Cortana Is Listening

[Unolocogringo]

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

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.

Most operating systems before Android and Win10 made it pretty simple to turn of the tracking.
Android changed that and you have to root your phone to get rid of the Google tracking and data mining.
Windows 10 took that a couple steps farther.
your camera is used to take facial recognition photos of you and are uploaded to Microsoft.
If your device has a fingerprint scanner you are asked to scan several of you fingers ,which are then uploaded.
All of your contacts,emails,and documents are uploaded. This includes business contracts and personal privileged client information if you are a lawyer ,doctor,or psychiatrist and use a computer to store patient/client information.

Now all of this information is available to law enforcement without a warrant, just a simple subpoena which does not require probable cause.
And since you willingly gave this information to Microsoft for the privileged to "upgrade" to win 10, it can be used against you in a court of law.People have been found guilty for crimes because their cell phone placed them at the scene of a crime. No other evidence linking them to the crime was presented. Just that their cell phone placed them at the scene of the crime.
You are having a nice day off sightseeing in the city, a couple hours later when you are at home your door gets busted down and you are arrested for a robbery/murder
Your cell phone or computer placed you at the scene of the crime and you are the major suspect. Even though you had no Idea a robbery/murder was happening at one of the stores you strolled by on your leisurely day off.
This is not fantasy it has already happened in our criminal justice system.

And you are still OK with what Microsoft and Google are doing because older OSes had these features(as they call them) and you could easily disable them? But you have to pretty much disable a lot of the functionality of the newer OSes to stop this data collection.Because they are constantly uploading user data and location.

 

[USAFRet]

See...now you're bringing the cellphone aspect into this. Which has little or nothing to do with Windows, or Windows 10.

 

[Math Geek]

not true, win 10 has a mobile version which is just as open with your info as the pc version is. plus its adds location and phone calls to the mix that the normal pc user would not provide them. so it is actually a bit more info than the pc version gets.

as i said above, i can't stop the gov from they are doing but no reason to give any company this much info on me to hand over at their slightest whim. little known fact is that over 90% of piracy and illicit porn charges are now brought up by the nsa. since they are monitoring so much they know who is doing what and have decided to send the info to the DOJ to prosecute. so warrentless mass collection can be used against you despite the collection for "stopping terrorists". this is not os dependent but if they have this much already why go ahead and let them prove it by having the documents and emails and history and everything else they need if i can avoid giving it to MS/google/apple/facebook...... to pass along.

facebook is more shady than any of them yet they have over a billion users. they have even done psychological experiments on the users without their knowledge and it is confirmed they caused more than a handful of suicides due to their meddling!! all they did was say our bad (very quietly and not where any user would see) and went and did it a second time but even more broadly done this time.

 

[USAFRet]

not true, win 10 has a mobile version which is just as open with your info as the pc version is. plus its adds location and phone calls to the mix that the normal pc user would not provide them. so it is actually a bit more info than the pc version gets.

And is no worse than any other phone OS, or the majority of phone 'apps'.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Location was always with the OS on PC. It is part of your IP address that gives it away.

That said, I don;t have a major problem with it because I don't do anything wrong and what you described is a pretty insane scenario. They would have to have a lot more than just a cell phone was near the location as pretty much everyone has a cell phone and they would have to dig into back grounds of all those people to somehow link them.

I myself have a super clean record, not even traffic tickets as I have only gotten a few and took classes for that. Then I keep myself off the interwebs so I highly doubt that if I was in the vicinity could be held up as evidence of me committing a crime.

Not being mean but I think you are being a tad paranoid.

 

[Math Geek]

but it is a static location. sure it cn be used to identify the household in question but that's it. your cell's location is a record of everywhere you go, when, for how long and lots of other info. i'm not saying your wrong but cell phone collection is way more intrusive. took me a while to learn what i could turn off and what i just had to deal with on my cell phone.

i do agree that all phone makers are just as bad and it's just not MS but until now we did not have to deal with this on our pc. like my last piece of privacy is gone and i'm not happy about it.

i'm not paranoid but i still find it very disturbing what the world knows about me. i know i'm not the only one but still don't wanna explain my gay midget porn site visits to anyone. 😛

 

[junkeymonkey]

funny thing is ''YOU'' don't think you do anything wrong - well I guess so does your mom ? your attitude above is why they keep getting a way with it ...

it don't matter if your doing wrong or telling mom about something you seen for sale at Wal-Mart -- that's all you personal business not the worlds

 

[PsiPiper]

Re: who cares what information I have in my e-mails, and what do I have to hide?

It's more a question of 'what do I want to keep'.

My job has non-disclosure policies in my contracts. I use my compy to send work related e-mails. If Cortana is sending information that I either enter or receive about work, and my company determines that this is a breach of the non-disclosure agreement, then I potentially can lose my job.

That's a pretty big reason, for me, to worry about what kinds of information is being recorded and compiled by this OS upgrade, and I sure as hell don't want to be the test-pilot.

 

[palladin9479]

not true, win 10 has a mobile version which is just as open with your info as the pc version is. plus its adds location and phone calls to the mix that the normal pc user would not provide them. so it is actually a bit more info than the pc version gets.

And is no worse than any other phone OS, or the majority of phone 'apps'.

It kinda is.

Currently devices anonymize the data when it sends it off to home base. Even your google account only does limited tracking, specifically search's and browsing (if your using their browser), and again that can be easily disabled. Windows 10 goes well beyond that, it does application tracking. You open solitaire, it lets MS know how long you played and how often you opened it. You open any media document, MS knows the file, it's hash, how long you watched it and any metadata attached to it. Anything you do is uploaded to MS who keeps it for an unspecified amount of time and because it's legally considered a "gift", they can do whatever they want with it. Your computer can be used to testify against you in a court of law, that is very bad stuff.

And for those of you who think "well I have nothing to hide cause I don't do anything wrong", your horribly misinformed about the US legal system. Watch this video about not providing any information to the police without first consulting a lawyer. Notable listen to the part about nobody knowing exactly how many laws there are that you could of violated and the tactics the police will use to get a conviction, even on an innocent individual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

That is what makes this extremely scary. It's straight up Convergence (Canadian cop / sci-fi show / 1984 level stuff and people are just nodding their heads up and down because they like shiny new products.

 

[wjsonl]

Cortana is Big Brother's sister.

 

[tazmo8448]

All you guys make valid points, well some more than others. 10 is the future. After using 10 for a few weeks I was able to find a Classic 7 shell that makes it act like good ole 7 in the Start menu and so on and 10 does feel a tad snappier but the Windows Explorer is sluggish and that may be all the pagefiles and whatnot being generated. Everytime M$ rolls out a new OS its the same ole story of people clinging to what was comfortable and that is valid too. I was very comfortable with 7 so as in all things, learning curve included, we go kicking and screaming into the night. Personally I think if they hadda followed the 7 navigation deal a lot more people would've been happier but they couldn't very well dump the 8 users who were stuck with that touchpad deal of a thing. Seems like the whole deal now is tied to the smart phone mind set which is the future too I reckon. Its not Programs any more its Apps and the navigation is geared to the smart phone users when it really should be the other way around. To me it shows that even though we the old guard that have been using pc's since the Commodore 64 days are being kicked to the curb for the hip new and improved (like toothpaste in the 50s&60s) mind set which really tells me the folks my age have moved on and let the new young lions have the helm which the first thing is to change it to make it feel like its theirs now. Just a passing thought.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Location was always with the OS on PC. It is part of your IP address that gives it away.

That said, I don;t have a major problem with it because I don't do anything wrong and what you described is a pretty insane scenario. They would have to have a lot more than just a cell phone was near the location as pretty much everyone has a cell phone and they would have to dig into back grounds of all those people to somehow link them.

I myself have a super clean record, not even traffic tickets as I have only gotten a few and took classes for that. Then I keep myself off the interwebs so I highly doubt that if I was in the vicinity could be held up as evidence of me committing a crime.

Not being mean but I think you are being a tad paranoid.

Convicted because his cell phone placed him near the scene of crimes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-appeals-court-no-warrant-needed-for-stored-cellphone-location-data/2015/05/05/c290e28e-f34d-11e4-b2f3-af5479e6bbdd_story.html

More about the case from ACLU website.
For one suspect, Quartavious Davis, police got 11,606 location records – an average of 173 points each day. Davis was convicted based largely on the cell phone location evidence, and he appealed. Despite the court’s ruling that the government should have gotten a warrant, the conviction will stand because the court determined that law enforcement relied in good faith on the decision of a magistrate judge to issue a D-order.

Another case.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-08-23/news/bs-md-cell-phone-tracking-20140823_1_location-data-privacy-cellphone.
We already have cases of people being convicted by cell phone location data.

 

[king smp]

hmm they "gentlemen" in those articles sounded like they were guilty and not just innocents walking by a crime scene
and did you also see where they cleared a man of a crime in the second article?

"Federal prosecutors recently used such data to clear a man wrongfully convicted of murder and to help convict another for plotting the crime."

 

[Unolocogringo]

hmm they "gentlemen" in those articles sounded like they were guilty and not just innocents walking by a crime scene
and did you also see where they cleared a man of a crime in the second article?

"Federal prosecutors recently used such data to clear a man wrongfully convicted of murder and to help convict another for plotting the crime."

Gentlemen might be a streach for both men, who were known criminals.
But each case was won on cell phone data. Without it police did not have enough evidence to try either man in court and win.
The important part of both cases is that any information that you freely give to Microsoft or the cell phone company s, can and will be used against or for you in a court of law.
And the Criminal justice system has unfetted access to this information because you freely gave the information to a third party.
This tracking information was passed under the guise of first res-ponders needing to know you location if you placed a 911 call on your cell phone.So now all cell phones in the US are required to track your location with GPS or Cell tower triangulation.
The only way to stop the tracking and reporting is to remove the cell phone battery.Even when the phone is turned off the GPS and cell tower triangulation still occurs.
Or not have one, because having one means you agree to being tracked and this tracking information is collected by a third party which means it is freely available to Police,NSA,FBI,CIA etc...........

 

[king smp]

Exactly.
It is pretty much known to everyone (even my Mom who is tech illiterate knows they can track her cellphone)
While I agree privacy is very important I think that cellphone GPS location is one of the cases where if your not doing anything wrong then why are you worried about it?
and if you are going to do something illegal then get a burner or dont bring your cellphone LOL

 

[king smp]

BTW they could just train a satellite on you if they are really after you.
they can see the color of your eyes with satellites.....

 

[jimmysmitty]

hmm they "gentlemen" in those articles sounded like they were guilty and not just innocents walking by a crime scene
and did you also see where they cleared a man of a crime in the second article?

"Federal prosecutors recently used such data to clear a man wrongfully convicted of murder and to help convict another for plotting the crime."

Gentlemen might be a streach for both men, who were known criminals.
But each case was won on cell phone data. Without it police did not have enough evidence to try either man in court and win.
The important part of both cases is that any information that you freely give to Microsoft or the cell phone company s, can and will be used against or for you in a court of law.
And the Criminal justice system has unfetted access to this information because you freely gave the information to a third party.
This tracking information was passed under the guise of first res-ponders needing to know you location if you placed a 911 call on your cell phone.So now all cell phones in the US are required to track your location with GPS or Cell tower triangulation.
The only way to stop the tracking and reporting is to remove the cell phone battery.Even when the phone is turned off the GPS and cell tower triangulation still occurs.
Or not have one, because having one means you agree to being tracked and this tracking information is collected by a third party which means it is freely available to Police,NSA,FBI,CIA etc...........

So the guy is obviously guilty yet that still spooks you out? I mean the other guys took plea deals, he was the only one who decided not to. Do you have a good link to the trial itself? I would like to see any other evidence as there has to be more than just the cell phone data to convict him.

I understand what you are saying but again there is no way they can convict you just because cell phone data says you were near the scene of the crime, especially if you have no priors or even know the other people.

The fact the the other people involved took plea deals means that the prosecution had evidence and testimony of other people placing him there on top of the cell phone data. Add in that he was also in the location at the time of multiple robberies, it is hard to ignore.

It is this kind of paranoia that fans the flames. Most people go on with their lives without ever noticing.

I do think there should be a bit more choice in the privacy setting but I do not think I will suddenly get arrested for a crime I did not commit just because another guy was convicted of a crime he did commit using cellphone data.

 

[sirsanio]

skynet????

 

[junkeymonkey]

lets think. who really cares about the data collected ?? all I can come up with is folks that are looking to exploit you out of some money [amazon types sellers ?] and folks that are looking to do you harm in some way [law enforcement - laywers - gov. ?? ]

out side of that who cares about your saved e-mails and cell phone records and what ever - I sure as heck don't -- just folks to dig up some dirt to be used against you in some way

 

[jimmysmitty]

lets think. who really cares about the data collected ?? all I can come up with is folks that are looking to exploit you out of some money [amazon types sellers ?] and folks that are looking to do you harm in some way [law enforcement - laywers - gov. ?? ]

out side of that who cares about your saved e-mails and cell phone records and what ever - I sure as heck don't -- just folks to dig up some dirt to be used against you in some way

And most people are tech illiterate enough that that data gets out there anyways. How many people become victims of fraud every day? And is it their software or banks fault? Normally no. Normally it is that they don't pay attention. Every time I use my card in a outside location (gas station or ATM) I check to make sure no one has attached some sort of device that could read my card and pin.

In the end people act as if their data would be safe but the problem is that once you are on the internet that privacy disappears. You computers are connected 24/7 and no matter how secure Microsoft makes an OS someone will find a way to get in and get what they want.

 

[junkeymonkey]

'' and no matter how secure Microsoft makes an OS '' ???????????? ect......[lol]

 

[jimmysmitty]

Data collection is different from security. The ability to hack into an OS or a network is always there even with the best firewalls.

Do you think that you could now easily hack into Windows 10 just because of the data collections? If anything using a Live account log in is more secure than a local account log in. Mainly because I can remove a local account password easily, did it hundreds of times. But a Live account password? Much harder.

 

[surphninja]

Data collection is different from security. The ability to hack into an OS or a network is always there even with the best firewalls.

That's not to say that data collection is harmless.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Data collection is different from security. The ability to hack into an OS or a network is always there even with the best firewalls.

That's not to say that data collection is harmless.

I didn't say that but it is not the same.

Most people use iOS and Android happily which both track everything you do. Yet they are still secure enough that people are OK with it.

Would people give up their phones to not be tracked or would they find a way to accept it in order to stay always connected?

From what I can tell most people do. I see families at dinner all the time who have their faces buried in their phones when they are not buried in their food. They don;t even talk to each other. It is sad really.

 

[ffejster25]

yeah i upgraded and noticed all the little things that are like phart smones. i hate phart smones and now i feel like i have one with windows 10. i literally disabled everything turned off everything including cortana and it still shows up in processes. my start button has nothing on it at all now just the power options and all apps lol i just use it for gaming so i dont need all that bull crap that goes with it. i must say its playing games very well. only one program doesn't work and thats corsair link