Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Windows 10 Is Spying On You: Here’s How To Stop It
Windows 10s privacy settings very much need to be frowned at. Essentially: unless you pay close attention to the fluffy options offered when you first install Microsofts new operating system, its going to quietly track your behaviour and use it to fire targeted ads at you, as well as keeping tabs on your location history, data from messages, calendars, contacts and God knows what else. It is a bit scary, despite coming off the back of Microsofts own pledge to offer real transparency. You may or may not be OK with this yourself, but in any event at least some of this stuff can be turned off after the fact. Ill explain how to do that below.
Yesterday we talked about whether or not you should upgrade to Microsofts new operating system and before that we looked at the potentially dodgy WiFi Sense feature. Privacy is an even bigger issue.
Conventional wisdom has it that Microsofts fight for technological relevance is against Apple. For a time that was true, but as of late theyve effectively ceded the floor to the Cupertino mob when it comes to hardware (although I hope the Surface Pro line continues Im a big fan) and have once again narrowed their computing focus to software. The battle there is against Google, whose search, browser and productivity tools increasingly form a loose, web-based operating system. People arent so hot on paying for things these days, which means the money comes from harvesting data and flogging it to advertisers and other organisations who want to know exactly what were all up to online. Microsoft want a piece of that, so if you ever wondered why theyve made the Windows 10 upgrade free to Win 7 & 8 users, heres one possible answer. Windows 10 has all sorts of user tracking baked right in.
Importantly, you can opt out of what seems to be all this stuff (time will tell) either during installation or afterwards, though Microsoft swaddle it in a combination of dissembling hey, this stuffll really help you get the information you want fluff and 45 pages of service agreement documents. Ill refer you here and here for a detailed breakdown of the really worrying stuff, but the long and short of it is the operating system assigns you a unique advertising ID, which is is tied to the email address youve associated with Windows and fed data from a great many facets of your computer usage. Including the contents of messages and calendars, apps and networks, some purchases and whatever you upload to Microsofts unreliable OneDrive cloud storage. Using the Cortana search assistant makes the harvest even more aggressive, and of course the OS claims its all in the name of a better, more accurate online experience for you.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/30/windows-10-privacy-settings/
Yesterday we talked about whether or not you should upgrade to Microsofts new operating system and before that we looked at the potentially dodgy WiFi Sense feature. Privacy is an even bigger issue.
Conventional wisdom has it that Microsofts fight for technological relevance is against Apple. For a time that was true, but as of late theyve effectively ceded the floor to the Cupertino mob when it comes to hardware (although I hope the Surface Pro line continues Im a big fan) and have once again narrowed their computing focus to software. The battle there is against Google, whose search, browser and productivity tools increasingly form a loose, web-based operating system. People arent so hot on paying for things these days, which means the money comes from harvesting data and flogging it to advertisers and other organisations who want to know exactly what were all up to online. Microsoft want a piece of that, so if you ever wondered why theyve made the Windows 10 upgrade free to Win 7 & 8 users, heres one possible answer. Windows 10 has all sorts of user tracking baked right in.
Importantly, you can opt out of what seems to be all this stuff (time will tell) either during installation or afterwards, though Microsoft swaddle it in a combination of dissembling hey, this stuffll really help you get the information you want fluff and 45 pages of service agreement documents. Ill refer you here and here for a detailed breakdown of the really worrying stuff, but the long and short of it is the operating system assigns you a unique advertising ID, which is is tied to the email address youve associated with Windows and fed data from a great many facets of your computer usage. Including the contents of messages and calendars, apps and networks, some purchases and whatever you upload to Microsofts unreliable OneDrive cloud storage. Using the Cortana search assistant makes the harvest even more aggressive, and of course the OS claims its all in the name of a better, more accurate online experience for you.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/30/windows-10-privacy-settings/
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 1490 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (3)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Windows 10 Is Spying On You: Here’s How To Stop It (Original Post)
SecularMotion
Aug 2015
OP
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)1. Best way is not to install it.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)2. But, but it's free
How can I pass up a bargain?
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)3. It's worth what you paid for it.
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,479 posts)4. ^^^ what he said
If it works, don't fix it.