Yes, this currently works. It is how I detected the covertly installed espionage updates under Windows 7 which I wasn't aware of before (some 2-3 months ago). Having configured Windows update to automatically install security fixes and important updates, I thought not much evil could happen.

Can I ask why do you use software from a vendor you distrust?

And why are you not using a hardware firewall on your router?

Does anyone trust any big corporation these days?

Yes, this currently works. It is how I detected the covertly installed espionage updates under Windows 7 which I wasn't aware of before (some 2-3 months ago). Having configured Windows update to automatically install security fixes and important updates, I thought not much evil could happen.

Can I ask why do you use software from a vendor you distrust?

Personally I'd switch to an alternative, but there's no decent alternative to windows.

how about just using it as is? i know, paranoya and such, but the telemetry data actually leads to improvements, especially if you're running insider builds. they're very responsive, and fix a lot of quirks rather quickly.

i see really no point in the blocking of os improvements. same as disabling updates n stuff. it's just stupid. making your own life worse for nothing. you want windows to be as good as possible? let them do their job.

The customer should be the king, not an obedient serf. If people do not want their property (computer) to be used for something they do not need and they do not want their data to be send somewhere they dont know, then it is their prerogative.

Can I ask why do you use software from a vendor you distrust?

That's easy. I need something that works, and there is no alternative. Also, I need something that works the same, or at least reasonably comparably as for 90% of everybody else. Which means I need to use Windows. Not Mac, not anything else.

There are no alternatives to using Windows if you develop software for Windows. Linux does not work properly (no, please don't tell me how awesome it works -- it's awesome for servers, and I have been using it for every single server during the last 20 years, with no single problem whatsoever^[1] -- but it just doesn't work properly for a desktop machine), and it doesn't let you test the software you write either. Test, as in: runs in a "real" environment.

Yes, in theory you shouldn't need to do that anyway, and in theory Wine will do just fine. In theory, X11 works fine, too (unless you try to change any ridiculously insignificant thing, such as e.g. the resolution).

But in reality, you need to test not only on a Windows system, but on several of them, with Graphics cards from different manufacturers, and different driver versions. That, and you cannot afford to fight against half-working software all day (yes, it's free, but free is too expensive if you spend half your day fighting against it).

Windows 7 is actually a pretty good OS, and now that I have automatic updates disabled, I even more or less trust it (I did trust it before Microsoft decided to betray their users and automatically installed Win10-alike spyware updates). I found XP a pretty good OS too, but gave up due to lack of 64-bit support (well, working 64-bit support). I didn't really want Windows 7, but I kind of needed 64-bit. In retrospective, it was the best ever change, I'd never want to go back. Cannot say the same about Windows 8 and 8.1 (which I'm using every day on my convertible), or Windows 10. I might indeed switch to using Linux for desktop (if they hopefully make it usable by then) and only dual-boot into Win10 for testing, once Windows 7 will no longer be available, in like 5 years or so.


^[1]Indeed I recently discovered an old server in my former university lab that I had completely forgotten about. Nobody knew what it was doing, and so nobody wanted to touch it, or would dare to pull the plug in fear of breaking something. It's a 386SX with a NE2000 that I pulled out of the trashcan and some memory sticks that apparently weren't anyone's property, and it's been running unattended on Slackware 3.1 since late 1998 (uptime points to mid-May 2003, apparently there has been a power failure at some point). So yeah, no doubt, Linux works just fine for servers. I built a lot of out-of-trashcan computers back then, and they all worked for many years -- some still do.

If they gathered all the data up in a text-file and showed it to me before sending it, for example on Windows Update once a month or something, I would probably send it everytime, might even attach my name and phone number in case I found something important that they might need more information on, provided sufficient guarantees that my information would be deleted after X weeks, and a clearly visible no button that would forever wipe any and all gathered information out of existence.

But that's not happening, instead they're sending something that may or may not include everything and that may or may not be read / forgotten / shared / deleted / stored forever, not necessarily in that order, and I'd just prefer that not to happen.

It's like if a car manufacturer gathering safety information said they also wanted information on all the passengers and where the car went and at what times. No thanks.

Also, it marks a disturbing shift in how things work in general. Software is a tool to be used for a purpose, quite possibly private, and these tools are now coming with builtin non-optional remote surveillance. (Added retroactively after achieving near-ubiquitous presence and societal reliance, achieved without letting people know they would later add this surveillance).

how about just using it as is? i know, paranoya and such, but the telemetry data actually leads to improvements, especially if you're running insider builds. they're very responsive, and fix a lot of quirks rather quickly.

i see really no point in the blocking of os improvements. same as disabling updates n stuff. it's just stupid. making your own life worse for nothing. you want windows to be as good as possible? let them do their job.

The problem is that telemetry data is only a tiny part of what they send. Bear in mind that we are all techies. We get it and can find ways to stop it. MOST people are not techies. They install an OS or just turn the computer on after opening the box and that is where it remains. Of the tens of millions of Windows 10 installs, millions of them are sending back God only knows what to Microsoft.

As far as the telemetry data goes, we are all developers. It is guaranteed we'll see crashes. What if you're working on a AAA title that required you to sign a NDA? What right does Microsoft have to that data? What business is it of theirs that the title you are working on crashed? Who is the trained monkey viewing the telemetry data and can you trust them to remain silent? The fact of the matter is that no one outside of a small circle of Microsoft employees even knows what is contained in the telemetry data.

But more than all of that, this is MY computer! The OS just makes it run. I am not signing over my control of my data to Microsoft just so that my computer can run! This is a horribly slippery slope! What is next? What data will they decide is in their best interest to obtain from my PC? Putting on my tin foil hat, the US congress is being pressured to force software and hardware companies to grant access on demand of suspects data. This opens the possibility of a Microsoft sanctioned back door into my computer. I'm not doing anything illegal, but I don't want people snooping. The way Microsoft has this set up, there is precious little way to guard your PC against this.

There was a nice pop up in XP - Windows 7 that gave me the option to send crash data to Microsoft. What happened to that? Now it is a blue screen that informs me that data is being collected and sent. There is nothing I can do but sit and wait for it to finish. No options.

God help us all if a hacker gains access to these servers!

What if you're working on a AAA title that required you to sign a NDA?

Then you are probably running an Enterprise license of Windows, which provides the ability for your IT staff to disable as much of the telemetry as required.

Even if you are only running the Pro version, a few minutes mucking around in services and ther command prompt ought to have all that tasty telemetry permanently disabled.

What if you're working on a AAA title that required you to sign a NDA? What right does Microsoft have to that data?

Well, as the EULA to which you've agreed states: They have every right, including the right to share that data with another party if they deem it suitable.

Which means they can as well pull NDAed material from your PC and sell it to a competitor. I'm guessing that your company could still sue them if they have evidence, but most likely it's just you who gets fired (and sued). And then, it's not at all certain that your company would win, since technically they're not even doing something wrong, you've explicitly allowed them to do it.

At least, if you use Windows 10... it is much different for covert installation of espionage malware on Windows 7 systems where you didn't agree to this in the EULA.

This puts "bring your own device" into an entirely new light. I wouldn't want to have the fucking responsibility of using a device which I own and which I'm arguably responsible for if it steals the company's data...