And the motive may be even worse than you imagine:
==QUOTE== If this weren't bad enough, this behaviour still occurs after Cortana is fully disabled/uninstalled. It's speculated that the purpose of this function to build up a massive voice database, then tie those voices to identities, and eventually be able to identify anyone simply by picking up their voice, whether it be a microphone in a public place or a wiretap on a payphone.
Interestingly, if Cortana is enabled, the voice is first transcribed to text, then the transcription is sent to:
Just reading the first two paragraphs at localghost put me in a "I need confirmation" mode so I tried your links. None work for me and some say Forbidden. If you have supporting links that work, I'll take a look but, so far, it looks like trash to me.
(Open this one in Chrome browser and have Google translate it. It's worth the effort.)
I already have one tech savy friend that just reverted back to Win 8.1 within minutes of reading the articles. I just started doing some Wireshark traffic sniffing and SNMP monitoring to verify some of the claims. I kinda screwed it up because Win 10 decided to download some updates while I was checking what Cortana was doing.
I'll wait until an official response from Microsoft before reverting to Win 7 or 8.1. If anything, the excuses and rationalizations should be interesting. Also, how much the NSA paid Microsoft to do all this for them.
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
... until it is used to their detriment! *Then*, they scream bloody murder!
Many appliances now routinely "spy" on their users. All of this done in the guise of "improving the user experience" (hey, isn't that what Google has been claiming for years??). Your TV watches to see if you are watching the commercials (though it claims it is just watching to see if you want to wave your hands to tell it to change the channel). Your cable box has been tattling on your viewing habits for *years*. Soon, your refrigerator will tell advertisers how many Twinkies you eat and your health insurance provider what *time* you eat them (late night snacker, etc.)
A friend used to (proudly) claim he "had nothing to hide" -- as if concerns over privacy are misplaced. Yet, I noticed he didn't use a speakerphone, was careful *where* he took his calls, got all his bank statements in sealed envelopes (that were never left "lying around, opened"), etc.
Obviously the computers in NSA offices get a special version that doesn't do any of this. They don't even allow standard phones to sit within 3 feet of secure phones. There's no way they would tolerate this.
It occurs to me that if a company can do this legally just because of a EULA (I haven't seen it, but it must be a hell of a document) then the government could get around the need for a warrant by the same means. Need your disabled boat towed to port by the Coast Guard? Just sign this form, then they can spy on you. That's an example of a service that is available from other (commercial) providers, so the same justification should apply. If this continues then some day it will.
My latest laptop has a camera in the top edge of the lid which points a the user. I have thought about designing a simple piece of plastic that slips over the lid and covers the camera lens for privacy. I can never tell for sure if the camera is disabled in the software, but with the clip over it no one is looking at me... not that anyone would *want* to look at me... but I'm just sayin'.
Not sure how to disabled the mic without a pair of wire cutters. But that's a lot less private for me.
If the document contains the "I" word, then you know it's bad... The "I" word is "indemnify" which means if you sue them for breaching your privacy, anything they have to pay out they get to collect from you!
Oddly enough the license with FPGA tools contains language that indemnifies *you* if the tools violate patents or similar. That's the only time I've seen that! Heck, my bank even requires me to indemnify them now to use online bill pay. Needless to say I am switching to a new bank.
For me it's not just the privacy it's the bandwidth. I call them bandwidth vampires. I live in the woods in Maine and have a 4G router with what is su pposed to be a 6 Gig limit. In practice it is only a 5.5 Gig limit. I haven 't figured out whether it is US Cellular that is stealing the 500MB by how it measures my usage or there is 500MB that is sneaking past my measurement s. I use Networx to measure my usage. Here is a link to my usage report for the last two days.
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The big one is palemoon my browser. Next comes the unfathomable Microsoft evil of svchost. The python one is a script I wrote to get the comics from GoComics because GoComics is too slow for me. PMAIL is my email. officeclicktorun is Microsoft office. The GWX stuff is the new white flag for the Windows 10 update. It came with the regular windows updates:KB3035583. Notice there are already three of t hese GWX phoning home without updating to Windows 10. I haven't registered for Windows 10. I can't afford the 6gig download. Googleupdate is from GoogleEarth. I haven't been able to find away to turn off Googleupdate. Another Windows10 GWX rundll32 is more mystery meat. CompatTelRunner is another Windows 10 update. Another Windows10 GWX MpCmdRun is Windows Defender. I have shut off the sharing and automatic upd ates for Windows Defender but it doesn't seem to do any good.
What none of these programs seem to care about is that I need to manage thi s stuff and push updates to the next month when I run low on bandwidth. I p ut a shortcut to the Local Area Connection, so I can disable my internet co nnection and use my computer without internet stuff going on in the backgro und.
I keep debating removing update KB3035583 and getting rid of this Windows 1
0 update stuff, but right now I'm just watching it.
Yes but Windows 10 *is* an update to 7, and there's a reason they made it a full version. The spyware is an intrinsic part of it. If they made a smaller update to 7 that had the spyware in specific modules then it could be removed.
I resisted XP because it's a bloated version of 2k (which was not bad but not as good as OS/2), and now I'm resisting 7. Either XP or 7 will be my last MS OS.
I share your feelings about windows. I am this far from dual booting my machine. I have to get past some work stuff first though. I have a board order to get out the door.
How to disable Telemetry and Data Collection in Windows 10
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Involves changing some registry entries.
Not sure if it works or not. Supposedly though, Win 10 still wants or needs to store files and things on "the cloud". (I really don't care for that term)
That's easy to say, but can you do it without disconnecting from the web? I turned off updates, but if anybody knows how to sneak stuff onto your computer it's MS.
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