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Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Windows 10 can carry on slurping even when you're sure you yelled STOP!
A feature introduced in the April 2018 Update of Windows 10 may have set off a privacy landmine within the bowels of Redmond as users have discovered that their data was still flowing into the intestines of the Windows giant, even with the thing apparently turned off. In what is likely to be more cock-up than conspiracy, it appears that Microsoft is continuing to collect data on recent user activities even when the user has explicitly said NO, DAMMIT!
First noted in an increasingly shouty thread over on Reddit, the issue is related to Activity History, which is needed to make the much-vaunted and little-used Timeline feature work in Windows 10.
Introduced in what had previously been regarded as one of Microsoft's flakiest updates – prior to the glory of the October 2018 Update, of course – Timeline allows users to go back through apps as well as websites to get back to what they were doing at a given point. Use a Microsoft account, and a user can view this over multiple PCs and mobile devices (as long[sic] you are signed in with that same Microsoft account). The key setting is that "Send my activity history to Microsoft" check box. Uncheck it and you'd be forgiven for thinking your activity would not be sent Redmondwards. Right?
Except, er, the slurping appears to be carrying on unabated. The Redditors reported that if one takes a look at the Activity History in the Privacy Dashboard lurking within their account, apps and sites are still showing up.
(Score: 4, Informative) by crafoo on Friday December 14 2018, @01:44AM (4 children)
No. I am one of these people and this is not my complaint. My issue (not a complaint) is that the software I need to do useful things does not exist on any other OS. I actually use FreeBSD for as much as I can, and on occasion Linux. Of all the OS'es I've used, Ubuntu and Gentoo flavors of Linux are the most sloppy, half-assed garbage piles I've ever been subjected to. I would not willingly use Linux given any other choice, including Win10.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by edIII on Friday December 14 2018, @02:48AM (3 children)
Uhh, okay. What software specifically?
I'm on Ubuntu. Not noticing the whole pile of garbage deal. Is it perfect? No, but it's also not unusable either. What I like too, is that the fucking explorer.exe and all the bloat isn't loaded all the time. I use cairo-dock [glx-dock.org] as a replacement for explorer in its "start menu mode". Required a lot of configuration (via a UI), but it's clean, adaptable, and stable. Not to mention, my configuration is portable to another Linux flavor. Whatever I get used to in Ubuntu, I could have elsewhere in the Linux ecosystem.
Since you can run VMs under Linux, anything from MS you really, really, needed you could have in a VM. I believe John Carmero himself uses a level builder for Doom that runs in Windows 10 on his Mac which is BSD based. People do that all the time. Likewise, WINE is fairly mature, although admittedly very difficult to set up. However, some paid tools I really like took the time to do that for me. Those work with very few issues and are largely stable, and most of those issues have now been addressed under a support contract.
Not sure exactly what your gripes are, but the fact they are worth subjecting yourself to the bullshit and telemetry must mean that they're unusably bad. Got real bad news for you too, but Windows isn't going to a real OS for much longer. They're transitioning to a 100% cloud based OS with glorified local caching of data on a subscription model. So if Linux is so bad that would subject yourself to the lack of your computer and data when you can't pay the bill.... well then... WOW.
Again, just what is so fucking bad about Linux that you bent over, greased up the ol' Hershey Highway, and allowed Microsoft to plow into you?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 14 2018, @06:01PM
I've mentioned that in a sideways manner a couple of times. Basically, Microsoft is going to cache, or "back up" everything on your computer to their own cloud. Sure, you'll have your local cache, but Microsoft will be able to "restore" anything you might lose due to - shall we say "environmental" circumstances?
Supposing that you draft a hateful letter to your spouse, during a nice hateful episode of bickering. Then you delete it. Then - she happens to die some time later. Wanna bet that draft of your hateful letter doesn't surface? For purposes of privacy, we need not even consider how murderous a person you might be, or how the spouse died, or even how long after you drafted that letter, and we certainly need not consider that you and the spouse solved all of your problems after your hateful episode. It only matters that you drafted a hateful letter, then the spouse died. Microsoft will know, and they may well contact your local prosecutor. All without any human intervention, of course, because - ALGORITHMS!!!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 14 2018, @06:02PM (1 child)
Uhh, okay. What software specifically?
The control and data acquisition software for a half million dollar Tinius Olsen tensile testing machine.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 14 2018, @08:21PM
That's not a real reason. When you have equipment worth 50k+ like that you have other problems anyways. It's going to be expensive with the software and drivers, and you have a dedicated machine for it. Your personal machine, or even work machine, can be something other than Windows. I'm not sure how many of those uses cases can even upgrade to Windows 10 with the software and drivers still working. I can see a lot of Win XP still out there, and possibly Windows 7. From experience, you can't run stuff like that in a VM if it requires fine control of equipment over RS232. Virtualizing, or even using USB-to-Serial converters fucks with the connection sufficiently that whatever you are CNC'ng comes out looking terrible (the drives stutter).
Yeah, those specific use cases are more difficult to move to Linux. Especially when small businesses with machines like that have problems affording thousands of dollars for the upgrades. They're subject to a nasty vendor lock-in that doesn't have a light at the end of the tunnel really. If those companies providing the software and drivers were any good at what they do, they could be porting it to Linux as we speak, or FFS, at least Windows 10. Yet, I struggled to get it migrated from Windows XP to Windows 7.
If I had a half million dollar machine it would be an airgapped Windows 7 control machine (hopefully) with no networking connections that we move files to by USB thumb drives. Nobody, whatsoever, would be able to use that dedicated machine for anything other than operating the machine. Creating files for it would be on other systems, and the creation software for those files should run in a VM.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.