Privacy of any nature when you utilize a device connected to the internet is quickly becoming a joke and not a very funny one. Just to name a few, Apple tracks your devices, Google scans every email you send, Lenovo actually has two programs to track your usage and of course there is Windows 10 and the data it collects and sends. Thankfully in some of these cases the programs which track and send your data can be disabled but the fact of the matter is that they are turned on by default.
The Inquirer hits the nail on the head "Money is simply a by-product of data." a fact which online sites such as Amazon and Facebook have known for a while and which software and hardware providers are now figuring out. In some cases an informed choice to share personal data is made, but this is not always true. When you share to Facebook or post your Fitbit results to the web you should be aware you are giving companies valuable data, the real question is about the data and metadata you are sharing of which you are unaware of.
Should you receive compensation for the data you provide to these companies? Should you always be able to opt out of sharing and still retain use of a particular service? Perhaps the cost of utilizing that service is sharing your data instead of money? There are a lot of questions and even a lot of different uses for this data but there is certainly no one single answer to those questions.
Microsoft have been collecting data from BSoD's for decades and Windows users have all benefited from it even though there is no opt out for sending that data. On the other hand is there a debt incurred towards Lenovo or other companies when you purchase a machine from them? Does the collection of patterns of usage benefit Lenovo users in a similar way to the data generated by a Windows BSoD or does the risk of this monitoring software being corrupted by others for nefarious purposes outweigh any possible benefits?
Of course this is only the tip of the iceberg, the Internet of Things is poised to become a nightmare for those who value their security, there are numerous exploits to track your cellphone that have nothing to do with your provider and that is only the tip of the iceberg. Just read through the Security tag here on PCPer for more examples if you have a strong stomach.
Please, take some time to think about how much you value your privacy and what data you are willing to share in exchange for products and services. Integrate that concern into your purchasing decisions, social media and internet usage. Hashtags are nice, but nothing speaks as loudly as your money; never forget that.
"MICROSOFT HAS SPOKEN out about its oft-criticised privacy policies, particularly those in the newly released Windows 10, which have provoked a spike in Bacofoil sales over its data collection policies."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Microsoft preps Azure data lake flood gates for readiness @ The Register
- BlackBerry's tactical capitulation to Google buys time – and possibly a future @ The Register
- Real-Time E-Book Editing With Calibre @ Linux.com
- 3D Printing Has Evolved Two Filament Standards @ Hack a Day
- Advertisers Already Using New iPhone Text Message Exploit @ Slashdot
- Confirmed: Android 6.0 Marshmallow rollout will begin next week @ The Inquirer
- World panics, children cry, workers sigh … Facebook.com TITSUP @ The Register
It’s what they can Place in
It’s what they can Place in the UEFI/BIOS that really should be of interest to those concerned with privacy and who do not want their hardware locked down into M$’s closed ecosystem. Some of the things Lenovo have done with their product’s UEFI/BIOS is baked into firmware and simply re-imaging the OS does not guarantee that the spyware has been erased. M$’s giving the OEM’s a choice to NOT provide a UEFI secure boot OFF switch in the device’s UEFI/BIOS could lead to some limited alternative OS choices for the user/owner of new laptop/PC hardware that comes with windows 10 factory installed! Both M$ and OEMs have a little bit too much leeway in how they configure your hardware for privacy out of the BOX that may limit the total amount of privacy a user can achieve with even an alternative OS installed if people continue to accept this unacceptable behavior!
“Learn to trust us, because
“Learn to trust us, because we’re not going to stop.”
Yes they will stop, if we demand it. There’s that little thing called self-determination, which roughly translates to the following: “corporations are not permitted do anything we don’ allow them to do to.”
The trick to making this work is a watchdog that can’t be bought that will “maul” them and their employees in the very literal sense of the term when they do something they are not permitted to.
Real deterrents + real consequences + a keen eye = “ok, we’ll stop.”
Amen!
Amen!
In Google’s case at least,
In Google’s case at least, you DO receive compensation for your data, in the form of free services. Ditto with Facebook’s targeted ads. (In fact, people don’t seem to stop and think before they share WAY too much information on Facebook to every nook and corner of this Planet.)
Rather than crying over their collection of my data, I simply want to know WHEN THEY ARE collecting my data, so I can make my choice of whether to accept their services in return for data-mining rights or turn them down.
To me, this is WinTen’s greatest sin; be it updates, or collecting your info, it does it without telling you diddly. What’s in that latest “cumulative update?” Who knows… What data does WinTen tell you it’s collecting? “Sound of crickets chirping”…
From the makers of SpyBot
From the makers of SpyBot search and destroy comes a program that disables sending Microsoft your data. I give you Anti-Beacon!
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/
Can it really subvert the
Can it really subvert the hard coded telemetry and keylogging?
If it can the Microshit will use its EULA powers to disable and remove it.
It’s funny how when the tech
It’s funny how when the tech darlings of Americans Apple and Google do it, it’s brushed off as ‘ok’.
But Microsoft dares to do the same thing, on a far less invasive scale than Google in particular does, and it’s Pitchforks at Dawn..like usual.
Did you miss that part of the
Did you miss that part of the post where I point that out about Apple and Google?
Ah MOM, but the other kids
Ah MOM, but the other kids are doing it, classic argument! It’s enough that folks have not raised objections to any OS being bundled on any third party OEM PC/Laptop hardware, the user should be able to buy third party manufactured PC/Laptop hardware with their choice of OS. How many years now has M$ forced its OS/OS ecosystem onto the third party OEM market devices, and now M$ is even trying to lock down that third party OEM independently produced hardware through the device’s firmware. M$ is even trying to back port the spyware onto its 8.1, and 7 OSs. Steam OS is going to be such a breath of fresh air, and supported by Valve, the games makers, and the Linux community. Nobody ever liked M$ to begin with it was just at one time M$ did not totally bake spyware into into its OS, and people could tolerate M$ and avoid a closed down software ecosystem, but now with all the spying and download/”update” forcing M$ has gone with the users as the product business model, and users are loosing control over their own hardware!
America’s darlings are its Monopolies, and its millions of yes men, and women, along with all of the first class chumps that buy into the great schemes, be it Oil, Railroads, or the telephone, and also even more so the PC market of the past 40 years. M$ even takes the monopoly prize from Standard Oil, and the politicians of today are even more bought and paid for than even the politicians of the Gilded age!
Some people are freaking out
Some people are freaking out about Win10. It is not perfect but I have read where “MS is controlling your computer.” Huh?
Bacofoil. Had to look up that one.
I don’t really know what data Google, Apple, etc. collect.
I do gain from MS collecting telemetry data. More stability, better performance, new features, troubleshooting. I do gain from MS storing files on OneDrive. Ability to access files on any device.
Did not know about AntiBeacon!
In case anyone else is
In case anyone else is wondering …
I guess people are starting
I guess people are starting to wake up to the reality for the past 5-10 years: if you want to connect a computer to the internet and expect to have ‘privacy’ in what you’re doing, then you have two real choices:
– Run a burner VM instance of Kali (or a similar distro) with ALL traffic tunnelled through Tor. Be aware that anything you enter into any website is almost certainly being logged by one or more parties for analytic purposes.
OR
– Accept that ANY OS you are going to be using is going to be monitoring what you’re doing for benign purposes (but that data can be REpurposed for nefarious means), AND you are blasting the majority of your traffic in cleartext to anyone who bothers to listen as the very function of how the internet works.
Email, for example. Email is not encrypted. If you’ve written something in an email and sent it, it’s effectively public knowledge. The only guarantee that that email has not been read by anyone other than the recipient is a chain of people pink-swearing they’re not going to look at it. But because of how email transmission works, you have little-to-no control over WHO is handling your messages as they pas between servers.
Does any one know how well
Does any one know how well protected the physical locations of these servers and supercomputers are? Perhaps it’s time for a syndicate to take things in their own hands. And yes, I’m dead serious.
^I’m just trying to clarify
^I’m just trying to clarify here.
Are you openly placing on the internet your intent to attack someone or their property?
That person has already been
That person has already been found and “disappeared”.
The danger isnt’ so much to
The danger isnt’ so much to end users at the moment, but it could become an issue when governments feel like making law enforcement more efficient by utilizing data collected by these various systems to try to catch people committing crimes. It’ll be very error prone and the way the legal system works now is a lot of laws are just in place to be deterrents, but they’re laws people break all the time, so betwen thsoe factors, a lot of innocent and otherwise not dangerous people will be at the very least hassled by the law or potentially prosecuted for minor things. There will be little interest in dealing with this though because of prison lobbies. Prison is a highly profitable business and reforming laws in response to all this would cut in to their cash flow.
Another potential issue is with what various governments and businesses who have full access to all that data can do with it. It can be used against politicians who have opinions the current party in power doesn’t agree with. Foreign governments (including the US, China, Russia, and everyone else.) regularly use this stuff to gather information on other countries and their citizens.
Also, don’t believe that all this excess is necessary for a successful business. Sure, advertising is at least a basic requirement for a free service to operate, but these businesses are pulling in huge profits from all this excess, and this is often after the fact of BUYING the product or service, so it’s all just extra profit in those cases.
Trouble is this is all hugely profitable. You either continue growing or you die the way things are set up, and the only way to grow is to find new ways to make a profit. There’s no interest in regulating any of it because it makes the wrong people way too much money, and everyone is way too distracted and content with their services to care, because it doesn’t really impact them directly, even though it does.
I’ve come to terms with the
I’ve come to terms with the loss of privacy and free expression.
I’ve probably only got a few more years left on this planet. And certainly only a few decades, at most. I say let it all burn. Let the new college kids who want to destroy all of the things that we’ve held important for a few hundred years suffer what they’ve demanded to have. Let them revel in it.
I’ll be gone and I won’t care.
So, Lenovo’s spying on
So, Lenovo’s spying on everything you do through their stupid PCdoctor ripoff? Glad I just got a completely new hard drive with a freshly installed Windows 8.1, f** those guys!