I have a question. Does microsoft own the rights to our OWN local files on our own PC? I always felt that was weird.
@elzna: No. If that were so, Microsoft would own all of your intellectual rights. That would have been challenged in court years ago.
Maybe there is too much focus on the wrong thing.... http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/at...rray-of-internet-traffic/ar-BBlM9NE?ocid=iehp FYI, I get why people are concerned but the reality is that the only real protection is discrete and savvy computer use. Windows 10 telemetry is the least of our worries. I now fully expect to get flamed by at least one guy touting the usage of VPN's, TOR, etc. FYI, you do not necessarily have to be a Comcast/ATT customer for Comcast/ATT to spy on you.
Isn't that http://www.maximumpc.com/windows-10-may-punt-you-from-playing-pirated-games/ a little bit too much action from PatriotAct OS 10? http://www.alphr.com/microsoft/micr...sable-your-pirated-games-and-illegal-hardware Illegal Hardware, so what, stunning once a day having still the deskflop I love
Doctors using Windows 10 Are Likely Violating Federal Privacy Laws. August 7, 2015 Avery Jenkins The door to your medical records will soon be wide open. Accompanied by much fanfare, Microsoft’s Windows 10 was released recently, attracting attention for several reasons. In addition to hopefully improving the mess that is the Windows 8 user interface, Windows 10 was breaking the Microsoft mold in two important ways: First, it is free, and second, no disks are required for installation. You can download Windows 10 from the internet and install it directly. While this makes Windows 10 a tempting upgrade, since its debut, analysts have discovered a number of intentional privacy flaws in the operating system, permissions which give Microsoft access to all of the data on your computer. And if you are a medical or chiropractic doctor, psychologist, nurse practitioner or acupuncturist in private practice, these permissions are likely in violation of federal laws protecting private medical information. HIPAA: Protecting your medical information This federal law is known as HIPAA, or the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. Passed into law in 1996 and enacted in 2003, HIPAA strictly regulates who has access to a patient’s medical data, or Protected Health Information (PHI). PHI includes any part of a patient’s medical record or payment history that includes any identifying information, such as name, phone, email address, beneficiaries, account numbers, or any other piece of data, no matter how small, that could be used to identify the patient. Even a zip code associated with medical data makes it PHI which is regulated by HIPAA. A doctor may disclose PHI without consent of the patient only to facilitate treatment, payment, or health care operations. Any other disclosures of PHI require a doctor’s office to obtain authorization. If PHI is released for any other reason, a doctor must first inform the patient of the reason for the release, and obtain their written consent. All releases of PHI must also be documented so that they may be reviewed by the office’s Privacy Officer, usually a staff member, and by privacy auditors if there is a complaint. The only time a doctor may release information without the patient’s permission is if the doctor is presented with a warrant from the courts. Insurance companies are also bound by HIPAA privacy regulations, and though insurers are pretty lax about their implementation of the law (ask any woman who has started receiving coupons for Pampers in the mail two weeks after testing positive for pregnancy in their doctor’s office), most doctors follow the law pretty rigorously. The punishment for leaking patient data can be swift and severe, and after the government is finished, the patient whose data was leaked can certainly take a swing at the doctor in civil court. All in all, it’s easier to follow the law than not. These days, with most medical records electronically stored on servers “in the cloud,” the software used by doctors uses multiple means of protecting that data, from encryption to password protection. Any data stored on the doctor’s office computers, such as emails, lab reports, and billing and other payment information, has in the past not been at risk because it is kept behind the closed walls of a password-protected computer. Along Came Windows 10 At least until Windows 10 came along. Windows 10 violates every privacy principle on which doctors rely to protect their patients’ data. Let’s look at the Windows 10’s new license agreement, which contains this nugget in its privacy policy. Microsoft says:“We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary.” This license gives Microsoft permission to Hoover up every particle of data on a doctor’s hard drive. This will include any confidential patient-doctor emails that are stored there, any reports, any bills, and any short notes to staff through intra-network messaging (for example: “Spoke to Tom Mypatient today re gender dysphoria and desire to transition to female. Pls follow up with referral.”) Microsoft, unlike a health care provider, is not restricted by any privacy policies, and it can use this information as it wishes, including aggregating it with other data it has about you, and selling it to anyone. And all of a sudden, your history of STDs, depression, drug addiction or cancer is public knowledge and being sold to anyone who wants it. It gets worse. Another part of the new Microsoft license says “key components of Windows are cloud-based.… In order to provide this computing experience, we collect data about you, your device, and the way you use Windows.” This means that Microsoft can now track the doctor’s use of any application on his computer, basically eliminating the privacy firewalls put into place by the developers of electronic medical records software. Even if the data is encrypted and stored remotely, once it is sent to the doctor’s computer and unencrypted for display, it becomes fair game for Microsoft’s data collection software. Simply put: It’s a privacy nightmare for everyone If you are a doctor, you should find this breach of privacy — and the liability which it creates — horrifying. And if you are a patient, you should find this nothing less than terrifying. Every single private particle of data about you, from the level of your Zoloft dosage to the color of your last urine sample, is about to become publicly available. There are ways to turn off much of this data mining capability, but the process is not self-evident, and few doctors’ have either the know-how or even desire to shut it down, despite the clear risk it prevents. Only those doctors in large corporate practices using enterprise deployment will possibly be the exception, and then only if their IT departments are themselves aware. In fact, I would bet that fewer than 10 out of 100 doctors are even aware of the risk migrating to Windows 10 creates. And even then, there are massive gaps which will Microsoft access to privately-stored data. As a patient, your options are minimal. About the only thing you can do is to ask your doctors’ if they are using Windows 10, and then send them a letter expressly forbidding them from releasing any of your PHI to Microsoft. At least then, a few more doctors will take notice. And if you’re my patient? Not to worry. My practice has been using the most secure operating system in the world (Linux), for eight years, and I have taken significant measures to ensure your data is secure. Of course, a determined hacker can break in to the best-defended systems, and that includes mine; but my patients, at least, do not have to worry about me handing over the keys to their private lives in exchange for nothing more than the use of a simple operating system. http://www.averyjenkins.com/?p=1767?shared=email&msg=fail A worldwide Windows 10 is not just about YOUR playing games, talking with cortana, and browsing with edge... An enormous amount of very valid security risks and privacy problems are coming to light every day... Think about the worldwide implications for just 2 minutes beyond what your own personal use of 10 might be.... It extends to millions of businesses and corporate security.... Where this is headed should scare the crap out of you! If it doesn't, then you choose to be blind to the truth... You really want 10 so much that you're willing to hand over to Microsoft unprecedented, unregulated, and unrestrained data mining, the alarming security risks involved, and the violation of everyone's personal privacy? Oh, but I forgot, it's free, so of course you do...
Interesting, but not true. The telemetry just sends program meta data and error reports It doesn't send a lot of data or scan your files. If it did, I'd be all over MS like flies on crap. Meta data is a problem, but being dishonest about what they're collecting is also a problem.
If the source code isn't available for the public to review as is the case with the Linux kernel, how can you prove what type and how much data Windows 10 is transmitting over the internet back to Microsoft's servers? You can't. So, essentially what you are saying is that you trust Microsoft because you trust them as a company, and we are supposed to follow your lead. I suspect you are biased because you're trained in understanding Microsoft operating systems to a level that most aren't, essentially being heavily invested in Microsoft products. In fact, there must be some type of infatuation there. I can understand somebody not wanting to relearn an entire operating system and the API's just for the sake of switching to a platform that respects the user's freedom, but making claims that you know what data is and isn't being sent back to Microsoft just shows that you aren't thinking before typing. Does Microsoft have employees posting all over the internet to try to make Windows 10 sound like best thing since sliced bread? Damn right they do, when they only hold a 14% and dropping market share in the total device stratosphere. https://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/07/14/windows-use-at-14-percent.aspx I certainly do not trust Microsoft as they were the first to participate in the PRISM Surveillance Program -- and you could practically consider them a branch of the NSA. They also give NSA access to vulnerabilities before they're patched. For all we know, NSA has a list of zero-day exploits in all currently supported Windows OS's that gives them a year lead time. http://arstechnica.com/security/201...ccess-to-zero-day-data-from-microsoft-others/ Microsoft makes garbage software. Plain and simple. Their empire and stronghold on dominating standards (embrace, extend and extinguish) isn't working any longer. Too many people have caught on to Microsoft's antics and have had enough of their dirty business practices.
Why this dismissal of the real issue here? YOU know as well as everyone else that the REAL PROBLEM at hand is not what M$ telemetry is doing at this moment in time, it is the fact that they have given themselves unprecedented, unregulated, and unrestrained data mining rights, full control over the alarming security risks involved, and the violation of everyone's personal privacy. M$ can now do anything they choose, at any given moment, and users would never be aware of it, nor be able to stop it without pulling the plug, period. Does the common user really want to employ an OS that requires 24hr. security and privacy monitoring?! Windows 10 does require it, because the fox is guarding the hen house!!! Yes, and more details will emerge... My trust of M$ is ZERO...if it were any different, I'd be a fool...
They have spent just over two weeks and hardly any media to comment about this. Really they are collecting more data? or simply, it is that they have changed the way of doing it?
With all of the new features/cloud based crap there is inherently more data to collect. Question is how much validity is there to all of the black hat fears. IMHO posting too much information to facebook is far more of a threat.
Do not believe that monitoring is only M$. How many suspicions, have already come about antivirus packages?. The biggest problem is that instead of closing holes M$ now opened and allowed to flow rivers of sensitive user data, precisely to keep within privacy. Who can peek into these rivers and drinking of them get the same thing you want to have M$ user.
What I think you are saying (I know English isn't your first language) is that since all this telemetry data is being sent back to MS, a black hat hacker now has even more ways to hack into a Windows box and potentially get private user information about customers if one of MS's servers gets hacked. Imagine what a goldmine this potential data pool would be for them: fingerprint data, voice print data, credit card numbers, addresses and more. There's a really good comment that somebody wrote over at http://www.theregister.co.uk, and I wanted to quote him here:
@pirithous: If the security hole is there, who knows what unscrupulous person or group of people will find a way to exploit it. And if it can't be patched, or the OS constantly places itself into a state of insecurity, then, regardless of what the user does, his or her computer and personal information will never be safe. As far as why MS and privacy is not in the limelight right now, The USA is gearing up for presidential elections. Candidates have taken the forefront in just about every media instrument available. With regard to HIPPA, there are guidelines and there's a vetting process for computer systems and software that handle sensitive data with regard to HIPPA. I suspect that Windows 10 would never survive that vetting process. Also, it's becoming apparent to Me that Linux systems will handle the most secure data. It just makes sense. :MJ
The meta data collection and default privacy options are cause for alarm. I never said they weren't. What I object to is claiming that they're doing something they're not. Many of you are using sources that make incorrect hypothesis about MS's actions. For instance, the article about MS giving info to NSA before everyone else. This is not so the NSA can spy on mom and pop. It's so the NSA can secure all their servers before MS announces the fix. Many of you who have been around a while know that people don't apply fixes very often on older systems. Specifically in win7, even with auto updates on, you have a day before most people even download the fixes. During that time, people can reverse engineer the fixes to find out what the exploit was. They can then attack systems before they're patched. NSA gets the fixes early so they're not vulnerable. It's not so they can connect to your system. That's a very self-centered point of view and not based in any evidence. The fact is that if the NSA wants your data, they get it from the company that collects it, not from your computer.
@murphy78: William Binney has said almost -exactly- what you are saying. They do not want to put computing power and effort into breaking encryption; their plan is to weaken the endpoints. That's the easiest way to accomplish their goals and collect the data that they want, without targeting individuals. If a "red flag" pops up, then they have 72 hours to get a court order and spy on you. Anyone who looks through My posts will see that I have already said that MS are just small players in a big game. Everybody is in this game. And some are being "coerced". The NSA can destroy you if you don't "play ball", so to speak. :MJ
The NSA can spy on "mom and pop" with access to that zero-data data in the article I referenced, yes. And they obviously can develop their own malware in-house, but the zero-day data that NSA gets from Microsoft just makes it extremely simple. As far as that data being available to NSA so they can "secure their servers", that comment is just laughable. I guess you missed this part of the article: Right, and what evidence do you have to prove what you're saying? The PRISM slides already documented everything I've posted here, and that's proof. So I have proof, and you do not. All you have is an opinion. Let's see some references, not your opinion. Did you forget about Stuxnet? Oh, that's right. Those were Windows machines that were hacked by NSA and their allies to delay the Iranian nuclear program.
We give the NSA crap, but every country does the same stuff. The reason why it's different with Win10 is because they're collecting more crap and it's on American servers. This is not good news for most non-US people as the NSA have no regard at all for privacy. I get why people are upset. I'm personally offended that they even have the option to collect meta data without an easy option to disable. Most people have no clue how to work the group policy editor. Or if they do, they don't know what they're looking at or what to look for. The meta-data, though, is a small part of the problem. Most of the OS functionality is being transferred to sending/receiving data from MS servers, including Bing, which is a series of servers in Washington state. Since we know the NSA doesn't respect privacy, having a lot of your data stored in the U.S. on a MS server is a problem, since the NSA requires MS to play ball. I honestly don't know what advice to give people from other countries. I would say maybe a good start is to get cracking with linux alternatives. If enough people adopt linux now, developers will start catering to your needs.
You're confusing cyber-warfare with spying on mom/pop. Gov't funded exploitation is real and it happens, but it's not something that happens to most people. IMO, people in other countries should be a lot more worried about cloud stuff and MS default servers for apps. If I were them, I would probably build maps of ip address locations based on meta data I've collected. It would give me an idea of where to potentially attack things; especially if they're an enemy state.
And with forced updates, you have to "just trust Microsoft" to not send over a faulty patch. There are so many documented cases were Microsoft released a bad patch into the wild that it's pretty hilarious that they are foisting this nonsense on ignorant consumers. And here even when there could be potential security implications, I'm not even talking about that right now. I'm just talking about reliability. That could be part of it, but I think one of the biggest reasons why the privacy aspect isn't being brought to light is that people don't really care that much about Windows. Windows 10 is not a gargantuan hit, and doesn't have much fanfare. If anything, it's brought up a lot of controversy. It's not like when Windows 95 was released and they had a huge convention being hosted by Jay Leno. All Windows 10 really is is Windows 8.1 fixed, just like W7 was Vista fixed. Microsoft (as you know) always has had this type of pattern when it comes to operating system releases; one good release and one repugnant release.