Online:
Visits:
Stories:
Profile image
By Voice of Reason
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

Alert: Microsoft Admits Windows 10 Automatic Spying Cannot Be Stopped

Tuesday, November 3, 2015 8:04
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

Windows

Once AGAIN, all those screaming “Conspiracy Theorist” at those us telling you Windows 10 is spying on your EVERY move have been proven correct. Now in a recent article in Forbes, Microsoft confirms as much. That makes it something like:

Conspiracy Theorists: 1,345,002

The Uninformed: 1

Or do the uninformed have 2 now? I always forget. 

For everyone out there thinking to themselves, or telling others they have “nothing to worry about,” because they don’t do anything illegal such as downloading pirated songs or movies, here’s a question: What makes you think the spying has anything to do with illegal activity? Were the Tea Party groups that have been under constant harassment from IRS doing anything illegal simply by trying to support conservative candidates? If you ask Emperor Obama they were. His way or the highway got it? In the event you are one of the people that thinks there wasn’t a “smidgen” of corruption at the I.R.S. because Obama told you so, then might I ask you Why Is The IRS Spying On Americans’ Phone Calls (Conservatives of Course) Using Military Issued Equipment? That’s not “Conspiracy Theory” either I’m afraid. That much was revealed in a Congressional hearing. 

So, if you have nothing to worry about, “because you’re not doing anything illegal,” then if a Republican wins the White House, and you’re a liberal, you’ll have no problem with the I.R.S. coming in to invade your life correct? For more on this nightmare with Microsoft:

Tyranny – All Windows Users Have Required Windows 10 Upgrade Patch Coming

Dr. Albrecht: “Windows 10 Is Full Blown Draconian Electronic Tyranny” (Video)

There was a time in this country where search warrants were needed to come into your him and invade your privacy. We the people, with our continued ignorance of the Constitution, have allowed our rights to be stripped away one by one. Anyone making the argument that the illegal searches only applies to the government is an ass. Technically, of course they are correct, because the Bill of Rights only offers those protections from abuse by the Federal government… no more. But seriously, is there anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock the last 20 years that doesn’t know Microsoft is as in bed with government as they come? Government won’t need a warrant, they can just “nicely ask” Microsoft, who will be all too happy to hand the information over. Folks, as the video below from Professor Doom explains, this is yet ANOTHER diabolical and sinister way to circumvent the Constitution and ROB you of your rights as an American. If you run a PC, you cannot escape this either, no matter that version of Windows you are currently running. As it was explained the other day: All Windows Users Have Required Windows 10 Upgrade Patch Coming.

BIG GOVERNMENT WANTS EYES AND EARS INSIDE YOUR HOME, AND YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE IT TO THEM….

Another Windows 10 Privacy Alert

FOR MORE NEWS BY VOICE OF REASON CLICK HERE!

WWW.THELASTGREATSTAND.COM

 

Forbes writes:

Last week changes to the Windows 10 upgrade path mean it is going to become increasingly difficult for any non-techy users to avoid being pushed to Microsoft ngIf: ticker MSFT +1.89% ngIf: show_card end ngIf: ticker ’s new operating system. But given Windows 10 is better than Windows 7 and Windows 8, why would that be a problem? Because of policies like this…

Speaking to PC World, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore explained that Windows 10 is constantly tracking how it operates and how you are using it and sending that information back to Microsoft by default. More importantly he also confirmed that, despite offering some options to turn elements of tracking off, core data collection simply cannot be stopped:

“In the cases where we’ve not provided options, we feel that those things have to do with the health of the system,” he said. “In the case of knowing that our system that we’ve created is crashing, or is having serious performance problems, we view that as so helpful to the ecosystem and so not an issue of personal privacy, that today we collect that data so that we make that experience better for everyone.”

This backs up detailed data that some had chosen to dismiss as conspiracy theories.

Windows 10 has great potential, but aggressive update and user tracking policies. Image credit: Microsoft

Still, whether or not you agree with Belfiore’s standpoint that this doesn’t invade user privacy, it does seem strange that it has taken Microsoft so long to come clean and admit core Windows 10 background data collection processes cannot be stopped. Instead it gave the impression that turning off all user accessible spying options in Windows 10 settings would provide owners with full privacy – that’s tantamount to spying.

Read more – Microsoft Makes Windows 10 Upgrades Automatic For Windows 7 And Windows 8

To his credit, Belfiore does recognise the controversial nature of this decision and stresses that:

“We’re going to continue to listen to what the broad public says about these decisions, and ultimately our goal is to balance the right thing happening for the most people – really, for everyone – with complexity that comes with putting in a whole lot of control.”

Interestingly Belfiore himself won’t be around to oversee this as he is about to take a year long sabbatical. When he comes back, however, I suspect this issue will still be raging as Windows and Devices Group head Terry Myerson recently confirmed Windows 10 Enterprise users will be able to disable every single aspect of Microsoft data collection.

This comes in combination with Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise users’ ability to permanently disable automatic updates which are forced upon consumers and shows the growing divide between how Microsoft is treating consumers versus corporations.

So how concerned should users be about Windows 10’s default data collection policies? I would say very.

By default Windows 10 Home is allowed to control your bandwidth usage, install any software it wants whenever it wants (without providing detailed information on what these updates do), display ads in the Start Menu (currently it has been limited to app advertisements), send your hardware details and any changes you make to Microsoft and even log your browser history and keystrokes which the Windows End User Licence Agreement (EULA) states you allow Microsoft to use for analysis.

The good news: even if Belfiore states you cannot switch off everything, editing your privacy settings will disable the worst of these. To find them open the Start menu > Settings > Privacy.

The bad news: despite Belfiore’s pledge “to continue to listen”, Microsoft’s actions (including the impending Windows 7 and Windows 8 upgrade pressure) suggests the company’s recent love for Big Brother tactics is only going to get worse before it gets better…

 

FOR MORE NEWS BY VOICE OF REASON CLICK HERE!

CHECK OUT THE NEW GOOGLE+ PAGE!

BE SURE TO GO MY PROFILE’S BELOW AT OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA:

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | PINTEREST | STUMBLE UPON | TUMBLER

 

THE VOICE OF REASON

 

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Total 24 comments
  • I guess I will make the move to Linux.

    • I just did it, when I heard that even in the Enterprise version, a real ‘pro’s’ test of the system showed over 3,000 reports back to 50 Microsoft IP addresses over an 8-hour period.

      Download Ubuntu for free, get a backpack drive if you have to to move your personal data to (don’t install it over top of Windows, or you’ll have the same reporting), then format your harddrive with NTFS and install the Ubuntu.

      Took me about 4-hours to fully set it up like I wanted, and it comes with LibreOffice that is just as friendly as Word (and more flexible). I have never used Ubuntu or Linux before, and other than a few internet lookups for how to install my weird printer and how to set up bookmarks (aka links) to other home network resources, I was solid by the next day. If you know Windows inside-and-out, it is NO PROBLEM.

      BTW, my computer is at LEAST twice as fast now, no more stutter, no more lock ups, super clean, and far more responsive. I only regret I didn’t do it a year ago. It is a good, solid system, and nearly virus-proof without AV software (due to the UNIX backbone structure to it).

      Windows is dead, and a government-troll-loser.

      • ” reports back to 50 Microsoft IP”

        50 you say but you need to add six zero’s to that number and if you learn how Whois works and look up ASN 8075 then that alone contains some 40 IP-Ranges and cover about 16 million IPv4 in a world where they told us that we ran out of IP-Addresses 3 years ago.

        Turn IPv6 off on windows machines beacuse microsoft is using that as a back-door to tunnel data out to it’s servers.

        I would join you on Linux but i have too much custom software that would take years to port but regular users would be well advised to follow you.

        p.s Don’t use Firefox and see if you can find a version of the “Epic Privacy Browser” because it’s the best one i’ve seen so far but you do need to kill a windows service that does updates

  • I find it hard to keep control of my windows 8 virus and stopping it from calling home and thats after learning how to stop windows services us sys-admins have been locked out of by hacking the registry and knowing what of the 100 or so schedule tasks to disable.

    Ipv6 is turned off (Back door past your firewall using Teledo) and still i need to rely on my routers firewall to block odd bit of traffic.

    Sorry but i won’t even try to tame the beast they call windows ten and would go back to a ZX-Spectrum before allowing the NSA into my lounge.

    Goodbye microsoft, well hello Linuix Mint

  • well ive been waiting on the push to go back to ubuntu,its free,its linux and it runs better then any edition of windows and no you dont need to know any programming to use it.

    and if i really want to go under the radar i use tails from a live dvd no tracks and no traces on your computer and it uses a false mac address so it cant be tied back to you or your computer,so screw bill gates the socialist pig,population controlling pig. he is one of those i got mine so screw you you will do as i say,

    so go on everyone make bill gates richer and give him more control over you and your body and your computer

    run out and buy the next edition of windows,as for me i got my updates turned off,and if i somehow get forced to do updates,im going back to ubuntu.

    SCREW LITTLE BILLIE GATES AND MICROSOFT…………………….

    • ” i use tails from a live dvd no tracks and no traces on your computer and it uses a false mac address so it cant be tied back to you or your computer”

      It may fake the MAC on the LAN (Pain if router uses MAC White list) but thats not the MAC that sent out on the first hoop to the internet from the router as it speaks to your ISP.

      Nice to stop Firefox from reading and then uploading the MAC for other machines on your LAN but Tails comes with FF and it is no loger to be trusted but apart from that Tails is cool but not half as good as Mint that can also run from a pen-drive.

      >>>>>>> DO NOT TRUST FIREFOX <<<<<<<<<

      it now scans your network for DLNA devices on Andorid devices yet does not use "Play To"

  • If memory serves me, Windows 8 was intrusive too.

  • Come on folks! Don’t be surprised! After all, the Department of Homeland Security helped design Windows 10.

    • If memory serves me, America hired thousands of scum bag Nazi war criminals AFTER WW2 in PROJECT PAPERCLIP and gave them new identities and jobs in Science, the Military and Intelligence, America even hired Reinhart Gehlen and he hired all his NAZI buddies, all on America;s payrol

      So WTF do you expect ! MK ULTRA BABY ! :twisted:

      Reinhard Gehlen (3 April 1902 – 8 June 1979) was a German general who served as chief of the Foreign Armies East (FHO) military intelligence unit during the Second World War and who later became leader of the Gehlen Organization and the first president of the Federal Intelligence Service during the Cold War. Gehlen is considered one of the most legendary Cold War spymasters.

      He was appointed chief of FHO, the German Army’s military intelligence unit on the Eastern Front, in 1942. As an officer in the German Wehrmacht, he reached the rank of major general just before being sacked by Hitler for his accurately pessimistic intelligence reports.

      As the Cold War began, >>>>he was recruited by the United States military to set up a spy ring directed against the Soviet Union (known as the Gehlen Organization) which employed numerous former SS, SD and Wehrmacht officers<<<<<,

      and eventually became head of the West German intelligence apparatus. He served as the first president of the Federal Intelligence Service until 1968. As president of the Federal Intelligence Service, itself a civilian office, he was promoted to lieutenant-general of the Reserve in the West German Bundeswehr and thus became the country's highest-ranking reserve officer.[1]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Gehlen

  • If you have nothing to hide then you shouldn’t even care.

    • AllRoadsLead2NWO

      You don’t mind then I come have a look around your house when you are not there then correct? After all if you have nothing to hide then nothing to fear right? Yeah, your government has never ever lied to you about anything ever and of course there is nothing off limits with them for they certainly have nothing to hide right? Everyone’s a Truth Theorist, there is nothing but truth everyone where in this world nobody has ever withheld information or lied about anything that all of the people have the right to know about. Everyone that works for microsoft should have all of their names, home addresses and phone numbers all published right? After all they have nothing to hide- then they have nothing to worry about right? This ideology will get you squashed like a bug in a heartbeat.

    • As they say It’s Like saying if you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech you frigging MORON!

    • Its people like you that allowed the hitlers, mao’s, and mussolini’s to rise to power because you had nothing to hide.. It doesn’t mean what they are doing is right. It’s not even legal to data mine as it violates basic human right to privacy.

    • Nyyk4, people like you drive Hummers and drink with the Bill Gates’. You can’t comprehend privacy, because you can pay for it. Look at super anti-gunner, Mark Zuckerberg. He’s so anti-gun it hurts. He also has 16 armed BODYGUARDS protecting his house. He can afford to be anti-gun, because he can afford to hire those that aren’t.

      If you don’t have anything to hide, why the ‘Nyyk4′ name? Why did you use such a weird, vague handle instead of ‘Thomas Rosen’ or ‘Johnny Mersen’, or whatever your REAL name is? Simple, because you don’t know us, you don’t trust us, and you don’t share with us. See, I don’t know who is getting into my computer, who has access to Microsoft’s ‘open list’, and what government (or other) entities are browsing my MS loaded harddrives. By your reasoning, if Microsoft has nothing to hide, why did it hide the fact that you couldn’t turn off constant IP chatter between Win10 and their servers? Why won’t they truly disclose who is actually getting the data? Why won’t they tell you what they are using the data for, and why they have to lie to do it?

      My friend, you better start your little pious statement of ‘if they have nothing to hide’ and redirect it to the criminals here, which are Microsoft and the U.S. Government first. You’re looking at the wrong suspects, and aren’t smart enough to even see it – or too culpable to admit it.

  • Once again, the fearporn artists attack:

    1) Shares your personal information with Microsoft by default
    By default, Windows 10 shares a lot of information about you with Microsoft. According to the company’s privacy policy, Windows sends Microsoft everything you say to Cortana, Windows 10′s Siri-like virtual assistant. It also collects your name and nickname, your recent calendar events, the names of the people in your appointments, and information about your contacts — including their names and nicknames.
    The good news: If you don’t want to share that information, you can disable it.
    The bad news: Microsoft has an incredible 13 separate privacy screens that you’ll have to navigate through to shut off all information sharing.
    2) Borrows bandwidth from your home Internet connection
    Windows 10 will use your Internet connection to help other people download apps or update their PCs.
    If someone (let’s call her Rebecca) is having trouble connecting to Microsoft’s servers, Rebecca might instead download that update or app from you, a complete stranger.
    It all happens in the background, without either of you ever knowing it.
    It’s a feature called Windows Update Delivery Optimization, and it’s actually a potentially brilliant way to help Windows 10 users update their PCs faster by connecting to millions of different people instead of just Microsoft.
    But Microsoft isn’t upfront with customers about it. To turn it off, you’ll have to navigate to a submenu (“Choose how updates are delivered”) of a submenu (“Advanced options”) within the settings app.
    Microsoft should be more forthright that it’s using your PC as an update server, and it should make turning the feature off easier.
    3) Can share your wireless password with your friends’ PCs
    Windows 10 includes a new feature called Wi-Fi Sense, which allows you to automatically log your friends onto your Wi-Fi network without ever giving them your password.
    That freaked some people out, because Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) is storing and delivering your Wi-Fi password, which can be a key to all your private photos.
    In truth, there’s really not much to worry about. Though Microsoft enables Wi-Fi Sense by default on Windows 10, it doesn’t share your networks by default — you have to choose to do that. When your friends connect via Wi-Fi Sense, they won’t then, in turn, be able to share your network with their friends. Wi-Fi Sense encrypts your password, and it won’t work on corporate networks with special security protocols. And you can opt out.
    Still, Microsoft’s all-or-nothing policy is potentially troubling. Choosing to share access to your Wi-Fi network with all your Facebook (FB, Tech30), Skype and Outlook.com contacts means your best friend will get access, but your stalker will too.
    4) Will continue to send information to Microsoft after you disable data-sharing settings
    If you went to all 13 privacy pages and shut off all data sharing, you’ll still share information with Microsoft.
    As Ars Technica first reported, even if you disable Cortana and Bing queries in the search box, opening the Start Menu and typing — anything — will still send some data to Microsoft.
    Microsoft said there’s nothing nefarious going on there. It’s not reading your search queries, just learning some basic habits about how you (and many others) are using search. It’s not clear exactly what Microsoft means by that, but the company hinted that it’s looking at broad behaviors. For example, it may be recording the simple fact that you searched for an item on your PC and how you initiated the search (a click vs. a keystroke).
    “As part of delivering Windows 10 as a service, updates may be delivered to provide ongoing new features to Bing search, such as new visual layouts, styles and search code,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement. “No query or search usage data is sent to Microsoft, in accordance with the customer’s chosen privacy settings.”
    But, come on, Microsoft. Shouldn’t there be a way to just opt out of all data being sent to you?
    5) Can scan for counterfeit games
    Tech blog Alpha noted late last week that the Windows 10 license agreement everyone agrees to (without reading) includes language that seems to allow the company to scan your computer for pirated games and disable them at will.
    “We may automatically check your version of the software and download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.”
    This applies to Windows 10 services, such as Xbox Live, not Windows 10 itself. So Microsoft isn’t scanning your PC for illegal copies of Halo. But it’s written like it could — and Microsoft should make that clearer in its privacy statement.
    Windows 10 is not nearly as bad as what you’ve read. But Microsoft isn’t doing itself any favors with overly broad privacy statements, difficult-to-navigate privacy settings and a general lack of transparency.
    Related: Why this Windows 10 feature is freaking everyone out
    Related: How Cortana got her corny jokes

  • But if they spy on the computer it can see us like batman when he has the grapple hook thing to climb on stuff.

  • the above misinformation to make you decide not to try.

    “Stopping Windows Telemetry

    There’s one last thing you need to do in order to stay off grid. You might have noticed that in the Privacy area, in Feedback & Diagnostics, there’s a Basic minimum to Send Your Device Data to Microsoft, with no option to turn it off. If you considered it impossible to turn off, think again.”

    http://news.softpedia.com/news/stop-windows-10-telemetry-and-other-data-collecting-489571.shtml

  • Once installed on your computer, Win 10 will slither out of the processor and into your refrigerator. It will drink all your beer and eat your food. When it’s full, it’ll crawl onto your bed, unfluff the pillows, tie your sheets in knots, and drool on the bed while it takes a nap. It’ll change all your tvs to cspan and hide the remotes. Then it’ll switch on all your video cameras so Barack and Gates can laugh while they watch you try to make it stop. :eek:

  • Linux is the way forward. It’s a little tricky to begin with but after a week you should have the hang of it. And you’ll be wondering why on earth you persisted with the crud that is Windows.

  • Umm, no I don’t agree with what you are saying. If Microsoft says they can look at all your private stuff and hands them over to anyone BUT YOU then they have violated the Constitution of unreasonable search and seizure and no matter what they say, will not or should not hold up in court.

    And if it does than we need a 2nd revolution.

    Or, you can all go to Linux since the founder of Microsoft is an avowed socialist. They all become like that once they got your money.

    • “will not or should not hold up in court”

      They own the judges, they own the police, they own you

      “And if it does than we need a 2nd revolution”

      Yes agree but i think they are also drugging people to sedate them, well that or the size of our balls is falling as fast as our sperm counts are dropping.

      That cow in the field didn’t get dumb by accident, we started to do that to wild beats 5000 years ago and now it’s being done to us.

  • Again, if you don’t game on a pc, you really don’t need to be using windows to surf porn or check face book.

    Linux has a way more secure distros out there that don’t track you like a sheeple and they aren’t as hard to use or setup as they were 15 years ago… Linux mint is a good example.

  • I would say that if it gets to bad then one must consider getting off the net completely. We lived fine with no internet before and can do it again. I for one would consider this option and just do more fishing or hunting. Been online almost 24/7 since 1999 and learned quite a lot since then. Imagine the lost revenue if millions get off line for good! I do not think they want that! Greed has a way of compromise.

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.