I doubt that it will be possible for apps to protect themselves from OS. MS now requires from developers to submit drivers to MS to be signed and by this approved to be run on their OS. In future MS could have similar requirements for applications (similar as Google Play or Apple Store). I'm sure that apps, that would want to circumvent OS built-in spying, wouldn't get green light to be run on Microsoft's OS.
I had failed to notice the distinction between applications talking to each other vs the OS monitoring the applications as some form of comprehensive overview- my mistake. I would still argue that this, as with any technology, doesnt necessarily have to be bad- but with Microsoft working on it we can rest assured it will be bad. A scary possibility. Imagine if they took it farther- to get a green light to run on Microsoft's OS, you need to have an API to "hook up" to the ad-infrastructure of Windows so that ads can be delivered. An application must be reviewed in order to ensure that it uses ads sufficiently. It could also be used to completely cut out applications that compete with Microsoft's own products (or the products of anyone willing to pay Microsoft to prevent competition). Any mandating of ads or spying might kill FOSS on Windows solely on account of principle... This is all conjecture of course- we dont know anything yet. The possibilities though- the possibilities are what is so staggering...
LTSB update... I upgraded from LTSB 2015 to 2016 this morning. Everything went smoothly and my privacy settings were not changed.
Initially I thought that the upgrade might hose the system so instead of just extracting or mounting the ISO, I Imaged a flash drive with the 2016 LTSB ISO, that I downloaded from Microsoft. so that if things went south I could, at least, boot from the flash drive and do a clean install. I don't think Microsoft offers an upgrade path via Windows Update. I think the ISO download might be the only way to upgrade. Luckily the upgrade was a fairly painless process. I booted my LTSB 2015 system, mounted the newly imaged LTSB 2016 flash drive, ran the setup file, and Windows upgraded without an issue. I was expecting to have to reconfigure a bunch of settings after the upgrade since a Windows update a few months ago ended up resetting a bunch of the settings in 'Start -> Settings -> Privacy' to default. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the system retained my settings after the 2016 upgrade. I'm also going to have my intern upgrade his test box tomorrow.
I would recommend everyone to check out GitHub for Windows 10 security, hardening and privacy tweaks. I've found a few really good privacy powershell scripts and bat files. One uninstalled Adobe Flash completely from the OS. Just search for Windows with either security, privacy, firewall, tweaks, or optimization.
No problems. Make sure you create a restore point or image backup in case the scripts bork your system. Just search GitHub for these following packages. regtweaks-master <--- Recommenced!!! Lots of good tweaks. BetterPrivacy-master ip-security-master OptimizeEndpoint-master ReclaimWindows10-master Set-Privacy-master Win10PrivacyForGits-master windows_security_script-master windows10-tweaks-master firefox-privsec-master firefox-security-settings-master stig-windows10-master windows_10_privacy-master Windows-10-batch-optimizer-master RedmondPrivacy-master Windows-Network-traffic-filtering-master windows10-spying-kill-master WindowsSpyBlocker-master windows-telemetry-removal-master DisableDataLogging-master malware-windows-audit-log-detection-master WindowsSpyBlocker-master
Thanks! But on principle Windows 10 is a disaster if it comes to privacy. The need to apply countless tweaks which might be circumvented by Microsoft after a while is actually insane, and hence not a durable solution. I don't want to start another OS war but: The only serious and promising solution is switching to another OS.
Yeah the problem with Windows 10 is that Microsoft change the the telemetry domains often. Blocking a site in your firewall or host file may work one month but next Windows update that could all change.
Windows 10 and data security https://blog.ashampoo.com/en/2016-1...indows-10-and-data-security&utm_campaign=blog
Microsoft Agrees to Share Windows 10 Telemetry Data with Security Company http://news.softpedia.com/news/micr...metry-data-with-security-company-510464.shtml
How Windows 10's data collection trades your privacy for Microsoft's security http://www.pcworld.com/article/3146...a-collection-trades-privacy-for-security.html
I have read about the things it's collecting, and I believe that M$ has gone insane, it's totally unacceptable! Why on earth do they need all of this info? I also wonder if anti-spying tools can disable all of the spying that's going on in Win 10. But no way that I will install Win 10 anytime soon.
Yes, but I think this is different. You can't really blame Google and Facebook, because we give that info away. But being tracked by my ISP and computer OS is really unacceptable. AFAIK, in Holland ISP's do not sell browsing history to third party's. But I can't believe that even on this forum, many are using Win 10, do these anti-spying tools really block all of the tracking?
Well, it's a trade-off, I guess. I don't see how users can really know. Traffic to Microsoft-controlled servers would be encrypted. And trying to block all traffic other than what you need would be very hard.
Hello, thanks for mention my regtweaks project. Pls do not see this project as 'Windows hardening' it's more an project for advance users at this point which might help to easier change things - a lot of stuff can be changed (since the beginning via gpedit.msc). Since there is no proof ever that MS is spying I would consider this thread as FUD. The thing is that telemetry isn't spying and a legit technique to help in case there are problems. nVidia included it and other projects already have it since years. This isn't spying it's meta-data we talking about. I do agree that especially the Win 10 pro version has a lot of telemetry, same like 'insider builds' which collects a lot of things. But the only negative thing I can find here that there is no GPO to disable the 'Basic' telemetry, but it's MS right to collect such things since you agree in their EULA. To workaround this isn't really an option or solution since MS already got all data during the setup, blocking it afterwards makes no sense anymore, the ID MS gets is unique and created right after the install and it will not be changed anymore. So afterwards blocking it with a firewall isn't really an 'advise' - the better advise would be to block this right in your router (if there are doubts - but again no evidence). It's difficult to say because it's encrypted and no one ever decrypted the traffic yet. All so called 'experts' only saw the traffic which are required for NTP, Root certificate checks, Windows Defender and other things - which in fact increase your security. Blocking everything in fact lowers your security. But no one want to listen. Someone 'leak' something on the net and no one seriously check if it's true or not. Even Linux e.g. ubuntu collects data 'for improvements' (you can opt-out of course) but you never hear someone crying because Linux user doing in general more research till they cry. Your ISP has in fact more power, because they can intercept into your traffic and offer ads or monitoring your surf behavior. This, since .. I guess the beginning. When we talk about such things we should argue with our or others research and not because someone posted on facebook an picture which loopback listening traffic. In fact Windows 10 is by design more secure than Windows 8/7/Xp/.. Due several security mechanism. Like AppContainer, cf-guard and other things. That someone might can abuse or exploit it is irrelevant because other OS might not having the same mechanism and to exploit something is in general an issue. What I as user only want are toggles and detailed explanations when it comes to telemetry. MS also already changed that with RS1/RS2.
I have recetly copied a lot of tweaks from this one: Let's Make Windows 10 Great Again Code: https://gist.github.com/IntergalacticApps/675339c2b805b4c9c6e9a442e0121b1d Not to mention ,that Microsoft provide info about the newest tweaks as well: Code: https://technet.microsoft.com/itpro/windows/manage/manage-connections-from-windows-operating-system-components-to-microsoft-services https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/commercialize/customize/mdm/new-in-windows-mdm-enrollment-management#whatsnew10 https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/commercialize/customize/mdm/policy-configuration-service-provider
That's exactly the problem, and why I will try to stay away from Win 10 as long as possible. I have no clue what you're talking about. Even if people got nothing to hide, M$ and other companies have got no business trying to collect all of this data.
Or at least, there ought to be a simple check box, prominently placed in a commonly used options menu, which allows users to opt out of all telemetry. With comprehensive warnings about what the user is giving up, for sure. The choice should be unavoidable during new installs and upgrades.
