Windows 8 is Online Based System

Sorry, I missed it earlier.

Well let's just say that the content remains yours but MS can access it anytime.
Now compare it to the Facebook EULA

Panagiotis

 

It does not need a supercookie.
You log in with your personal online account= your digital MS id
Every app that you install is connected to that ID and is used to deliver personalized ads.
The problem is not the personalized ads.
The problem stands, if apps that are included in the OS like media player, media center, iexplorer, etc. are used for advertisement delivery.
They come with the OS for which you paid for and if it happens is unacceptable.... Not even Android (which is free) does this except from the "play store" app (and even there advertizes apps and books only).

Panagiotis

 

When I first saw the Metro interface, my first thought was that it looks made to push ads. I'm not surprised they're doing it.

 

Same as every other mobile OS, just that this one offers an opt out.

That being said, I opted out years ago (when that website was brought up during yet another Microsoft rant). The site has been active for a long time and Wilders members should know how easy it is to opt out, just visit the site, click the "opt out" button, make sure you're signed into your Microsoft ID (Hotmail, etc, check the top-right hand corner for the "Sign in" option), and select the opt out option. https://choice.microsoft.com/

That site covers EVERYTHING under Microsoft, including ads from Bing, Hotmail, etc. It's a central 1 button opt out, very handy.

 

Quoted from choice.microsoft.com:

If I opt out, what happens?
Opting out does not mean you will stop getting ads or see fewer ads; however, if you do opt out, the ads that you receive will no longer be personalized.
In addition, opting out does not stop information from being collected. However, neither this information nor any information collected from you in the past will be used for displaying personalized ads. Microsoft will continue to deliver content that is personalized for you, such as the news articles that are displayed on MSN and the results that appear when you search for software updates.

Simply priceless. Uh-oh paradox detected

 

This looks interesting:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/trustwor...1/05/the-promise-of-differential-privacy.aspx

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...32F6825/Differential_Privacy_for_Everyone.pdf

 

So does Android... What is your point?
-------------------------

People just don't get that personalized advertisement and and Geo IP advertising, affects them a lot and not just in advertising.
It affects the results of your searches in engines Bing,Google,Yahoo and sometimes makes it very hard to find the info you are looking for (and not only the order that they appear).
But since we live in the era of "Big Brother", most simple don't care if they are constantly being spied off, actually some are proud in posting "every" detail of their personal life in facebook and twitter.

And if all these companies are so keen in protecting our privacy, why don't they let the user review what info is/was collected and archived?
In reality none but them and some of their employes have any clue about what is collected and how it's used.

But their fanboys are always ready to attack anyone who questions that practice, and they defend them usually with the same old story:
"The other X,Y,Z, company does it too...."
Or...
"By pointing to some EULA, that describes the collection"... but never provides any data to review, if the EULA claims are true or not.

In reality all of us (fanboys or not) have totally ignorance on the subject and we go in circles over and over and over again.
Some realize that actually know absolutely nothing and some other fool themselves to have some knowledge about these subjects.

Panagiotis

 

Say what? I can only assume you either A) misunderstood what I said or B) misunderstood what the site is saying.

To put it simply, the opt is entirely about advertising. It's explaining that MSN news displays won't be affected, because as logic would dictate, news isn't advertising, it's (shocker) news.

I made a claim, then posted a link.

You made a claim, the link is where..?

 

http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ads/

ps. MS mobile OS is not unique in providing a way to opt out from personal advertising.

Panagiotis

 

Thanks!

 

On the contrary my friend, I believe you are the one with the misunderstanding, let me elaborate. So you referred to choice.microsoft.com without actually digging past the logo or even understanding what "choice" you really have.

On page 7 of the 11 page Windows 8 EULA (that everyone reads), under Section 6 "Windows Apps", Microsoft include the following wonderfully enlightening information:

Some Windows apps include advertising. You may choose to opt out of personalized advertising by visiting choice.live.com.


Now it seems that Microsoft has a rather funny interpretation of words such as choice and opt-out. I will requote that for your convenience:

***

So can you really disable those wonderful ads that you never asked for in an OS for which you paid for? Sorry Dave they can't let you do that.

This must be very interesting on their mobile platform, when the ads they spam you with eat a good chunk of your data cap. So in essence you are footing the bill to see junk that they are getting paid for.

 

Unfortunately, you clearly are the one that does not understand.
What gave you the impression that I was talking about disabling ads? Which service allows this? Not even Google's page is about disabling ads, it's about opting out of personalization, just like Microsoft's choice page.

Maybe you should read what I wrote originally, I didn't say anything about disabling ads.

 

You should really find a different justification for this scummy spamming behavior other than: "corporation X Y Z does this so its OK in this case". This is not normal and should not be accpetable, especially in the case where you are buying the darn thing. I don't care if the ones doing it are called Microsoft or Google, try and forget about brand zealotry for one minute and see that its a principle that is being discussed here. Natively embedded Ad/Spyware (that can't be turned off) is not really something that should be allowed to pass.

If your only qualm is whther the ad is personalized for you or not, then I guess its not making much sense to you what the real issue is. But then again its your choice and I respect that.

Also I must point out that Android base install does not do this, although there are many ad supported freemium apps in the Play store that resort to it.

 

Doesn't the Windows license act as merely a leasing contract between the purchaser and MS? I'm gonna give that licensing link some quality time tomorrow.

 

For those who still won't see the pattern of behavior that steadily erode the rights and abilities of people to use their systems as they choose, add this to their definition of respecting the user.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=335653

 

Given the possibility, and in some cases certainty, that such opt-out mechanisms will not be effective in terms of blocking the ads in general and/or blocking the requests that send tracking/profiling fodder to the ad servers, it would be better if people (also) use some other more thorough mechanism to block this stuff. Has anyone looked into this and come up with an effective way to do so? Clarification: Something that works against the advertising system built into the new Windows Runtime and ideally against other advertising systems used by apps.

 

The hosts file is your friend
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

As for the personalized advertizing take a look at this funny video
https://firefoxflicks.mozilla.org/en-US/video/286

Panagiotis

 

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Vista and Win 7 operating systems can't be restricted with the hosts file like you could with XP and earlier systems, at least as far as connecting back to MS is concerned. I don't remember where I saw it, but it basically said that the hosts file only affects user apps on Vista and newer. I don't use either so I can't check this.

 

I don't recall hearing of that but I vaguely recall hearing of hardcoded exclusions for Microsoft servers:

http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/431027/30/30/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/431032/30/0/threaded

Bottom line, there are potential issues and someone running Windows 8 would have to test it against Windows Runtime apps and the Microsoft ad servers in particular. Something I stumbled across earlier to day makes me think that WFP firewalls might also prove useful.

Edit: Speaking of Firefox, it continues to move away from being a browser towards being a web platform that runs apps. Mozilla has its Firefox marketplace and Persona single signon, and there is the B2G work. So there are some parallel issues developing in that space too, which hopefully won't be as bad, but which many will want to keep an eye on.

 

That's similar to what I saw. It would be interesting to see if this just applies to the hosts file or if it's also hardcoded into the Windows firewall as well.