Spying Windows 10 - How much truth is into this..

[Ian W]

1 hour ago, adrynalyne said:

So you too are making stuff up. 

It is apparently fair game to make claims about something—claims without evidence—as long as they cannot be proven false. The burden of proof does not matter.

[Eric Veteran]

It would be my guess that I have access to more of a Neowin user's personally identifiable information than Microsoft does if that tells you anything.

 

I honestly don't think they care what you're doing on your device past technical data to identify issues and improve the OS.

[eddman]

If by "spying" you mean the error reporting and performance/stability telemetry, then yes, they're "spying" on you.

 

There are other things like advertising ID, cortana, etc. but they can all be disabled through settings. Better yet, if you do not want to share anything, then do not sign-in with a microsoft account. Use a local account.

 

There are some wild claims on the internet that windows 10 scans your storage and sends a list of files you have to microsoft. None of this has ever been proven. If you believe this to be the case, then why not also believe that this also applies to windows 7 and 8 too? If it cannot be disproven for windows 10, then the same would apply to 7 and 8, right?

 

There are some funny things that I come across, like MS keeping track of your contacts, emails, uploaded photos, etc. Apparently these people do not even realize that by using a MS account, those stuff are already on the damn servers. They don't need to monitor them. Perhaps they also don't realize that any online service, be it google/gmail, icloud, yahoo etc. already have your information and/or data on their hard drives.

 

The problem is that so far all we've had are claims and no proof. There are people who are so good at hacking and cracking stuff. How come they haven't sniffed and captured the packets going from windows 10 to MS, cracked them open and looked for what's inside already?

 

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

@simplezz

Who are these "lot of people" you talk about?  I don't think I can name one person either in my daily life nor on here who has ever asserted that "Windows was free".

[adrynalyne]

4 minutes ago, Nik L said:

Who are these "lot of people" you talk about?  I don't think I can name one person either in my daily life nor on here who has ever asserted that "Windows was free".

I did not make that statement. Please fix your quote. 

[eddman]

13 hours ago, simplezz said:

A lot of people are under the impression that Windows 10 is free; It's not, you are the product. Giving up your data and your privacy is the price you pay. If you're happy with that arrangement, welcome to the future of Windows.

Well, windows 10 is NOT free to begin with. It's a free UPGRADE, and only for a year. If I do not own a genuine windows 7 or 8 license, then in order to get 10, I'd have to pay for a retail or OEM version.

[Yogurth]

There is certainly more going on in data collection than MS claims. A Checz analyst while probing Windows 10 telemetry  discovered some disturbing issues on Windows 10. Later analysis by Arstechnica confirmed that MS is not telling the whole story.

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=cs&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Faeronet.cz%2Fnews%2Fanalyza-windows-10-ve-svem-principu-jde-o-pouhy-terminal-na-sber-informaci-o-uzivateli-jeho-prstech-ocich-a-hlasu%2F&edit-text=
 

[adrynalyne]

4 minutes ago, Yogurth said:

There is certainly more going on in data collection than MS claims. A Checz analyst while probing Windows 10 telemetry  discovered some disturbing issues on Windows 10. Later analysis by Arstechnica confirmed that MS is not telling the whole story.

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=cs&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Faeronet.cz%2Fnews%2Fanalyza-windows-10-ve-svem-principu-jde-o-pouhy-terminal-na-sber-informaci-o-uzivateli-jeho-prstech-ocich-a-hlasu%2F&edit-text=
 

That doesn't go against what MS said and just like the translated article, Ars doesn't know what is sent. 

 

Come back to us with real evidence that it is anything more than diagnostic data and data used to improve spell checking, cortana, etc. 

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

1 hour ago, adrynalyne said:

I did not make that statement. Please fix your quote. 

That's so odd, I've now changed it.  Cheers

[T3X4S]

11 hours ago, Yogurth said:

There is certainly more going on in data collection than MS claims. A Checz analyst while probing Windows 10 telemetry  discovered some disturbing issues on Windows 10. Later analysis by Arstechnica confirmed that MS is not telling the whole story.

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=cs&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Faeronet.cz%2Fnews%2Fanalyza-windows-10-ve-svem-principu-jde-o-pouhy-terminal-na-sber-informaci-o-uzivateli-jeho-prstech-ocich-a-hlasu%2F&edit-text=
 

LOL Well golly Gee - I guess that solves it     /s ²

[Pishaw]

Look, just like anywhere else on the internet, one third of the people here don't know what they are talking about, and one third of them are just plain stupid. Here's a rule of thumb for sites like Neowin; I call it the Tech Site Paradox:

 

"A commenters actual knowledge about a given subject is inversely proportional to the volume of their comments and how strenuously they propound their (myopic) point of view."

 

Microsoft doesn't care who you talk to or what you say. The Justice Department and Google do, but Microsoft doesn't.

[simplezz]

On 17/01/2016 at 4:48 AM, Flawedspirit said:

And this OS is......?

Arch GNU/Linux.

[simplezz]

15 hours ago, Yogurth said:

There is certainly more going on in data collection than MS claims. A Checz analyst while probing Windows 10 telemetry  discovered some disturbing issues on Windows 10. Later analysis by Arstechnica confirmed that MS is not telling the whole story.

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=cs&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Faeronet.cz%2Fnews%2Fanalyza-windows-10-ve-svem-principu-jde-o-pouhy-terminal-na-sber-informaci-o-uzivateli-jeho-prstech-ocich-a-hlasu%2F&edit-text=
 

That pretty much confirms everyone's worst fears. Microsoft appears to be collecting everything users do on Windows 10. How are all the apologists going to explain this one away I wonder?

[simplezz]

15 hours ago, eddman said:

Well, windows 10 is NOT free to begin with. It's a free UPGRADE, and only for a year. If I do not own a genuine windows 7 or 8 license, then in order to get 10, I'd have to pay for a retail or OEM version.

The point is it's not a free upgrade (some might argue it's actually a downgrade). The price is your privacy and data.

[T3X4S]

7 hours ago, simplezz said:

That pretty much confirms everyone's worst fears. Microsoft appears to be collecting everything users do on Windows 10. How are all the apologists going to explain this one away I wonder?

I feel sorry for you.
For some reason you have a hatred for a company.  Typically, in order to harbor such strong feelings one has to be affected directly.  What did MS do to you personally ?

Its strange for someone to be so anti- a company if they weren't personally wronged by said company.  Like hating Bank of America because they have horrible customer service, dont care about their account holders, etc - that might garner strong emotions.

But - you have been anti-MS for a long time and constantly perpetuating fear-mongering, exaggerated claims, then - like the quote above, cling to any disparaging comment like a dog humping someone's leg.

You dont know anything about the legitimacy of the article, the people who supposedly authored the piece,  and think it "confirms" things for you ?  


I had an intern working for me one summer - was so anti-microsoft he would use linux stuff and waste an entire day on something that would have taken 1 hour if he would have just used the tools that were at his disposal.

I had such fun telling him he needs to get a grip on reality, then telling him we were stopping his internship effective immediately.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

1 hour ago, simplezz said:

The point is it's not a free upgrade (some might argue it's actually a downgrade). The price is your privacy and data.

OK, let's ignore the inane comment about a downgrade - which serves no purpose other than to define your stance on Windows 10.  No, the price is the savings that can be made by not having a massively variable market.  The more people they can get to the latest platform the better, and the easier support becomes.  Win10 has not once been actually shown to report back anything more or less than Win8/7/Vista - yes, there IS more traffic, that is undeniable, but anything about what that traffic actually is has only ever been speculation that the Anti-Microsoft brigade have misinterpreted to suit their agenda.

[adrynalyne]

2 hours ago, Nik L said:

OK, let's ignore the inane comment about a downgrade - which serves no purpose other than to define your stance on Windows 10.  No, the price is the savings that can be made by not having a massively variable market.  The more people they can get to the latest platform the better, and the easier support becomes.  Win10 has not once been actually shown to report back anything more or less than Win8/7/Vista - yes, there IS more traffic, that is undeniable, but anything about what that traffic actually is has only ever been speculation that the Anti-Microsoft brigade have misinterpreted to suit their agenda.

I've asked several times for these guys to actually back up their claims with evidence that anything other than data for diagnostics and improvement of applications is being sent. 

 

Ive yet to have a single one of them provide a single shred of evidence. They like to post links, but then those links are also not giving any evidence. 

[Noir Angel]

Open an elevated command prompt, enter, then reboot. Problem solved.

sc delete DiagTrack
sc delete dmwappushservice

 

[Mando]

i find it very amusing, new version of Windows new claims we are selling our privacy and data to the evil M$ >yaawn heard it since w2k!

[binaryzero]

If only you were all this passionate about your washing machines... 

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

I like how people are alternatively defending Windows 10 by making largely incompatible claims:

 

- it doesn't spy on you

- it probably doesn't spy on you

- we have no proof it's spying on you

- Microsoft wouldn't spy on you
- it does spy on you but it's the kind of spying you shouldn't worry about – what's wrong with spying anyway?
- it does spy on you, but it's actually good for you  Microsoft
- it does sort of spy on you but so did previous versions so clearly that's ok
- it does spy on you and it's a problem but so does product Y that you're probably using, so...I guess it's a wash
- it does spy on you but so does everyone else - what're you gonna do?
- it does spy on you but there's nothing wrong with that, , i.e. keep your head in the sand
....

[adrynalyne]

4 minutes ago, Active. said:

I like how people are alternatively defending Windows 10 by making largely incompatible claims:

 

- it doesn't spy on you

- it probably doesn't spy on you

- we have no proof it's spying on you

- Microsoft wouldn't spy on you
- it does spy on you but it's the kind of spying you shouldn't worry about – what's wrong with spying anyway?
- it does spy on you, but it's actually good for you  Microsoft
- it does sort of spy on you but so did previous versions so clearly that's ok
- it does spy on you and it's a problem but so does product Y that you're probably using, so...I guess it's a wash
- it does spy on you but so does everyone else - what're you gonna do?
- it does spy on you but there's nothing wrong with that, , i.e. keep your head in the sand
....

I'm not defending anything. I want these people accusing of spying to provide proof that spying is going on. That means, not diagnostic  /improvement data. 

 

It shouldn't be too much to ask but I have yet to see it. 

 

Its easy to make claims that you don't have to back up. 

[DavidM]

2 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

I'm not defending anything. I want these people accusing of spying to provide proof that spying is going on. That means, not diagnostic  /improvement data. 

 

It shouldn't be too much to ask but I have yet to see it. 

 

Its easy to make claims that you don't have to back up. 

I wish Microsoft would just show us what they are collecting and with who it's going to be shared with, I find Microsoft’s lack of transparency quite disturbing.

 

It's also easy to sit back and say "prove it", when you yourself do not know what is being collected. I'm all for innocent until proven guilty, but every time you give a corporation the benefit of a doubt they ###### all over you.

 

I'll ask this... is it possible that Microsoft is collecting personal information? Is it possible, just possible that they are doing the wrong thing?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Sure it's possible, but why would they do it? It'd be a huge amount of data and offer them exactly nothing (Apart from huge legal files). People have been worried about this stuff since the 9x era, it's never been substantiated and has never progressed past the conspiracy theory stage.

 

I remember people getting freaked out over Microsoft's cloud plans, because they thought Windows would upload the contents of your hard drive to Microsoft's servers and store all data there. That idea is so stupid that I'm not entirely sure why anybody ever gave it consideration.

[Eric Veteran]

20 minutes ago, DavidM said:

I wish Microsoft would just show us what they are collecting and with who it's going to be shared with, I find Microsoft’s lack of transparency quite disturbing.

 

It's also easy to sit back and say "prove it", when you yourself do not know what is being collected. I'm all for innocent until proven guilty, but every time you give a corporation the benefit of a doubt they ###### all over you.

 

I'll ask this... is it possible that Microsoft is collecting personal information? Is it possible, just possible that they are doing the wrong thing?

Of course it's possible. They might be archiving everything on your computer, but so might every other OS in existence. Unless you have an old TV it's probably spying on you, too.