Has Windows become Spyware?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT4vDfA_4NI

“Has Windows become Spyware? Windows 11 vs XP Network Analysis on Wireshark. What websites does your new laptop secretly connect to?”

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Microfix, madhatter

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IMHO every vendor now gets telemetry.  To call it spyware, again I use my “will you fix the bugs better with that information or will you market to me” dividing line.  If you did the same sort of test on an Apple of that vintage with an iPhone or Ventura I’d bet you’d have the same increase in feedback traffic.

Vendors back then didn’t rely on automatic feedback mechanisms.  Now we’re building ChatAI into search engines.  The world is vastly different and businesses of all kinds no longer rely on verbal feedback but on data points.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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Susan Bradley wrote:

The world is vastly different and businesses of all kinds no longer rely on verbal feedback but on data points.

Data points are more reliable and more useful than verbal feedback.  “I don’t like Windows 11” is not very specific.

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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JohnW, RetiredGeek

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In that video, the fresh Windows installation contacted Scorecardresearch as soon as it was booted up. It was telling how when the guy in the video saw the request go out to scorecardresearch.com, he typed that url into the browser to see what it was, only to have uBlock Origin block the page because it was a tracking domain. Too bad that only works for the browser!

That’s not diagnostic telemetry.

Windows also made calls to bing.com, before the user had ever attempted to do a Bing search. This is in line with how previous Wireshark tests on Windows 10 would send a request to Bing each time a local search was performed, even if the user had it set to local only. Knowing what a person searches for isn’t diagnostic telemetry either.

 

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/16GB & GTX1660ti, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

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Alex5723, Cybertooth

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see my signature

Keep IT Lean, Clean and Mean!

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Both Askwoody and my personal business runs on Windows.  To say that I’m a sucker, I disagree.  I’m a realistic user.  Windows is not the only vendor that is looking for revenue streams from me.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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JohnW, bbearren, RetiredGeek

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Oops, i seem to have hit a paranoia nerve there?
MSFT are the suckers of data, AKA telemetry and nothing to do with the end-user/s 🙂

Keep IT Lean, Clean and Mean!

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No more like unable to understand your tag line.  It’s spelled the UK way for one so it throws us yanks off and then I clearly wasn’t sure what you were referring to as suckers.  Typically suckers is directed towards the person, not the company ergo the confusion.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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Microfix wrote:

WaaS = Windows as a Syphon…suckers!

Why don’t you have the telemetry under control?

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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Alex5723 wrote:

Has Windows become Spyware?

Betteridge’s law of headlines applies:

“Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”
…
if the publishers were confident that the answer was yes, they would have presented it as an assertion; by presenting it as a question, they are not accountable for whether it is correct or not.

Betteridge’s law of headlines

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1483 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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JohnW, Kirsty, geekdom, satrow, bbearren, TechTango, RetiredGeek

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I watched this video last week. However a big question I have is, was the Windows 11 install a bloatware OEM build or a stock Microsoft one? Can’t see why MS would be contacting McAfee servers.

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b

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OEM’s ship with McAfee.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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SupremeLaW

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First of all, I recognize that there are perfectly reasonable and legitimate reasons and uses for telemetry, such as for assessing security risks, identifying problems and potential fixes, repairs, and upgrades, and for suggesting adjusting an installation to better suit a user’s particular pattern of use. What I object to is when all of that (or some combination of it) is also mixed in with telemetry for sharing advertising and marketing data, so that you cannot get rid of the latter without also getting rid of all the rest, too. Since the internet came into public use, advertising and marketing has gotten way out of control and far too intrusive into our privacy and our daily lives. It used to be that you saw it in print media and on billboards and buildings and road signs, and of course on TV and heard it on radio or saw it on product packaging and promotion; but you could pretty much ignore it (and I pretty much always did). But now it follows you around wherever you go and tracks you and your use of the internet via your digital devices, computers, phones, everything that connects to the internet or something else that connects to the internet. Enormous quantities of data specific to you and your uses and travels are being collected and analyzed for advertising and marketing purposes and uses without your individual specific per instance consent. And it’s all based on general EULA consent that wraps everything up in one huge consent package. You have to consent to it all or nothing. If you don’t consent, you don’t get to use any part of the software involved. We need laws enacted that require separate consent by the customer or end user for the advertising and marketing part, with severe financial penalties for those who fail to get specific consent for the gathering, collection, mining or harvesting of advertising and marketing data, and its subsequent sharing and use. It doesn’t need to be on a per instance basis; but it does need to be separate from the consent you give for all the other telemetry not associated with advertising and marketing.

 

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https://www.ghacks.net/2023/02/09/is-windows-11-spying-on-you/

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Douglas wrote:

What I object to is when all of that (or some combination of it) is also mixed in with telemetry for sharing advertising and marketing data, so that you cannot get rid of the latter without also getting rid of all the rest, too.

I don’t get targeted ads from anywhere.  I don’t get ads on any websites; I have my browser and extensions pretty well locked down.  There are means to allow for useful Windows telemetry

Douglas wrote:

I recognize that there are perfectly reasonable and legitimate reasons and uses for telemetry, such as for assessing security risks, identifying problems and potential fixes, repairs, and upgrades, and for suggesting adjusting an installation to better suit a user’s particular pattern of use.

without allowing all telemetry.  O&O ShutUP10 is quite useful for a lot of that, and one can add additional protection by controlling Services, Scheduled Tasks and registry editing.

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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Douglas wrote:

there are perfectly reasonable and legitimate reasons and uses for telemetry, such as for assessing security risks, identifying problems and potential fixes, repairs, and upgrades, and for suggesting adjusting an installation to better suit a user’s particular pattern of use.

In short, No.

You never get special updates for your PC fixing any of the above.
You get standard updates like anyone else running the same OS and release version.

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No one claimed we get personalized OS updates.

We do get different updates depending on installed programs and hardware.

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1483 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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In response to :

..and for suggesting adjusting an installation to better suit a user’s particular pattern of use.

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