this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023

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Windows 11 Collects an Awful Lot of Telemetry About Your PC (www.extremetech.com)

submitted 1 year ago by zinklog@lemmy.fmhy.ml to c/tech@lemmy.fmhy.ml

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[–] addie@feddit.uk 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not the most of informative of articles - 'Windows 11 tries to look up some URLs when you first install it'. Probably all that shit that they've added to the Start menu, by the looks of it.

MS have an article about the 'diagnostic' data that they send - that's far from all that they collect, they count 'telemetry' separately. Some things, like recording your CPU model number to see if it's particularly associated with specific driver crashes? Fine. Collecting specific URLs that you've connected to in your browser? I'd be much less happy about that. And the article implies they're collecting about a gigabyte per month of just 'diagnostic' data - one, that seems a lot, and two, you're paying to store and upload it.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/privacy/diagnostic-data-viewer-overview

Happy to stay on Linux - I might not have anything to hide, but that doesn't mean that I've got anything to share.

[–] Audbol@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure where you got the "1GB per month" part, but all it says is that will use up to 1gb of data on your drive. That's up to, and it's not all being uploaded. I would think that much is obvious. It's also data that gets purged by storage sense when your drive storage is low so you aren't really "paying to store or" this is also something you are asked if you want to do when installing windows, very similar to just about every mainstream Linux distro out there. Not to mention every Linux distro is also pinging various URLs when you first boot it so I don't know why that's not upsetting you

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

tried blocking the pings home and windows started freaking out about after last update.

i switched to linux. fuck you microshit.

[–] Overzeetop@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait - so you blocked the domain where Windows gets it's security information and updates for its internal antivirus and you're disappointed that it didn't just silently fail? Well, done. It's probably better for all of us that you removed that underprotected install from the internet.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

no, i blocked unnecessary pings such when you click start menu or search button

i let necessary services through

[–] ch1cken@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah this is honestly pretty disappointing considering how its coming from a security researcher, the number of requests being sent means absolutely nothing. What matters is the data being sent, not the frequency. Windows 11 sending more requests than 10, does not inherently mean its less private.

edit: wow it wasn't even a clean install, he just got some random laptop and used it out of the box.

[–] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This is clickbait bullshit. I've seen this stupid fucking article posted on Reddit like 9 million times. I thought Lemmy would be better :-/.

While Windows does collect a ton of telemetry (out of the box), this specific article gives like zero useful information. The fact that Windows queries msn.com means literally fucking nothing without picking apart the traffic to see what is actually being sent. It probably pings that domain for the weather widget or something.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

What about all the requests to 3rd party websites?

From the source article:

Many third-party services were present as well, as Windows 11 had seemingly important things to say to the likes of Steam, McAfee, and Comscore ScorecardResearch.com, which is a market research effort that "studies and reports on Internet trends and behavior."

Many of the Windows 11 initial DNS queries where designed to provide "telemetry" data to market research companies, advertising providers and even geolocation-related domains like geo.prod.do with no permission or web browsing activity needed.

You seem to be extremely dismissive of the valid concerns the article raises.

[–] ch1cken@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

What about all the requests to 3rd party websites

I do not have those scorecardresearch requests on a clean install, the person who made that video didn't do a clean install, he was using the os the laptop shipped out of the box. Whats being judged here is the laptop manufacturer not windows. And the frequency of requests means absolutely nothing, its a useless stat to have, unless you know the data being sent.

[–] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Laptop manufacturer's fault. Not windows. This "test" was complete bullshit. The manufacturer bloatware was probably responsible for 90% of the queries.

[–] Unpopular4810@lemmy.fmhy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Hey, for someone building a new PC and wants to install Windows, would you guys still recommend installing 10 over 11?

[–] styx@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

I would not. 11 is ok to use nowadays.

[–] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No I'd go with 11 at this point. It's basically the exact same thing as 10 (with a few regedit tweaks) but they added stuff. Also if you have an HDR monitor you 100% need win11. Win10 HDR is complete dogshit. They are only actively adding HDR features into win11.

[–] Unpopular4810@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For doing a clean install for older hardware that was bought with windows 10, would you recommend reinstalling it with 11 even if the hardware is not officially supported?

[–] GunnarRunnar@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can bypass that?

[–] Unpopular4810@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Yep, as per this article, it can be done.

However they do not recommend doing it as Windows 10 will be officially supported up until October 2025.

[–] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 1 points 1 year ago

I'd say give it a try. If it works then it works.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

If you building new PC, you can prolly so linux if you care for privacy., PopOS or Mint works well for gaming.

[–] squib@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

If you get Windows 11 make sure to get the Pro version for more control (like turning off ads).

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

TechSpot article this blog post is based upon: https://www.techspot.com/news/97535-windows-11-spyware-machine-out-users-control.html

[–] Martineski@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Less goo!

[–] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Windows itself has been spyware since NT 4. It's gotten worse over the years, but it hasn't been non-malicious in a very long time.

[–] Audbol@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

OMG hot take! Let me guess, you use Linux?

[–] Uriel238@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Windows 10 will collect keylogging and send it all to Microsoft. So yeah, it's spyware before we get to Win11.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

And that's why my media pc is on win 7, and everything else is on a Linux distro :)

Fuck Microsoft

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