I just noticed that setting Firefox 40 to be my default browser has caused Windows 10 taskbar search to use my Firefox default search engine instead of Bing. Presumably works with Cortana too but I have that switched off. In my case this is DuckDuckGo.
Looks like Mozilla is simply tampering-with/rewriting externally provided URLs, rather than making use of a proper API. Presumably, because there is no proper API. Which means this approach will be fragile and easily broken if a Microsoft update changes params. https://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-release/source/browser/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.js#746 Code: // Searches in the Windows 10 task bar searchbox simply open the default browser // with a URL for a search on Bing. Here we extract the search term and use the // user's default search engine instead. // Most Windows searches are "https://www.bing.com/search...", but bug // 1182308 reports a Chinese edition of Windows 10 using // "http://cn.bing.com/search...", so be a bit flexible in what we match. // We don't want to rewrite all Bing URLs coming from external apps. Look // for the magic URL parm that's present in searches from the task bar. // (Typed searches use "form=WNSGPH", Cortana voice searches use "FORM=WNSBOX" // for direct results, or "FORM=WNSFC2" for "see more results on // Bing.com")
The world is a strange place. Taiwan is, along with the US and Japan, a country with very little or no internet censorship on the government level. I don't know where they stand on surveillance and privacy. The problem is that components come from many sources and it's not inconceivable that a back door be put on a chip or module and the final manufacturer not know about it. And where did the firmware come from? The coding is generally hired out and what company in what country did the actual coding.
Taiwan is a big target for NSA etc.. Remember stuxnet? It used a fake Realtek signing certificate. Realtek is based in Taiwan.
Much appreciated, looks like most of the tools do the same job I think it would be still safer to use a Windows enterprise version as mentioned on reddit guide, enterprise version truly allows full modification where as the home versions not so much !
Such an intense thread and debate regarding Windows privacy, I would love to move to linux but I love my PC games too much lol I hear linux drivers are still not on the same performance as windows too, perhaps one day !
Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft http://arstechnica.co.uk/informatio...ndows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/ Two screencaps of Fiddler and a VERY brief description of what they saw. Not much, but captures are interesting to look at. If you come across others, please share.
Every 30 minutes Windows 10 sends all typed text to Microsoft and here is the english analysis of the above link, yeah i know it's super dubious/alt news/pro russian page but still it's interesting.
I read that over at MDL. Thought it was interesting, but I'm with you at this point on its reliability. Would be a nice test list for someone to poke and prob to see if it is indeed true, regardless to what degree, but the sad part is, I wouldn't be surprised if this was completely true. Remember; windows 10 is "free".
It seems pretty well documented as to what servers it's going to etc. That would imply that MS is basically keylogging everything, such as what sites you visit, banking passwords among others, and so on. At some point, you have to either trust them or not, but this does sound like overkill...
I've been trying to find this for a few days online, it's the Windows 10 Privacy Statement, which may be of interest to some of you: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/default.aspx
Noted in an earlier post in this thread. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/windows-10-privacy.377785/page-2#post-2508061
My take on it, after a lot of thought for a few weeks, is... at some point, you just have to decide if you trust MS and the whole thing, or not. There are valid reasons or arguments to go either way, it just boils down to a personal decision I guess...
A little article featuring the comparison of all the Windows 10 privacy tools available. http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/14/comparison-of-windows-10-privacy-tools/
Yeah its interesting and definitely an easier way than the manual method. Nearly all that these software can do, can be done by a combination of Powershell, Group Policy and Regedit.
All this is scary but not surprising. What would happen if Windows 10 was blocked from connecting, using a third party FW or a hardware FW for ex.? Would it still work? Would it be possible to download and install updates manually?
Most people won't. Just because you can't game on Linux like you can Windows. Simple fact. And a lot of people don't want to Sudo just to install a program.
And best of all the license is not free, even with the free upgrade trick for Windows 7/8 users (use now pay later). Intrusion brought to the level of Windows 10 (previous versions have their lot but not to this point) is one thing, but within a paid license is another matter. Windows 10 licenses will beat all records and meanwhile as described all throughout this dedicated thread, a user's privacy invaded, and even when told not to : Simply phenomenal. I read elsewhere a reader expressing his wish that coming updates (October, November?) of Windows 10 will show resolved what he called bugs... to be recalled they weren't bugs but... features!
If it should appear that a user buying a license for Windows 10 (paying now, when users of the "free" upgrade will pay once the "lifetime of their device" ended...) was delivered a different version of the OS in terms of privacy intrusion, this would be grave, no need to epilogue on the implications.
