Windows 10: a deep dive on privacy issues by EFF
And some interesting comments from Bruce Schneier’s blog
Bruce Schneier, on his blog, has linked an interesting article from eff.org about privacy implications of Windows 10:
The trouble with Windows 10 doesn’t end with forcing users to download the operating system. Windows 10 sends an unprecedented amount of usage data back to Microsoft, particularly if users opt in to “personalize” the software using the OS assistant called Cortana. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of data sent back: location data, text input, voice input, touch input, webpages you visit, and telemetry data regarding your general usage of your computer, including which programs you run and for how long.
and
And while users can disable some of these settings, it is not a guarantee that your computer will stop talking to Microsoft’s servers. A significant issue is the telemetry data the company receives. While Microsoft insists that it aggregates and anonymizes this data, it hasn’t explained just how it does so. Microsoft also won’t say how long this data is retained, instead providing only general timeframes. Worse yet, unless you’re an enterprise user, no matter what, you have to share at least some of this telemetry data with Microsoft and there’s no way to opt-out of it.
There’s no doubt that Windows 10 has some great security improvements over previous versions of the operating system. But it’s a shame that Microsoft made users choose between having privacy and security.
But the real interesting part are the comments on Schneier’s blog, like this:
I am subscribed to the Windows Insider test program.
When I looked at Win10 back in February 2015 using tcpdump, I noticed that it sent my Email Address and a UUID in plain text back to MS and it opened connections to 39 servers, some of which I don’t know who they belong to.
My conclusion was that the only way to secure Win10 is to pull the network cable, or disable networking in a virtual machine.
So, I’m not using it and I can’t recommend it to anyone else either and since then, I have purchased three Macs.
A troll?? :-)