Thursday, April 6th 2017
Windows 10 Creators Update to Feature New Levels of Privacy Control
Developing on the latest Creator's Update release version of Windows 10 being available from Microsoft's Update Tool, there is a feature that needs further addressing: the new privacy settings. Microsoft is well aware (as well it should be, given the public outcry at its telemetry features) that Windows users were not happy with the fact that the company seemed to be trading their privacy for increased information - and ad revenues - in their new "Windows as a service" approach. Even though some of this telemetry and usage reports are essential towards achieving a good user experience in later updates, the general opinion was that Microsoft collected too much, with too little information being shared with users about what, when, and why. Now, Microsoft is looking to clean up its act without the obfuscation of hiding privacy setting in endless sub-menus.
There are now three levels of diagnostic information collecting being done at the OS level: Basic, Enhanced, and Full. Notice the absence of an "off" mode, which is something Microsoft likely will never budge on this new "Windows as a service" approach. However, the Basic mode now collects almost half of all the information that was previously collected. Users installing new versions of Windows will see a screen upon the configuration stage where they will be able to toggle privacy settings with a more refined filter than before, and your privacy settings will now (finally) carry over between major Windows updates, which means they won't reset without your knowledge. The same will happen with users that simply upgrade their Windows version with the new Creators Update.
Sources:
Windows Blogs, Tom's Hardware
There are now three levels of diagnostic information collecting being done at the OS level: Basic, Enhanced, and Full. Notice the absence of an "off" mode, which is something Microsoft likely will never budge on this new "Windows as a service" approach. However, the Basic mode now collects almost half of all the information that was previously collected. Users installing new versions of Windows will see a screen upon the configuration stage where they will be able to toggle privacy settings with a more refined filter than before, and your privacy settings will now (finally) carry over between major Windows updates, which means they won't reset without your knowledge. The same will happen with users that simply upgrade their Windows version with the new Creators Update.
42 Comments on Windows 10 Creators Update to Feature New Levels of Privacy Control
There's a very good article on hackmag.com/security/what-data-windows-10-sends-to-microsoft-and-how-to-make-it-stop/ what explains what your W10 OS is doing on the background and what type of data it is sending.
Making a privacy setting still submits the very basic tracking data to various servers, and no-one actually knows what is happening with that.
Windows 7 never had any privacy killing features aboard, untill they pushed an update to even computers with automatic updated turned off, offering the same type of stuff.
People need to be aware that this is just a 'small' step into a future where privacy is just no more. This privacy will be gone the more the masses keep signing up to services in exchange for their data. W10, Google, Facebook, they are all a perfectly good example of company's who became too big.
gist.github.com/xvitaly/eafa75ed2cb79b3bd4e9#file-remove_crw-cmd
Some good stuff.
technet.microsoft.com/itpro/windows/configure/configure-windows-telemetry-in-your-organization#telemetry-levels
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/configure/windows-diagnostic-data
I haven't looked at it too closely yet, but at first glance it seems ok to me.
An IMEI, your IP adress, the current firmware and hardware platform, your phonenumber (even tho not mandatory, you proberly gave it up anyway somewhere), the state of your software (being virtualized or not), the state of software u use, the apps or add-ons listed in your browser, it sounds like alot of data is being gathered for no good reason.
If you where a target for NSA, FBI or police, they would knock on MS their door, get a complete list of your personal vulnerability's that your computer or phone carries, and hack the shit out of you. Since windows comes as a service, and nothing more, there's nothing much you can do about it.
For example, if you where a news reporter, and have very confident material on your computer, and the goverment wants to know what you know or what you have, you might have a serious problem. For many of us, privacy does not much matter what we do and where, but W10 is exposing a serious risk for some people's jobs (lawyers, news reporters, big cooperate's and much more). The list is technically endless, and this is just the beginning. Because when the data got sold out, they will harvest consumers as a next target anyway.
I really hope Linux is being pushed more and more as a opensource and being a privacy mattering OS as a replacement for Windows in our very future. I am going to make that switch the moment W7 becomes EOL.
If MS would develop their OS the right way, and test updates the right way before being pushed, they dont need the gathering of such data anyway. It's obsolete to send and make callbacks with home. Any normal person could determine if a program is working correctly or not. We grew up with BSOD's back in '95 age.
In the end, all that data, is being sold anyway, and that is the primary reason why windows 10 exists and they are not switching off that telemetry bullshit anyway.
People technically wouldn't mind data mining if the OS was free. But you pay same amount of money for it as you did before, but now they also gather your private data and do with it god knows what. And yeah, I'm still on Windows 10 because frankly, I can't do much with Linux because it's clumsy, limited and just feels immature. If someone stepped up the game, it would actually get somewhere, but their all over the place attitude is getting them nowhere.
This is what I use, lucky me.
Using the group policy does ****all for me.. I have to disable the update service after getting whatever updates are needed :P
And the basic data is very basic. Guess who also has my IP and my browser settings? Every site I visit. HW they already had as that was tied to activation.
Would Windows work without these things? Probably, but it would be a throwback to the old age. Don't solely blame MS, blame Google, Apple, Facebook ant literally the entire world for how things are.
its pretty boring getting thousands of updates...
I did a fresh install of the OS with the new update included from the Microsoft website and I manually searched for updates right after install. I found one which focuses on "quality" and this made my computer more stable, though the processes are still pretty high and I have only a few programs running on startup, like steam.
Switching between tabs while using Edge is a bit sluggish also. Not as snappy as before. I assume Microsoft will release updates to fix these few bugs.