Using Windows 10? Microsoft Is Watching—and Collecting Data

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: jedi_hamster

Wow wow wow. Slow down. Now. Where in this thread did I gave advice to shut off defender/antivirus products? That´s made up bull# from you. It was to show you, and you know it, that when it comes to VIRUSES, you can be pretty save without any hassle. I suppose you know the differences between worms, viruses and the like.

You´re being overly agressive. You are the one who comes over as a MS fan-atic.
And next you will tell me I do not have to use Win10 if I dislike it. Yes, thats exactly what I wrote I will do.

Something else I noticed, you mix up peoples responses and invent things to it. WAY TO GO. Like I gave advice to not use antivir products. Ridiculous. I´m out here, too.

Edit: Saw your post above. Fantastic.
Edit: Also saw your post about the asylum. Whats wrong with you???

you don't get it.

you say that you can be pretty safe without much hassle - and that is correct. you can. i can. some people can. most regular users? not a chance in hell.

and when they see someone claiming that it's fine to not use antivirus software, because he's going fine without one for years, well. lets just put a disclaimer to such statements, ok? sure, people deciding to go without one after just reading such posts don't seem too smart, but then again, there are plenty of windows users, doing plenty of extremely stupid things, and then reinstalling their system over and over again from time to time, complaining on how screwed up it is. where do you think they get all those stupid ideas, if not from the web?

and sure, it's in huge part their own fault - but why should we contribute to spreading half-true information? if someone is saying that linux is great, i'm saying that it's not because there are some more and less rare problems, that very advanced user may find near impossible to solve, not even speaking about regular user. if someone is saying that windows runs fine without antivirus, i'm saying that it may be the truth for someone with knowledge about the system and all various threats, because regular user may get not only his fingers, but his wallet burned.

is it so damn hard to understand?

perhaps it is. see, many simple folks without deep technical knowledge see such threads as a bunch of suggestions what to do, especially when they get attacked by 'microsoft is bad, windows is bad, we have to protect ourselves' from the very beginning. they get fooled, and some people here, instead of doing responsible research on the matter, repeat same crap that people everywhere else repeat. just check the advices that were given in this thread so far, like disabling all that isn't 'needed' - especially when some moron running some website decides that services responsible for windows defender database updates aren't needed at all - then an unaware reader, following 'friendly advice' of someone on ATS, will 'lockdown his windows like a chomp', only without knowing that he locked out everything coming from microsoft, like security updates and virus/malware databases, while opening his system to every possible threat in the process. but hey, microsoft is bad, malware is good, right?

i think i'll step back from this thread. so much stupidity in one place makes me want to vomit.

originally posted by: WeAre0ne
Or better yet, how about you enable "MAC address filtering" on your wireless router firewall? That way, you have final control of what devices get access to your network.

*whispers* MAC-spoofing...

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: VimanaExplorer
My point is that even Microsoft centric (or is it fan sites), are warning people to do turn off privacy features, thats the point here. Are they misleading people as well?

No, and for most people (the ones that just install the update and go on with their lives) it's important that other people point to them the fact that Windows 10 comes with all those privacy concerns, what I think is wrong is implying (or affirming) things that do not represent the real situation.

Basically, I like truth.

And MS has a long history of having to drag it out of them or needing to go to court to get it..

a reply to: jedi_hamster

And still, some call antivirus-software "snake oil", just because (a) those companies want to earn money, too and (b) for themselves, they *NEVER* had any virus.

Let me tell about myself: computer, I know them. I use them. For decades. I am not a professionell softwaredeveloper, nor am I absolutely up-to-date with the newest features. I had a MCSE in the late nineties/early zeroes.

I have had several viruses on my computers.

No, I don't know how and why. Obviously my fault. But my virusscanners did not detect all of them on the first try. They did protect me from several others. They are not "snake oil"!

a reply to: ManFromEurope

Sadly Anti Virus software and Firewalls are now a MUST thanks to the devious and destructive out there but there's a practice I do not like from some Anti Virus companies which I've seen, I like to try out various types of those programs because not every upgrade is a good one and sometimes the Anti Virus becomes a PC CPU hog (see recent now fixed upgrade to Kaspersky) or has other flaws so looking around helps. Sadly some of these companies use a trick, you trial the software and amazingly it finds a nice big set of minor / semi non serious viruses on your PC, the average person would say "wow, I need this" but the truth is that there were no viruses, its a cheap gimmick but a huge lie and fraud.

Easy way to tell is to download one of the big name trial versions and run that, suddenly no viruses..

Btw, free ones sometimes offer stunningly good protection...

originally posted by: Mclaneinc
Oh and can I offer a small word of warning about registry hacks, unless you are familiar with the registry etc then I advise against them, you screw up the registy and you stand to screw the PC from working, if you feel the need to edit the registry then hope its from a trusted source and follow the advice TO THE LETTER.

On the bright side, that would stop any information from being sent to Microsoft.

a reply to: ArMaP

Indeed, I just want people to be careful, years of work in this field have shown me just how crazy customers can be

a reply to: ManFromEurope

Yes, MAC spoofing is possible, but so is much much more. However, we are talking about simple access control for your friends, or "friends of friends", who may have your WiFi password. We are not discussing hacking. That is another topic in of itself.

originally posted by: Mclaneinc
Could this be MS's one big swipe at the pirates, MS were very open about how even the pirate copies would get a free upgrade.

Can you imagine that after 6 months of use Captain Jim Lad comes down in the morning and says "Hey Cortana, what's going on today" only for Cotana to reply, "Captain, can you hear that knocking at the door, that's the Police and I told them everything...Oh and by the way, all those films and porn, I undeleted them and have hidden them on the network , the one with the three midgets and the donkey should be very useful, Have a good day.."

Lol..

Seriously, Windows 10 has the ability to get people in to a load of trouble and you agreed to it..

Oh and can I offer a small word of warning about registry hacks, unless you are familiar with the registry etc then I advise against them, you screw up the registy and you stand to screw the PC from working, if you feel the need to edit the registry then hope its from a trusted source and follow the advice TO THE LETTER.

Don't get cocky after doing it and go looking for things to change because you did it once, the PC OS uses the registry to work, its not a playground..

microsoft is after a bigger cake than just desktop computers.

apple integrates osx with ios, but does it slowly and software has to be developed separately, at least for now.

google tries the same thing - deep integration between android and chromeos, but even their attempts at running android apps on chromeos are so far half-baked, to say the least. there's a runtime, and while it's meant for developers, people can try to force any app to work - and it sometimes does - but it's far from perfect.

that's where microsoft is headed. pc, xbox one, windows 10 mobile. even windows phone 8.1 can run universal apps that can share almost all their code with their desktop counterparts, with windows 10 and windows 10 mobile they're taking it one step further. and since they know they're lagging behind on both gaming console and smartphone market in terms of the market share, they're willing to throw as much money as they have to to convince people that windows 10 is the next big thing worth having.

not because of some ulterior motives, but because they need more software - 3rd party apps - for all their platforms, to gain traction on all fronts, and when a developer sees that he's able to target 3 markets at once with a single piece of code, the size of those markets matters. they can't increase their market share on both smartphone and gaming console fronts overnight, but they can do it with windows - you can consider all that metro/modern apps a separate platform, and that's what it's really all about.

those apps are more secure/can't easily exploit system bugs, can adapt to touchscreens/different screen sizes, and can be delivered via microsoft marketplace, where you get automatic sharing of all your universal apps across all platforms (pc, xbox one, windows smartphones). that's why microsoft decided to allow those apps to run inside regular windows under windows 10 - to ease the transition and make them more popular. in the end, i guess windows will move further away from regular windows and icons, more towards something like an automatic tiling windows manager under linux, as more and more regular apps will get rewritten as universal apps - because there isn't that much software that can't be coded in such way, and for the end users the new experience can truly become brilliant. it all depends on the 3rd party software developers, that's why - after quite a cold welcome for windows 8/8.1 - microsoft is doing everything it can to gain traction with windows 10, and as a result - with all their platforms.

since the migration of the software to new universal platform will take time, windows as an operating system will have to shift accordingly over time, so the path of continuous updates of their system is the only reasonable path they could choose. they've tried putting the bigger blocks in play in the past years, windows phone was the first one, windows 8 was the second, now it's time to merge it all together.

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
a reply to: jedi_hamster

And still, some call antivirus-software "snake oil", just because (a) those companies want to earn money, too and (b) for themselves, they *NEVER* had any virus.

Let me tell about myself: computer, I know them. I use them. For decades. I am not a professionell softwaredeveloper, nor am I absolutely up-to-date with the newest features. I had a MCSE in the late nineties/early zeroes.

I have had several viruses on my computers.

No, I don't know how and why. Obviously my fault. But my virusscanners did not detect all of them on the first try. They did protect me from several others. They are not "snake oil"!

well, if you'll follow some of the FUD in the picture you've posted on page 3 of this thread, you may get some more viruses in time.

as far as i'm concerned, i would trust windows defender. noone knows windows like microsoft, so their protection software is bound to do the best job - and it's free.

being careful always helps though. you can never be sure if there isn't some web browser vulnerability being exploited in the wild that hasn't been patched up yet, so i would avoid visiting websites with doubtful reputation anyway, unless the web browser is running inside a security sandbox like sandboxie.

originally posted by: Mclaneinc
a reply to: ManFromEurope

Sadly Anti Virus software and Firewalls are now a MUST thanks to the devious and destructive out there but there's a practice I do not like from some Anti Virus companies which I've seen, ...

Well, you speak of some people trying to bring malware to your computer - this is not antivirus-software, but a scam. It doesn't work as intended, so I do not take that as a real antivirus-software.

And if some software goes *clunk* on your cpu, drop that one and try another software, there are plenty free antiviruses on the internet, which are working fine. (Free-AV, Panda, etc.). You can always come back later to your original version, as they are trying to fix such bugs.

originally posted by: jedi_hamster

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
a reply to: jedi_hamster

And still, some call antivirus-software "snake oil", just because (a) those companies want to earn money, too and (b) for themselves, they *NEVER* had any virus.

Let me tell about myself: computer, I know them. I use them. For decades. I am not a professionell softwaredeveloper, nor am I absolutely up-to-date with the newest features. I had a MCSE in the late nineties/early zeroes.

I have had several viruses on my computers.

No, I don't know how and why. Obviously my fault. But my virusscanners did not detect all of them on the first try. They did protect me from several others. They are not "snake oil"!

well, if you'll follow some of the FUD in the picture you've posted on page 3 of this thread, you may get some more viruses in time.

WHAT? What FUD did I post? The crap Microsoft is pushing on us? I installed W10 two days ago and I had to spend several minutes to stop it from posting my EMAILS, my APP-USAGE and whatnot to the MS-servers, as MS did try to get that priviledge from me! This is not FUD, this is something you can read for yourself on the MS-homepage!...

as far as i'm concerned, i would trust windows defender. noone knows windows like microsoft, so their protection software is bound to do the best job - and it's free.

That MS does know windows best for its bugs is simply wrong - usually it is the bad guys or some security company who finds a bug, reports or uses it and then MS does offer a patch for it.

a reply to: jedi_hamster

As soon as you use any of these services, MS is entitled to collect any data you provide:
Account.microsoft.com
Advertising.microsoft.com
Bing Apps
Bing Desktop
Bing Dictionary
Bing in the Classroom
Bing Input
Bing Maps
Bing Navigation
Bing Reader
Bing Rewards
Bing Search app
Bing Toolbar
Bing Torque
Bing Translator
Bing Webmaster
Bing Wikipedia Browser
Bing.com
Bing
Bingplaces.com
Choice.microsoft.com
Citizen Next
Cortana
Default Homepage and New Tab Page on Microsoft Edge
Device Health App
Groove
HealthVault
Maps App
Microsoft account
Microsoft Family
Microsoft Health
Microsoft Translator
Microsoft Wallpaper
Microsoft XiaoIce
MSN Dial Up
MSN Explorer
MSN Food & Drink
MSN Health & Fitness
MSN Money
MSN News
MSN Premium
MSN Sports
MSN Travel
MSN Weather
MSN.com
Next Lock Screen
Office 365 Consumer
Office 365 Home
Office 365 Personal
Office 365 University
Office Online
Office Store
Office Sway
Office.com
OneDrive.com
OneDrive
Onenote.com
OneNote
Outlook.com
Picturesque Lock Screen
Pix Lock
Skype in the Classroom
Skype Manager
Skype Qik
Skype WiFi
Skype.com
Skype
Smart Search
Snipp3t
Spreadsheet Keyboard
Sway.com
Translator
UrWeather
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Writer
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Photo Gallery
Xbox and Windows Games published by Microsoft
Xbox Live
Xbox Music Pass
Xbox Music
Xbox Video

Source

originally posted by: ManFromEurope

originally posted by: jedi_hamster

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
a reply to: jedi_hamster

And still, some call antivirus-software "snake oil", just because (a) those companies want to earn money, too and (b) for themselves, they *NEVER* had any virus.

Let me tell about myself: computer, I know them. I use them. For decades. I am not a professionell softwaredeveloper, nor am I absolutely up-to-date with the newest features. I had a MCSE in the late nineties/early zeroes.

I have had several viruses on my computers.

No, I don't know how and why. Obviously my fault. But my virusscanners did not detect all of them on the first try. They did protect me from several others. They are not "snake oil"!

well, if you'll follow some of the FUD in the picture you've posted on page 3 of this thread, you may get some more viruses in time.

WHAT? What FUD did I post? The crap Microsoft is pushing on us? I installed W10 two days ago and I had to spend several minutes to stop it from posting my EMAILS, my APP-USAGE and whatnot to the MS-servers, as MS did try to get that priviledge from me! This is not FUD, this is something you can read for yourself on the MS-homepage!...

as far as i'm concerned, i would trust windows defender. noone knows windows like microsoft, so their protection software is bound to do the best job - and it's free.

That MS does know windows best for its bugs is simply wrong - usually it is the bad guys or some security company who finds a bug, reports or uses it and then MS does offer a patch for it.

as for the windows defender, microsoft knows best how to integrate such software with their own operating system to provide the best protection against malicious code, and they're able to do it without slowing down the whole system like some 3rd party software does.

as for the rest, yes - it is FUD. go back to microsoft homepage and read it again, then again, then again, as many times as needed until you'll understand it. i've explained already in this thread the meaning of some details that seem to confuse some people so much, i won't repeat myself.

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
a reply to: jedi_hamster

As soon as you use any of these services, MS is entitled to collect any data you provide:
Account.microsoft.com
Advertising.microsoft.com
Bing Apps
Bing Desktop
Bing Dictionary
Bing in the Classroom
Bing Input
Bing Maps
Bing Navigation
Bing Reader
Bing Rewards
Bing Search app
Bing Toolbar
Bing Torque
Bing Translator
Bing Webmaster
Bing Wikipedia Browser
Bing.com
Bing
Bingplaces.com
Choice.microsoft.com
Citizen Next
Cortana
Default Homepage and New Tab Page on Microsoft Edge
Device Health App
Groove
HealthVault
Maps App
Microsoft account
Microsoft Family
Microsoft Health
Microsoft Translator
Microsoft Wallpaper
Microsoft XiaoIce
MSN Dial Up
MSN Explorer
MSN Food & Drink
MSN Health & Fitness
MSN Money
MSN News
MSN Premium
MSN Sports
MSN Travel
MSN Weather
MSN.com
Next Lock Screen
Office 365 Consumer
Office 365 Home
Office 365 Personal
Office 365 University
Office Online
Office Store
Office Sway
Office.com
OneDrive.com
OneDrive
Onenote.com
OneNote
Outlook.com
Picturesque Lock Screen
Pix Lock
Skype in the Classroom
Skype Manager
Skype Qik
Skype WiFi
Skype.com
Skype
Smart Search
Snipp3t
Spreadsheet Keyboard
Sway.com
Translator
UrWeather
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Writer
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Photo Gallery
Xbox and Windows Games published by Microsoft
Xbox Live
Xbox Music Pass
Xbox Music
Xbox Video

Source

and how else do you expect them to provide ONLINE services? how are those ONLINE services supposed to work, without the ability to store and process the data they're supposed to operate on, genius?

**ATTENTION**

Enough of the snarky remarks and rude behavior.

That ends now.

Discuss the TOPIC, not each other.

~Tenth
ATS Super Mod.

**SNIP**

Softwarefirewalls are junk.
In short again: Until around 2011 I could add binarys to ZoneAlarms ruleset without even spawning a notification.
You would think you are perfectly safe. I can create sockets and use them without you even noticing.

Do the following. Install XP/7/8 on a VM, do the updates. Pentest the VM with kali for example. Now install a firewall of your choice. Pentest again. Hm why are there far more ports open then without?