Cortana Is Listening

[rwinches]

What is legal today can be deemed illegal in the future, it depends on who is in control.

Not all punitive actions are made public.

Just a short time ago people being investigated by homeland security were notified in a letter they could tell no one that they were being investigated not even their spouse or lawyer. Only after being sued by the ACLU those being investigated were allowed to inform only their lawyer. The Gov fought that judgment hard.

I don't think MS needs to know what programs (not to be confused with apps) I have installed or how many or if i uninstall them.

Just imagine a constant dialog in your ear about everything you do and see and every communication you have.

'Bob It looks like you need to get some more vegetables you want to continue to be healthy don't you?'

'Bob you haven't worked out today so I rearranged your schedule so you will have time.'

'Bob I have turned off the TV and activated the DVR function to record the rest of this show, it's time for bed.'

'Bob I don't think this woman you are talking to is right for you why not approach the redhead at the end of the bar.'

'Bob I think you have had enough to drink so I will be playing that sound you hate until you stop.'

'Bob I think you need new friends these guys are a bunch of losers.'

'Bob why are you lying to this person, you don't have any 'place to be', you have an open schedule?'

I don't need a surrogate mommie do you?

 

[royalcrown]

If they don't get to double up, tell that to cable.

So full disclosure I am a Network Administrator. I dare anyone to distinguish between "invasion of privacy" and "a head of it's time" Cookies were the devil of the 90's. When was the last time anyone disabled them in a browser? I haven't even seen mention of them in over a decade. Google/other search engines search metrics collection for targeted ads among other uses was the devil of the 2000's. Again, most don't care about that now. Now the devil is Personal Assistants. If you are naive enough to think no data is collected on you when you use a computer and that you can, in any way shape, or form, stop it I hate to burst your bubble but you can't. Best you can hope for is to mask it and even that requires great lengths. A VPN or Proxy service. But any time you go anywhere that site probably will log your IP and what you did there. Especially a search engine. Especially if they are concerned about user metrics. Then there are cookies. Remember all the fun things those can do? That no one probably turns off anymore...

Oh and speech data is probably one of the single most important things Cortana collects I would imagine. If you want it to be able to understand any dialect, any personal inflection, any oddity of how you speak, and still be able to function...I would imagine speech metrics are highly crucial to that development. Unless you all want to send a speech sample directly to Microsoft for analysis.

In five years no one will care and there will be a new devil to worry about that things are "going to far"

So full disclosure I am a Network Administrator. I dare anyone to distinguish between "invasion of privacy" and "a head of it's time" Cookies were the devil of the 90's. When was the last time anyone disabled them in a browser? I haven't even seen mention of them in over a decade. Google/other search engines search metrics collection for targeted ads among other uses was the devil of the 2000's. Again, most don't care about that now. Now the devil is Personal Assistants. If you are naive enough to think no data is collected on you when you use a computer and that you can, in any way shape, or form, stop it I hate to burst your bubble but you can't. Best you can hope for is to mask it and even that requires great lengths. A VPN or Proxy service. But any time you go anywhere that site probably will log your IP and what you did there. Especially a search engine. Especially if they are concerned about user metrics. Then there are cookies. Remember all the fun things those can do? That no one probably turns off anymore...

Oh and speech data is probably one of the single most important things Cortana collects I would imagine. If you want it to be able to understand any dialect, any personal inflection, any oddity of how you speak, and still be able to function...I would imagine speech metrics are highly crucial to that development. Unless you all want to send a speech sample directly to Microsoft for analysis.

In five years no one will care and there will be a new devil to worry about that things are "going to far"

Plenty of people still care about all of those things. The difference is that now the workarounds are built in and easily accessible, due to the initial outrage and demand for privacy. Incognito mode is a built in function of pretty much every browser now. Google has released instructions for disabling their collection of your searches. The tor browser is pretty well known and widely used, as are proxies and vpns.

Maybe you haven't heard much about them lately because the opt-out options have become standard practice for the people who want them. Hopefully the current outrage produces similar results and encourages Microsoft to develop better options for opting out.

Ooooh, it's Ad's you fear that target you. So, ok, get the tampon ads instead of motherboard ads. Shampoo ads instead of graphic card ads.

I'll opt into targeted ads when they allow better control/transparency over what is shared, the OS is completely free (not just free is you've already paid for another OS), and/or they want to cut me in on the profit from the targeted ads.

The biggest issue is that they expect people to pay for the OS and then on top of that they're looking to make money by selling your data. Either the OS is free with ads or it's paid and ad free. You don't get to double dip.

I think they just believe most people are so used to ads that they won't notice or care (and they're probably right).

 

[royalcrown]

Porn mags could come back in style since they don't have internet 😀 lol

You can disable cortana and even IF she still collected data on you while turned off, you can clear all her data even in the cloud and since millions of people will have cortana, the odds would be like winning the lottery if they caught you doing something "bad" just wipe your data from the cloud right before you get off your pc ( if you did something "bad")....so everyone wins.
Just google "you can disable cortana".
To lazy to do that? Here is a link for ya...
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2949759/windows/killing-cortana-how-to-disable-windows-10s-info-hungry-digital-assistant.html

Or just use a different device for your guilty pleasures.
If that isn't good enough for you , your either lazy or a irrational paranoid person and might miss out on a amazing feature.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I'm not an Apple guy, so I don't frequent any Apple based forums.
I wonder if this same freakout was as prevalent when Siri was launched.

Probably not since Apple is pretty good about marketing such features and most people who buy Apple products are more accepting.

I mean for instance, people with any phone have their location always on so their location is always being monitored by their phone and by Apple/Google/Microsoft.

 

[royalcrown]

Plus AFAIK SIRIi doesn't log EVERYTHING, just relevant speech data so it can understand context better. That and the usual contacts/calendar stuff of course.

 

[jjb8675309]

Probably not since Apple is pretty good about marketing such features and most people who buy Apple products are more accepting.

Generally Apple fans don't mind the government holding their hand. I would even argue that there is a certain market segment of apple fans who know nothing about what the OS is doing to collect data.

Of course there are power users for all platforms but for Apple they oftentimes have dumbed down clientele.

 

[tazmo8448]

Hope we'll be able to somehow one day 'disable' this thing, at the moment I don't use it but thats not to say it isn't snooping. I am by no means a fan of advertising but the internet has gone the way of pay tv which I seldom watch anymore because of all the intrusions of 'sellin' use to be you paid for cable and they earned their money with that subscription then the Ad boys show up with the ole 'look at all the money you'lll make' bit....screw em.

 

[chevybiscayne1963]

people say windows vista was bad, well they haven't tried windows 10 yet. i upgraded to 10 and immediately went back to vista because windows 10 is terrible and i don't think i'd ever buy a windows operating system again if it's just gonna go downhill from windows 8

 

[USAFRet]

people say windows vista was bad, well they haven't tried windows 10 yet. i upgraded to 10 and immediately went back to vista because windows 10 is terrible and i don't think i'd ever buy a windows operating system again if it's just gonna go downhill from windows 8

Interesting, because there is no direct Upgrade (or downgrade) from Vista to 10.

And you could have discovered your dislike months ago, with the Tech Preview.

 

[jimmysmitty]

people say windows vista was bad, well they haven't tried windows 10 yet. i upgraded to 10 and immediately went back to vista because windows 10 is terrible and i don't think i'd ever buy a windows operating system again if it's just gonna go downhill from windows 8

So then if it has gone down hill from 8 why are you on an outdated and slower OS like Vista instead of 7?

I actually have had customers who said 7 was horrible and that Vista was better. I didn't hate Vista but 7 is way better than Vista.

That said, most people just look at the GUI and layout and judge. They don't look at the back end of the OS where the real changes happen. 10 is vastly better than 8 and better than 7 or Vista by far from a security and stability stand point.

 

[palladin9479]

people say windows vista was bad, well they haven't tried windows 10 yet. i upgraded to 10 and immediately went back to vista because windows 10 is terrible and i don't think i'd ever buy a windows operating system again if it's just gonna go downhill from windows 8

So then if it has gone down hill from 8 why are you on an outdated and slower OS like Vista instead of 7?

I actually have had customers who said 7 was horrible and that Vista was better. I didn't hate Vista but 7 is way better than Vista.

That said, most people just look at the GUI and layout and judge. They don't look at the back end of the OS where the real changes happen. 10 is vastly better than 8 and better than 7 or Vista by far from a security and stability stand point.

Yeah that was the debate between Windows 8 vs 7. Kernel wise Windows 8 was superior, but the original UI implementation was so cumbersome and touch screen orientate that most customers declined to go with it. It doesn't matter how awesome the cars engine is if the steering is FUBAR. I was hoping that Windows 10 would fix this issue, and so far it looks like the interface is actually really usable though they are still pushing that flat ugly retro look. All this blatant spying though is a big turn off for me, which is why I'm going to wait for the first Service Pack or some other update / tool that prevents the OS from reporting my activities to Microsoft.

 

[jimmysmitty]

people say windows vista was bad, well they haven't tried windows 10 yet. i upgraded to 10 and immediately went back to vista because windows 10 is terrible and i don't think i'd ever buy a windows operating system again if it's just gonna go downhill from windows 8

So then if it has gone down hill from 8 why are you on an outdated and slower OS like Vista instead of 7?

I actually have had customers who said 7 was horrible and that Vista was better. I didn't hate Vista but 7 is way better than Vista.

That said, most people just look at the GUI and layout and judge. They don't look at the back end of the OS where the real changes happen. 10 is vastly better than 8 and better than 7 or Vista by far from a security and stability stand point.

Yeah that was the debate between Windows 8 vs 7. Kernel wise Windows 8 was superior, but the original UI implementation was so cumbersome and touch screen orientate that most customers declined to go with it. It doesn't matter how awesome the cars engine is if the steering is FUBAR. I was hoping that Windows 10 would fix this issue, and so far it looks like the interface is actually really usable though they are still pushing that flat ugly retro look. All this blatant spying though is a big turn off for me, which is why I'm going to wait for the first Service Pack or some other update / tool that prevents the OS from reporting my activities to Microsoft.

The theme/GUI is always subjective. I still remember when I liked the XP GUI. Now I look at it an wonder how I ever stared at that kids drawing design. Then again I usually used the silver theme over the blue theme. The older Windows 2K (grey) hurts my eyes now.

I don't mind the 10 GUI. 7 looked great, 8 was OK and this is fine once I made it use color from my wall paper(like in 8) and changes a lot to the dark theme (Edge was not as useable before that)

I am sure they will add the options in sooner rather than later. People make a big deal over these things now.

 

[Math Geek]

MS may not make an option but give it time and someone will make a tweak utility that will shut everything down. just have to wait and see what people come up with in the next couple months. did not take long for the donnotspy10 to come out and it won't be much longer before someone verifies what is truly going on and releases a tweak to shut it down.

 

[Learn_w_Graffix]

I personally don't understand why people care so much about privacy stuff like this. If I have nothing to hide, then what harm or anything does something like this do to me? Nothing at all. It is only going to help Microsoft make Cortana better.

It's like people worried about camera's on the streets. If you're not doing anything shady walking down the street, why do you care that a camera is on you. If anything, it might help clear that it wasn't you if something happened near you, and helps catch people who do crappy things like mug people in broad daylight.

The two phrases “nothing to hide” and “not doing anything shady” are not the same, and they are not really the heart of the issue.
If a businessman with business (trade) secrets or proprietary information has no guarantee of privacy, he leaves himself open to a competitor with connections (to Microsoft, Google, etc.) getting that information. (If you don’t think spouses / girlfriends / boyfriends of employees don’t leak information, you may want to consider spending more time reading the news.) He has “nothing to hide” in a moral or legal sense, but he definitely does have something that should remain private. That is not limited to business. How many of us have records or other information about things we really don’t want anyone to know? Maybe you’ve done nothing illegal or immoral, but do you really want people to know that you had a problem with bedwetting until you were 14?
The key word regarding the phrase “not doing anything shady” is “now.” None of us has any idea what will be considered unlawful or immoral in the future. Do you enjoy having a beer with your buddies on weekends? Prohibition was only a century ago—do you know that will never appear again? Do you spank your children? Do you play violent video games? Efforts have been made to make both of those illegal! (And don’t think “I did that before it was illegal!” will let you off the hook! Just ask a nearby politician!)

 

[surphninja]

I personally don't understand why people care so much about privacy stuff like this. If I have nothing to hide, then what harm or anything does something like this do to me? Nothing at all. It is only going to help Microsoft make Cortana better.

It's like people worried about camera's on the streets. If you're not doing anything shady walking down the street, why do you care that a camera is on you. If anything, it might help clear that it wasn't you if something happened near you, and helps catch people who do crappy things like mug people in broad daylight.

To anyone that says "why worry if you have nothing to hide," the question should always be "do you have shades/blinds on your windows," because of course they do. People have plenty of reason to protect their privacy when they have nothing to hide.

 

[king smp]

and you folks think that Win 7 and Win 8 was not collecting information about you....
Naive...

 

[Brian Blair]

I have it completely disabled! I have no need for anything giving me directions anyway! Their are things called common sense and maps! And you have to be pretty stupid not to know north south east and west! But then again anyone dumb enough to use something like cortana is probably too stupid to read a map!

 

[StupidComputers]

When SkyNet wakes up, I blame all of you.

p.s. remember how xbox one kinect is always watching you, even when not ur not playing, and how it observes ur physiology and all that jazz when u r? Maybe even when ur not. Microsoft, Apple, maybe Google too... all EVIL. Why would u trust any of them at all.

 

[USAFRet]

When SkyNet wakes up, I blame all of you.

p.s. remember how xbox one kinect is always watching you, even when not ur not playing, and how it observes ur physiology and all that jazz when u r? Maybe even when ur not. Microsoft, Apple, maybe Google too... all EVIL. Why would u trust any of them at all.

"maybe Google" ? Ha...that is their entire business model.

 

[jimmysmitty]

When SkyNet wakes up, I blame all of you.

p.s. remember how xbox one kinect is always watching you, even when not ur not playing, and how it observes ur physiology and all that jazz when u r? Maybe even when ur not. Microsoft, Apple, maybe Google too... all EVIL. Why would u trust any of them at all.

"maybe Google" ? Ha...that is their entire business model.

 

[royalcrown]

The Irony is that you're on this forum, therefore a computer. They can find you too, right now if they like.

When SkyNet wakes up, I blame all of you.

p.s. remember how xbox one kinect is always watching you, even when not ur not playing, and how it observes ur physiology and all that jazz when u r? Maybe even when ur not. Microsoft, Apple, maybe Google too... all EVIL. Why would u trust any of them at all.

 

[homice]

I personally don't understand why people care so much about privacy stuff like this. If I have nothing to hide, then what harm or anything does something like this do to me? Nothing at all. It is only going to help Microsoft make Cortana better.

Hopefully all your local police will read this and search you every time they see you. Sure, they probably won't find anything, but i doubt you'll enjoy the experience either way. And take down your curtains and blinds, you don't need them. Feel free to post all your passwords on here, too, while you're at it.

Privacy is and always has been the default in the US (til recently), and the default is the way it should be. And the way Microsoft seems to have made WinX, surprisingly. Good on 'em

 

[hans_pcguy]

Microsoft might be giving users a free upgrade to Windows 10, but for those concerned with privacy, the OS has some issues.

Cortana Is Listening : Read more

I have been studying Windows 10 now for about a week. I am STAGGERED by the invasion of privacy. All you have to do is sign in to your email once and they have everything. You don't even need to use Cortana. Here is a good article that explains the privacy issues:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150802/07341031825/microsoft-launches-special-scott-mcnealy-edition-windows.shtml
Good luck. As a Certified PC Tech, I have to learn about this stuff because I need to be able to fix it. But I will not be using Windows 10 and I am going to start watching back everywhere on the web. This is scary s**t folks.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Microsoft might be giving users a free upgrade to Windows 10, but for those concerned with privacy, the OS has some issues.

Cortana Is Listening : Read more

I have been studying Windows 10 now for about a week. I am STAGGERED by the invasion of privacy. All you have to do is sign in to your email once and they have everything. You don't even need to use Cortana. Here is a good article that explains the privacy issues:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150802/07341031825/microsoft-launches-special-scott-mcnealy-edition-windows.shtml
Good luck. As a Certified PC Tech, I have to learn about this stuff because I need to be able to fix it. But I will not be using Windows 10 and I am going to start watching back everywhere on the web. This is scary s**t folks.

About as scary as the fact that ever since the interwebs became a major household commodity (hell in the US alone there is almost a 2 internet connected device per person per household, not to include business systems) they have been able to track you all they want. Microsoft could have been doing this all along and kept it hidden.

Funny enough there are plenty of examples of companies doing this or worse and keeping it pretty hidden and the option to turn it off buried deeper than anything in Windows 10. Hell Firefox just added a feature that people are concerned about and turning it off requires going into the more advanced options. Apple has been doing this and more for the longest time. So has Google.

Even before computers the NSA or CIA or any multitude of government agencies has been spying on the people. This is no different and II am sure there will be changes but man people need to calm down. They act as if the government has some vested interest in them when they really don't.

 

[Math Geek]

i think it is a little bit different. no cia or fbi man ever knocked on my door and tried to sell me something they felt i needed based on my fbi file.

this is the difference to me and most others. opening my entire life up to an os for the stated advertising purposes is more than i and others are willing to accept. we can't stop the nsa from intercepting internet traffic or from accessing companies databases but we sure can be aware of what those companies have on us and do what we can to minimize what they have on us. what sites i visit vs every email/document/pic/etc i have is a long way apart in how deep it goes from simply tracking my net use.