Cortana Is Listening

[surphninja]

Well first if any three letter agency like the NSA or FBI is asking M$ about YOU then you are already so deep in poop you are done.
Second I really doubt that M$ is going to get involved in anything more than selling anonymous usage statistics which i really do not think is a big deal.
Every web page we go to has cookies. Heck Toms Admins can read all of your PMs if they feel like it and if you ever have used Google or an Android device then it has already been done to you.
and if you really have some sensitive stuff you need to keep hidden then use a Ubuntu VM inside of Windows 10 with I guess or dual boot Ubuntu.
Heck Ubuntu nowadays is almost as simple as Windows to use

Well, the FBI and the NSA should have to get a warrant and have probable cause to get a look at our private data, but the problem with transmitting it to third party servers is that it lessens their burden and pretty much gives them free access to it, causing our constitutional rights to become null and void.

The bigger issue is that these government organizations no longer target individuals nor require that you be suspected of a crime to have your data monitored, and either willingly or because they're coerced, these companies are allowing the government to directly tap into their servers and have ready access. If you're not suspected of committing a crime, then that level of monitoring is unethical.

People keep saying that we can trust Microsoft not to go through our private data, but they've fessed up to reading through the emails of targeted users on more than one occasion, and that's just the situations where they've been caught. We can't trust them not to do something they've already admitted to doing.

 

[king smp]

Those are all good points.
However this is the world we live in nowadays.
There is cameras with behavior recognition and cameras on the traffic lights.
Almost everywhere you go in public there is a camera.
They can trace you by the GPS locator in your phone.
They can monitor your credit card transactions.
They know who you call and what you are saying.
They monitor your texts.
Do you think that if the NSA/Men in Black want you that anything is going to stop them?
They just label you as a terrorist and ALL of your constitutional rights are GONE.
This was inevitable with Windows.
very simple
use Ubuntu on your computer
dual boot it
you can do all of your email,banking etc with Ubuntu
Ubuntu is extremely user friendly nowadays and can handle all of the basics
use Win10 for gaming and non essential things
keep a powerful magnet handy and store all sensitive information on an external
have cameras with motion detectors on all entrances for early warning system.
use a VPN
have a safe room in your house
keep a supply of guns,ammo and food/water storage
have a 4 x 4 vehicle with extra gas handy
have a concrete bunker in the mountains
how far does our paranoia go?

 

[jimmysmitty]

^Magnets are not the best way to destroy data on a HDD. Only fire. Lots of fire. I have seen HDDs introduced to magnets and even water/mud/sludge be recovered.

Fire cleanses all.

Oh and you forgot to use burner phones only.

 

[king smp]

I did forget the burner. LOL
Do I like that M$ has gotten more intrusive? Of course not.
I do realize the implications and like I said there have been some good points made.
But we are surrounded by "Big Brother"
you would have to go to real extremes to be off the radar.
almost impossible
the reality is that this is the world we live in now
just try to keep your nose clean and hope your not in the wrong place at the wrong time
of course I am on a laptop on wireless at a public coffee shop using a VPN writing this. 😛

 

[palladin9479]

Those are all good points.
However this is the world we live in nowadays.
There is cameras with behavior recognition and cameras on the traffic lights.
Almost everywhere you go in public there is a camera.
They can trace you by the GPS locator in your phone.
They can monitor your credit card transactions.
They know who you call and what you are saying.
They monitor your texts.
Do you think that if the NSA/Men in Black want you that anything is going to stop them?
They just label you as a terrorist and ALL of your constitutional rights are GONE.
This was inevitable with Windows.
very simple
use Ubuntu on your computer
dual boot it
you can do all of your email,banking etc with Ubuntu
Ubuntu is extremely user friendly nowadays and can handle all of the basics
use Win10 for gaming and non essential things
keep a powerful magnet handy and store all sensitive information on an external
have cameras with motion detectors on all entrances for early warning system.
use a VPN
have a safe room in your house
keep a supply of guns,ammo and food/water storage
have a 4 x 4 vehicle with extra gas handy
have a concrete bunker in the mountains
how far does our paranoia go?

So all three of these then

• 
  ■"[COMPETITOR A] does something similar! Oh look at them!" (deflection)
  
  ■"It's not that big of a deal." (dismissal)
  
  ■"[Personal attack implying paranoia for simply wanting THE PREVIOUS STATUS QUO of not having every goddamned thing uploaded to Microsoft servers]" (character attack; the most pathetic of them all)

I'm going to introduce you to a video. It's not about Windows 10 but is an incredibly important video that might have a profound effect on your life at some point in time.

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

The government is not omnipotent, there are real checks and balances and contrary to what people would have you believe, they work. Problem is people are unaware of them and society currently encourages us to ignore them "because they don't matter". Well they do matter and people should care. The level of apathy I've seen people give towards this issue is staggering. It's on the order of just handing out your wallet and credit cards to anyone you meet because "they could just pull a gun and take it from me anyway".

 

[palladin9479]

I did forget the burner. LOL
Do I like that M$ has gotten more intrusive? Of course not.
I do realize the implications and like I said there have been some good points made.
But we are surrounded by "Big Brother"
you would have to go to real extremes to be off the radar.
almost impossible
the reality is that this is the world we live in now
just try to keep your nose clean and hope your not in the wrong place at the wrong time
of course I am on a laptop on wireless at a public coffee shop using a VPN writing this. 😛

That's the thing you don't need to go off the radar or do any crazy sh!t. You just need to be difficult enough to peg that nobody would bother putting in the extra effort.

I'm going to tell you right now that you are a criminal. At some point in your life you have commit a crime, even if you were unaware of it. There are so many laws, regulations that laws reference and interpretations of those laws and regulations that the Justice Department has lost count. So lets understand that right here and now, everyone on this board who has spent any significant time in the USA is almost definitely a criminal.

Now why aren't you, and the rest of us, in jail or paying fines, or having a record and being restricted from doing things? Because the authorities would first have to know about it, the sheer volume of laws prevents them from knowing everything after all. Then they would have to gather sufficient evidence to justify to a Judge that they need special permission to gather even more evidence using means that could only be granted through a Judge (wire taping / private records / ect..). Then they would have to build a case around this evidence and a DA would have to prosecute, or likely just push for a plea deal to lessor charges.

The police and associated authorities are not your friends. They do not care about you or your families personal well being and are just as happy with you in prison or otherwise gravely effected as not. So the only reason they have chose to ignore all this extra crime is because it's simply too more effort and they have better things to do.

The easier this is, the easier it is for them to place you in jail or require you spend a lot of money on a lawyer, to defend yourself against a violation of paragraph 4 subsection C of US Code 628 subject to a law passed in 1982 and updated via policy in 1995 that you had no clue even existed.

Or worse, and infinitely easier, they just do civil asset forfeiture because your stuff might have been or could be used in the commission of a crime. Don't laugh, police do it all the time and the #1 thing they look for is the value of the property, not if the person owning the property actually committed a crime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United_States

This would be great comedy if it wasn't true...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks

 

[king smp]

you make some very good points Palladin
as always i enjoy your posts tremendously

 

[CATERWAULER]

I still would like to know why you can't just switch Cortana from cloud to local. I'm fine with the 'getting to know you' aspect, so long as everything is stored locally. Why is that not an option?

I wouldn't mind data usage patterns being stored locally either. It's fine for the OS to do this kind of stuff but keep it local and only transmit it at the discretion of the user.

The problem is MS wants to collect this data and use it to generate that Google cash. Google is primarily an information company. Information is their product and vendors are their customers. Google collects usage data off internet sites, and then sells that data to companies. Microsoft has wanted in on this business for awhile but Bing doesn't generate nearly enough usage to provide them with valuable data, so instead they want to leverage their dominance in the Consumer PC markets to acquire the usage data from there. That is why Windows 10 is offered so cheaply / free, they aren't planning on making money from selling it nor are they giving it out from the kindness of their hearts, they plan on making money off the data they can scrape from your PC's. And because they can't be entirely sure what will and won't be useful, they just decided to record everything and sort it out later.

My big issue with all this is that there is a huge amount of room for potential abuse, especially once you start involving three letter government agencies. When you centralize this much data, and that bulk data can easily be tied to a physical name and location, it just screams "please abuse me" to the people who would want to do so.

And when every apologist's reply falls into one of these fallacies, it really starts making me wonder.

• 
  ■"[COMPETITOR A] does something similar! Oh look at them!" (deflection)
  
  ■"Oh it's not on by default." (lie)
  
  ■"It's not that big of a deal." (dismissal)
  
  ■"[Personal attack implying paranoia for simply wanting THE PREVIOUS STATUS QUO of not having every goddamned thing uploaded to Microsoft servers]" (character attack; the most pathetic of them all)

 

[CATERWAULER]

Thank you for your post. It at least confirms my suspicions. Well not confirms AND not just suspicions, anyone like you, who has been paying attention already knows we are monitored 24/7 and purposely being dumbed down for whatever nefarious events are soon to happen.
Having a computer program listening and watching everything we do is a travesty of our liberties and freedoms. And not being able to shut it down expands it so far as to be totally unacceptable in a free society. But I guess most of us are accepting that we no longer have a democracy OR a free society.
I am seriously considering retrograding back to W8.1 just to get my speed back. I guess when your computer is sending every keystroke to the 'watchers' it is bound to be slower. lol
I just don't see what benefits Windows 10 will give me?

 

[surphninja]

Sure, if the feds want something on you, they can get it, usually without probable cause, and that's the world we live in, but I'm not going to acquiesce to microsoft having unlimited access to my personal data and putting it up for sale.

 

[GObonzo]

•Windows 10 Home users will receive updates from Windows Update automatically when it’s available. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to postpone updates. The amount of time that Windows 10 Pro users can postpone updates is limited.
show]http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Windows-10-specifications

show us systems, or even a system, that has been disabled because it isn't updating. until then it is speculation.

 

[tazmo8448]

It was the same way in the days of AOL when they would watch your emails and if you cursed somone would let you know that that type language was frowned upon and lots of people went to Netscape, there really is no 'privacy' anymore. Cell phone tracking only has the criminals hollering like all things that pin them down they'll find a smart lawyer to try and wiggle out of it and run up the banner that they are 'protecting' everybody. Do I need to wear a 'hoodie' when its 80 degrees and holler if someone says something about it? might as well wear ski masks.
M$ has said they are also tapping into W7,W8 and yeah Linux might be a alternative. Hide My Ass only 'hides' you from other asses not the law.

Like the man said locks are for honest people.

 

[Unolocogringo]

•Windows 10 Home users will receive updates from Windows Update automatically when it’s available. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to postpone updates. The amount of time that Windows 10 Pro users can postpone updates is limited.
show]http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Windows-10-specifications

show us systems, or even a system, that has been disabled because it isn't updating. until then it is speculation.

If you read any of the posts above nothing was mentioned about shutting down or locking out systems with Updates disabled.
It will just turn on updates and install them after a certain period of time. Microsoft has not stated a period of time yet so we do not know how long you can turn off updates before they get turned back on.
And this is for Pro and Enterprise editions. They state that you can not disable Updates in lower versions.

 

[Hesynergy]

Waaaaaaay too intrusive.... While I would love to use Cortana his expertise and function, I refuse to lose my privacy.

Chas

 

[jimmysmitty]

•Windows 10 Home users will receive updates from Windows Update automatically when it’s available. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to postpone updates. The amount of time that Windows 10 Pro users can postpone updates is limited.
show]http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Windows-10-specifications

show us systems, or even a system, that has been disabled because it isn't updating. until then it is speculation.

If you read any of the posts above nothing was mentioned about shutting down or locking out systems with Updates disabled.
It will just turn on updates and install them after a certain period of time. Microsoft has not stated a period of time yet so we do not know how long you can turn off updates before they get turned back on.
And this is for Pro and Enterprise editions. They state that you can not disable Updates in lower versions.

Actually it is Pro that has a deferral system. Enterprise has control over them, corporations will not allow it otherwise. The only other version besides those is home.

 

[surphninja]

Windows 10 is opt-in, as there is Windows 7, 8.1, Apple, various flavors of Linux.

Looks like you can take Windows 7 and 8.1 off that list. News broke that they've pushed data collecting "features" in the new updates.

So if you have to be on Windows for work or some other reason, there is no longer an opt-out.

 

[Racer9000]

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.

I thought like this too in tell I heard of how with just your credit card they can do a credit check on you and see if you are even worth there time to sell a car, boat, goods, etc. too. Not to mention doing credit checks lowers your credit score. Business and people can get real sneaky with personal information to target people into buying things AND prevent selling to people not worth there time. With more personal information gathered more sneaky stuff they can do without you realizing it.

 

[Memhorder]

The internet is a privilege...........Same as when North Korea was screwing around they were simply just cut off from the world. Grounded....hahaha

 

[loki1944]

Windows 10 is opt-in, as there is Windows 7, 8.1, Apple, various flavors of Linux.

Looks like you can take Windows 7 and 8.1 off that list. News broke that they've pushed data collecting "features" in the new updates.

So if you have to be on Windows for work or some other reason, there is no longer an opt-out.

Which is why I didn't download those updates.

 

[Memhorder]

To circumvent this completely I suppose one could use Tails OS and Tor for privacy and anonymity.........problem solved

 

[king smp]

Thanks for that for that info Memhorder.
I am Dl an Tails iso to check it out

 

[Memhorder]

Thanks for that for that info Memhorder.
I am Dl an Tails iso to check it out

Please do if not done already. Apparently it leaves zero trace of anything on your computer and your internet connections are bounced around and encrypted. Let me know how that goes

 

[king smp]

I have Tails installed on a 32GB USB 3 drive and works great.
I am going to put Tails on a SD card this weekend since I have a slot on my laptop so I can just keep it in there since I do not use that slot for anything.
As long as the HP laptop allows a SD card to be booted that is LOL
I already have latest Ubuntu and Windows 10 dual booted on that laptop so having a third os available will be cool.

 

[Memhorder]

I have Tails installed on a 32GB USB 3 drive and works great.
I am going to put Tails on a SD card this weekend since I have a slot on my laptop so I can just keep it in there since I do not use that slot for anything.
As long as the HP laptop allows a SD card to be booted that is LOL
I already have latest Ubuntu and Windows 10 dual booted on that laptop so having a third os available will be cool.

I'm sure if you can get into BIOS on the laptop and change the boot settings you'll have no problem. I'm sure as you suggested using Ubuntu and the Tor Network things would be pretty private too. I haven't got the chance to use Tails yet. Gonna check it out though since you can boot off USB. I do have a little faith in MS and anonymity of the stuff harvested. A protected browser is used for sensitive stuff like banking and i don't care if they know how many times I hit Tom's Hardare

 

[king smp]

actually ubuntu from what i read is also sending data back to canonical
they are harvesting data for commercial purposes also
I2P is actually an interesting solution....