, don't click that link, it's malware! The real link is http://virusbucket.ru/virussky... [virusbucket.ru].
Re: (Score:1)
If you are weary of these things, go ahead and run O&O Shutup10. Makes it really easy to disable all of it.
ASIS.gov.au, ASIO, CIA and possibly some MI5/MI6 have backdoored windows 10 safemode, and added networking features and wifi drivers, they did it because it was the only way I could use windows securely, minus a VPN unfortunately, so I could contact and talk to one of my old friends, which I can't anymore because they have actually backdoored windows 10 itself now, even in safemode, they also implement malware/spyware/rootkits via automatic systems updates, such as "feature updates" etc, those agencies are
Good List but Obvious (Score:2)
On my Windows 10 laptop, I think I am doing pretty well - I got 7 out of the list with what I would consider common sense controls on the laptop.
The two I didn't follow through on are:
- I haven't turned off camera & microphone access. One of the things I use the laptop is conferencing (Skype, Whereby & Hangouts) and that's basically the only time it's on. Selecting different apps, is a pain in the ass - I find it easier to keep the laptop powered down except when I am using it
- I haven't configure
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There are not any security settings for Edge. This is the primary reason that the Edge wrapper is completely and utterly useless. (and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the rendering engine).
How about... (Score:1)
How about I use an OS that doesn't even have privacy settings because there is nothing that even affects it?
Windows and Linux used to be competing for more or less the same audience but now the Windows side has shot off completely in the mass consumer direction, packed with gotchas.
It used to be the reason to use Windows was app compatibility, but now all those apps have gotchas too. Best avoid the whole mess.
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I do that. I now have gaming (and nothing else) on Win10. Everything else is Linux on a separate computer or will be Linux shortly (still have a Win7 machine running). Office will get locked into a non-networked VM, because I unfortunately still need it for work.
The sad thing is that in principle, Win10 would be a reasonable OS, despite MS messing up the updates. But when you cannot trust the OS, then you have to move everything you can someplace else.
What a worthless article. (Score:5, Informative)
Go to a website like here:
https://www.ghacks.net/2015/08... [ghacks.net]
And download one of the still-update privacy tools that can actually turn all the OTHER telemetry gathering off that windows doesn't give you a setting for.
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But any savvy user can tell you that action isn't nearly enough.
No. Nerdy experts will tell you that action isn't enough. Any tech savvy user doesn't care as long as MS stops installing Candy Crush on their PC. I'd like to believe like you that the world is better, but it's not. Being tech savvy is not the same as caring about privacy, and as we can see the privacy ship has well and truly sailed.
Article misses a lot (Score:2)
You won't be able to use mapping apps, localized search, and so on, but Microsoft won't know where you are.
... unless they look at cookies, your IP, etc.
Here you can see which apps have access to your contact data
... or use a third-party email client like Thunderbird. Don't maintain a contact list. May be hard on a MS phone, though.
...The new version of Edge, based on Chromium...
Again, there are other browsers out there. Choose one, run it instead. Or in addition, if you want to have two entirely separate profiles out there. Again, beware: IPs, cookies, etc.
Don't rely on monoculture software. Leverage corporate boundaries to your advantage.
Also: consider Controlled Folder Access and encrypted folders on Win
Part of the point of the article (Score:2)
Also, IMHO, general public is NOT obsessed w/ privacy & happy to help/support government law enforcement
Well, yes. That's part of the problem. People are not aware of what's happening, or the implications thereof. This is why articles like this are needed.
These articles raise awareness of the problem and show simple steps almost anyone can take to help themselves, at least a little.
This of course has nothing to do with your little "I got nothing to hide! I demand you search me!" troll.
It is sad when the OS is your enemy... (Score:5, Insightful)
It used to be _your_ machine and your data.
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Well... Of the early comments this is the one I might mod up if I ever had one of them thar mod points.
I think the root cause on this is largely the EULA. The black box mentality is not a new thing. Probably that credit (or blame) goes to the Lisa or the Mac. But making it legally defensible was Microsoft's work. If there was substantive liability in bad software, then you could bet that the software would be much smaller.
The derivative question is whether you could achieve the same levels of functionality
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Well... Of the early comments this is the one I might mod up if I ever had one of them thar mod points.
Thanks. It is the sentiment that counts.
Want privacy? Don't run nonfree software. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're at all concerned about the privacy of your data you don't run proprietary software including Windows 10. We've already been told that even when told not to, Windows 10 just can't stop talking to Microsoft [arstechnica.com] and plenty of other reports on how Windows 10 disregards user choice and privacy [eff.org]. The worst part of it is no matter how technically skilled and willing the user is, the user is disallowed to study what Windows 10 does, fix whatever the user perceives as a problem with Windows 10 themselves, or share the improved software with anyone else. These are all direct consequences of no software freedom.
Go Ahead, Waste Your Time (Score:5, Informative)
Wholesale abuse of privacy versus retail (Score:5, Interesting)
As I noted when I submitted the article, we can't really be sure if the settings are telling us the truth about their own values. It's software standing on software, all the way down. (Like the turtles.)
I did add a secondary comment to the submission, but the editor didn't use it. That was about the "wholesale" nature of this data harvesting. In other words, this is merely the kind of stuff that Microsoft thinks it is profitable to collect from ALL of us, without any regard to any individual characteristics and without having any interest in the individuals.
The really dangerous stuff is at the "retail" level, where this information is just the foundational stuff. The kinds of personalized and private dossiers "they" can now compile on any "suspect" are beyond Orwell's darkest nightmares.
(Considering some of his youthful experiences as reported in Down and Out in Paris and London , I think his nightmares must have been pretty bad. I also read some of his diaries from those years. He was fixated on deliberately experiencing and writing about extreme poverty.)
This is why you compartmentalize... (Score:3)
Unfortunately, it looks like one needs two computers at home. One just for gaming with Windows (assuming that is used), and a separate PC running some Linux variant for actual work, with Windows VMs used to separate out various stuff and specific apps. Finances like QuickBooks? Into its own VM. Facebook? In its own container. This not just provides privacy, but it also limits what ransomware can do, and because you have the ability to save/restore VMs as snapshots, a "reinstall" can be very quick, just rolling back.
A lot of day to day stuff works well on Linux already.
No telemetry, no activation, no reboots seemingly at random, no Home/Pro/Enterprise/Education issues... just throw it on there, and go. Yes, Windows is still a necessary evil, but by having it in a VM, it keeps snooping to a minimum.
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I agree with the approach, but I still despair of its effectiveness. At this point I regard myself as an amateur without hope confronting professionals. If "they" decide they want my data, I might as well just hand it over. At least that's how it feels.
Not really a hope, but I can try to avoid acquiring any data that's worth much to anyone else, eh?
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2. A Windows 10 computer for games. Let Windows see a game in use.
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Don't despair. That is when the battle is lost. I have been using virtualization for over a decade when it comes to web browsing, ensuring that any malware remains in its bubble (barring hypervisor based stuff.) Adding more VMs, isn't an issue, especially if they are sitting on a SSD, and you have enough RAM. With VMWare Workstation, you can run apps seamlessly, so the VMWare icon in the upper right corner is the only thing showing that you have a VM or not. Or you can just run them in a window, which
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It may sound odd, but I don't think I am despairing or defeatist. I just have a long-term perspective even though I know that I live on the short term. Since I think freedom is a good thing and since good things increase over time, I can console myself and avoid the despair by rationalizing that societies with more freedom will eventually triumph. (Too bad I might be wrong, eh? It's the short-term oscillations...)
I've actually done a fair amount of experimentation and even some work with VMs, mostly VMWare.
Three Buddhists walked into a bar (Score:2)
They open up their computers and connected to the bar's Wi-Fi and were immediately pwned.
Heywood Allen I ain't.
Easy one (Score:1)
It is so easy with MS: just toggle most of the options from their defaults, and you will end with something for the user, not the maker.
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...and you will end with something for the user, not the maker.
What makes you think those toggles are honored? With proprietary software, you can't know.
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And even if they are honoured, we know for a fact that Microsoft reverts all of those settings every time one of their forced duct tape "updates" is pushed out (ie. every day).
If you run Windows 10, the least you can do is use ShutUp10 to disable everything, including automatic "updates". The most you can do is switch to a superior OS, like Linux, BSD or Mac OS. A middle ground compromise would be to run Windows 7 or 8 that you personally lock down and secure yourself.
You're assuming a lot (Score:2)
Mostly that the OS will actually give a fuck about what you want.