News Windows 11 Sends Tremendous Amount of User Data to Third Parties, YouTuber Claims

[Glock24]

IIvIve

You guys can try O&O Shutup for privacy.

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

I've been using it for years on friend's and family computers. Even with all settings activated Windows manages to turn on Windows Update on its own after some time and toggle some telemetry. On older Win10 builds this does not happen or not so often. I guess you cannot turn off telemetry completely.

 

[Unolocogringo]

For windows 10 I use Firefox + Ghostery,+ Spybot- Anti-Beacom and Malware Bytes.
Many web pages have blank spaces where ads should be. If the pic or ad has tracking cookies I do not even see it.
Most pages I do not even see the Facebook,Twitter etc Icons.
And Google maps thinks I'm in Arkansas ,South Carolina etc....


You can not eliminate all of the tracking and data gathering, but at least you can somewhat minimize it.

 

[GenericUser]

You can not eliminate all of the tracking and data gathering, but at least you can somewhat minimize it.

I agree, but a lot of people seem to have a mentality of "if you can't stop all of it then it's not worth trying to stop any of it."

 

[who_farted]

Damn that they know how boring my life is. lolz

must be why i'm getting depression meds ads.

 

[Makaveli]

This really isn't news to anyone.

However for me what pissed me off the most is they do all this data collection and make money off my personal info and I don't get a cut of that revenue.

There needs to be an opt in and opt out and if I want in I should be getting a percentage of that money you are making selling my data.

 

[ezst036]

For windows 10 I use Firefox + Ghostery,+ Spybot- Anti-Beacom and Malware Bytes.
Many web pages have blank spaces where ads should be. If the pic or ad has tracking cookies I do not even see it.
Most pages I do not even see the Facebook,Twitter etc Icons.
And Google maps thinks I'm in Arkansas ,South Carolina etc....


You can not eliminate all of the tracking and data gathering, but at least you can somewhat minimize it.

Wow, that is a lot. It doesn't require nearly that much maintenance to use Linux and keep things secure.

 

[chickenballs]

Gamers dont even need win11 since it has the same API as win10. I upgraded to win10 last year only because of dx12 and used Debloater right after installation

 

[korekan]

shocking?

i believe if we have all access to the data we can know how is everyday life going captured from everyone smartphone.
probably even can track how many you go to the toilet, purchasing same coffee, and all of the things you done.

 

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

In the video it says "what is happening when you buy a brand new laptop and open it for the first time". To me that sounds like the talk is about a pre-installed version of Windows, which could imply that OEM installed something else as well.

Then it goes on with having the browser apparently already open. And if they actually used the browser to download i.e. Wireshark, then the browser becomes part of the traffic measured.

Which isn't to say that Win11 doesn't send more data than might be needed in regard to updates. But the test doesn't seem all clean. And to then get pushed a referral link, also not really on an academical level, is it?

Yeah, how would Valve/Steam be allowed to put anything into a clean install of Windows? I can't imagine MS wanting to give anything to Valve, considering they're a big competitor game-wise to their own store. But then again, I haven't installed Win11 - maybe MS is paid to put the Steam client into clean installs now.

 

[Garden-Gnome]

I've also spotted Windows sending details of all the deivces connect to my LAN. As soon as I possibly can I want to junk Windows for good.

 

[TerryLaze]

Yeah, how would Valve/Steam be allowed to put anything into a clean install of Windows? I can't imagine MS wanting to give anything to Valve, considering they're a big competitor game-wise to their own store. But then again, I haven't installed Win11 - maybe MS is paid to put the Steam client into clean installs now.

It's not steam, watch the video, it's steamCLOUD.blablabla.googleapi because windows uses edge for the news/weather widget and that's chrome and that is google.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Wow, that is a lot. It doesn't require nearly that much maintenance to use Linux and keep things secure.

Yeah ,but most games will not run well on it without other programs and tweeking. Then performance is less.
We all use our computers for different things.
For Folding Lubuntu works well for me.
Laptop and gaming machines have windows.

 

[TJ Hooker]

When you setup windows network you can specify the DNS source and point it to your router which will then retrieves or blocks the IP.

pfSense is like a serious professional router you can run on just about any old hardware. You then add plugins and you are good to go.

Ah, I thought you meant you had the client device directly set to use 1.1.1.1 dns. OK, then pfsense DNS blocking sounds more or less the same as pihole or adguard, which I'm familiar with.

 

[digitalgriffin]

A clean install of windows 10 will also have the news widget...
You have to go old school with an older build (1909 and earlier) and never update.

The login screen that has a picture that is not always the same picture, that is why it connects to a picture server.
Mcafee is part of MS which is why it connects to that, it's part of windows security.
Goelocation is how you get articles in your language and not chinese or hungarian ones.
The analytic sites is how you get articles that people read so statistically they are more relevant to show you than news that nobody cares about.
All of this is powered by edge which is chrome which is google which is why it connects to googleapi.
Also this is why the connections look like they have a browser running, because they have.

It's 2023 people, you don't want a dumb PC that shows you news about a sack of rice falling over somewhere in china...written in chinese and targeted to chinese people.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...nterests-a39baa08-7488-4169-9ed8-577238f46f8f

I don't want news at all unless the ask for it. And I'm quite adept at finding what I want without being spied on for suggestions. I can use one less ad on 1 weird trick to lose weight.

 

[TJ Hooker]

A clean install of windows 10 will also have the news widget...
You have to go old school with an older build (1909 and earlier) and never update.

The login screen that has a picture that is not always the same picture, that is why it connects to a picture server.
Mcafee is part of MS which is why it connects to that, it's part of windows security.
Goelocation is how you get articles in your language and not chinese or hungarian ones.
The analytic sites is how you get articles that people read so statistically they are more relevant to show you than news that nobody cares about.
All of this is powered by edge which is chrome which is google which is why it connects to googleapi.
Also this is why the connections look like they have a browser running, because they have.

It's 2023 people, you don't want a dumb PC that shows you news about a sack of rice falling over somewhere in china...written in chinese and targeted to chinese people.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...nterests-a39baa08-7488-4169-9ed8-577238f46f8f

Region/language are set during install, but other than that, yeah. Most of the traffic looked roughly as you'd expect based on the apps/widgets/features that are typically enabled on a new Windows install. Plus possibly OEM apps, the YouTuber really isn't clear if he's talking a about a clean install that he did himself, or as installed by the OEM without any modifications.

Edit: I'd be more interested in seeing traffic after those extraneous apps have been removed, and any low-hanging telemetry settings have been disabled.

 

[toadhammer]

It's 2023 people, you don't want a dumb PC that shows you news about a sack of rice falling over somewhere in china...written in chinese and targeted to chinese people.

That's the thing. I don't want my OS doing any of that. My OS should be about window handling and process/device managment, etc.
I also don't want my browser doing any of that unless I ask it to. I want the app I choose or the web page I choose to do it. Drives me nuts that weather is a such a key aspect of Edge it's not possible to remove from the Blank page.

I've been out of embedded development for a while, but I laugh at the idea they might no longer be able to produce an OS embedded developers can use because the weather feed code makes it too big to fit. Or the light bulb controller fails because it can't get its news feed.

 

[mac_angel]

Is there a service/program/blocker/firewall that will sit there and record the outgoing sites for a while and then let me decide which ones to allow/block? I'd like just a nice list in a GUI with checkboxes to allow/deny anything going to each site. If so, how would I even tell which sites I want to allow other than by name? Maybe there's a "stop your data being stolen and sold all around the web" program? Windows firewall isn't the easiest thing to use. There has got to be better...

I was just looking into how much M$ trolls data from Windows the past week, including how much Defender is so embeded into the system. Even if you try to disable it and get another security suite, it's still entrenched. Look up Ghost Spectre. I just installed it on both my gaming PC and laptop. So much smaller, runs way faster.

 

[jkflipflop98]

Try this experiment.

Come up with a topic of conversation that's off-the-wall that you wouldn't normally talk about. Something like a industrial nut-shaking machine for pecan farms.

Talk about it a few times with people around you. Or if you're bored around the house start talking about it loudly to yourself. Make sure your phone is nearby.

Don't search for the nut-shakers or anything like that. Just talk about them for a while when your phone is on you.

See how long it takes for nut-shaker ads to start popping up on your phone. I bet it's within hours.

 

[TerryLaze]

Region/language are set during install, but other than that, yeah.

And the news feed will use that but if access my location is enabled it will try to find a closer position.
You can also click the gear button on the news feed and give it whatever location you want and it will stick to that.

 

[TerryLaze]

I've been out of embedded development for a while, but I laugh at the idea they might no longer be able to produce an OS embedded developers can use because the weather feed code makes it too big to fit. Or the light bulb controller fails because it can't get its news feed.

Like windowsCE from the dreamcast and pda?!
But that was never based on the main OS, was it?!

 

[Flyfisherman]

If You know the exact URL just add that adress into the hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc ), then this host computer is blocking anything to be sent to that URL.

It could be that more than one URL is needed to make sure that the particular recipient is blocked.

You can just type this in the search box: %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
You need administrative permissions to edit it with for example Notepad, and possible to change it from read only to write & read, after the edits are made, change the hosts file back to read only.

Restart Windows because the hosts file is only read once, at every upstart of Windows.
Best regards from Sweden

 

[toadhammer]

Like windowsCE from the dreamcast and pda?!
But that was never based on the main OS, was it?!

Sure, especially if you do it right. On linux, you do build it yourself by excluding optional stuff from the kernel. MS has had both separate products (the ARM/RT stuff) and stripped down normal ones. There may still be XP kiosks out there. Here's a line from an MS faq

How do I know if I am running Windows 10 IoT Enterprise?
Prior to version 1903, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise was sold as Windows 10 Enterprise with special keys. However, version 1903 and onward, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise is sold as a separate edition.

 

[Wildcat445]

Is there a service/program/blocker/firewall that will sit there and record the outgoing sites for a while and then let me decide which ones to allow/block?

A more technical solution (and much harder to implement, depending on skill level) would be to block some of these sites right at the network level, using the firewalls that some of us have on our routers. I also wonder if a Pi-hole installed on our networks could block them (even if we had to add their domains and/or IP addresses manually)--I'm not familiar with Pi-hole enough to know its capabilities.

There are things we can install on our computers and in our browsers to block traffic, but they require Windows to be installed and running first. At least a network solution would prevent access for a new OS install from letting third parties "phone home" to various places as it is being set up.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

how would Valve/Steam be allowed to put anything into a clean install of Windows?

an OEM version of Windows is not a "clean" install.
they are computer manufacturer custom editions that come on their prebuilt devices and include all kinds of garbage preinstalled.

 

[umeng2002_2]

I basically use all of the recommend settings in O&O Shutup10, except for a few here and there... it all depends on your needs.

I also run a host file block list for known Microsoft telemetry domains on my home network router in pfsense. I think it is from https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker