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Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

Started by August 07, 2015 03:27 PM
71 comments, last by conquestor3 9 years, 2 months ago

I'm betting either one of the over the air WIndows 10 updates is going to introduce the same thing (application isolation and explicit resource permission control) or else WIndows 10 will not really be the last version ever.


Windows 10 already does this with the Privacy settings section, as long as it's a "modern" app. Not sure they can do anything about "desktop" apps using the legacy Win32 API as said API doesn't really have any support for sandboxing/permissions.

I'm betting either one of the over the air WIndows 10 updates is going to introduce the same thing (application isolation and explicit resource permission control) or else WIndows 10 will not really be the last version ever.


Windows 10 already does this with the Privacy settings section, as long as it's a "modern" app. Not sure they can do anything about "desktop" apps using the legacy Win32 API as said API doesn't really have any support for sandboxing/permissions.

I just finished upgrading to WIndows 10.

All of the settings are on by default, you have to explicitly find them and disable them, one at a time. It's called negative optioning. That's not the same thing as being off by default and having to enable them expolicitly one at a time as an application tries to use your information or resource. It's what Canonical got called on when we provided the ability to search the internet from the Dash by default, even though it was one simple checkbox to disable.

WIth our new OS, we also handle legacy applications because they run isolated and confined. There is nothing technical stopping Microsoft from doing that, unless maybe it requires a complete kernel rewrite or something. I suspect it's more likely either a policy decision or an engineering resource allocation decision (based on policy), and you will see legacy application isolation starting to arrive in a year or so when enough stink about data stealing has been raised.

Also, none of my settings were carried across from Windows 8.1, and I had to search for and install drivers for my hardware. I've never had to do that with Ubuntu and it's the same hardware. I don't think Microsoft Windows is quite ready for the consumer market yet. I'll stick to Ubuntu on all my phones and PCs except for the one games-only console in my living room.

Stephen M. Webb
Professional Free Software Developer

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I'm betting either one of the over the air WIndows 10 updates is going to introduce the same thing (application isolation and explicit resource permission control) or else WIndows 10 will not really be the last version ever.


Windows 10 already does this with the Privacy settings section, as long as it's a "modern" app. Not sure they can do anything about "desktop" apps using the legacy Win32 API as said API doesn't really have any support for sandboxing/permissions.

I just finished upgrading to WIndows 10.

All of the settings are on by default, you have to explicitly find them and disable them, one at a time. It's called negative optioning. That's not the same thing as being off by default and having to enable them expolicitly one at a time as an application tries to use your information or resource. It's what Canonical got called on when we provided the ability to search the internet from the Dash by default, even though it was one simple checkbox to disable.


The option is there, as opposed to previous versions (Win 7 and older) where it wasn't.

WIth our new OS, we also handle legacy applications because they run isolated and confined. There is nothing technical stopping Microsoft from doing that, unless maybe it requires a complete kernel rewrite or something. I suspect it's more likely either a policy decision or an engineering resource allocation decision (based on policy), and you will see legacy application isolation starting to arrive in a year or so when enough stink about data stealing has been raised.


To be fair, MS is far more concerned about legacy apps than any other OS creator. If the app doesn't work without changes, Windows won't sell. So MS has to let them do what they want.

Also, none of my settings were carried across from Windows 8.1, and I had to search for and install drivers for my hardware. I've never had to do that with Ubuntu and it's the same hardware. I don't think Microsoft Windows is quite ready for the consumer market yet. I'll stick to Ubuntu on all my phones and PCs except for the one games-only console in my living room.


You're welcome to use what you want, but I'd never call any flavor of Linux "ready for the consumer market". It's far too user-hostile IMHO. And I never had to touch my drivers when updating - Windows found them all just fine. Maybe you forced the upgrade rather than waiting?


I never had to touch my drivers when updating - Windows found them all just fine. Maybe you forced the upgrade rather than waiting?

If by 'forced' you mean click on OK when it asked me if I wanted to install now or later, then I suppose. I definitely had to go out and find and download and install the nVidia drivers for my GTX 970. They aren't WIndows 8 compatible, so there's not way it could have used the old drivers.

I also discovered sound did not work after installing all the drivers. I had to futz around with configurations and reboot a couple of times before it would recognize the HDMI over which the sounds was working under Windows 8. If I didn't understand how audio worked at the hardware level I would never have figured that one out.

Stephen M. Webb
Professional Free Software Developer

I never had to touch my drivers when updating - Windows found them all just fine. Maybe you forced the upgrade rather than waiting?

If by 'forced' you mean click on OK when it asked me if I wanted to install now or later, then I suppose. I definitely had to go out and find and download and install the nVidia drivers for my GTX 970. They aren't WIndows 8 compatible, so there's not way it could have used the old drivers.

I also discovered sound did not work after installing all the drivers. I had to futz around with configurations and reboot a couple of times before it would recognize the HDMI over which the sounds was working under Windows 8. If I didn't understand how audio worked at the hardware level I would never have figured that one out.


Ah - ok. By "forced" I meant "downloaded it anyway before MS actually offered it to your system". As MS is rolling it out supposedly based on how hardware support is going.


I definitely had to go out and find and download and install the nVidia drivers for my GTX 970

My GTX 770 had the same issue. Windows 10 came up with hideously low screen resolution, and it took a couple of attempts to make the manual driver install from NVidia's site stick.

Then again, I recall the same thing happening when I first installed Windows 8, so, you know, not a big deal.

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

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Yesterday my update from 8.1 to 10 went fine. I've denied/switched off everything and the update went as easy as any other and fully automatic. I doesn't look better nor feel faster than 8.1 but I got some hd space after cleaning the drive.

So yes the update is surely as good in Ubuntu and we shall see if I still remain doing 90% of my stuff on Ubuntu. The most annoying for now are the missing tabs in filemanager and I don't want to install 3rd party software to fix such.

Just for the records, Seems there is an app @ http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/destroy_windows_10_spying.html (or at least a hosts list if you don't want to use it) and some privacy settings @ http://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/30/windows-10-and-privacy/ in case you might wonder

mostates by moson?e | Embrace your burden

Seems there's also a potential cottage industry in fooling some of the more extreme of the tinfoil hat brigade: http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/word-warning-donotspy10-windows-10-privacy-tool

Direct3D has need of instancing, but we do not. We have plenty of glVertexAttrib calls.

heh, a tool which claims to improve privacy apparently containing malware... that.. that is beautiful biggrin.png

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