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posted by cmn32480 on Friday August 28 2015, @10:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the time-for-port-mirroring dept.

With the release of Windows 10 there have been serious privacy concerns raised as to what data Windows is sending home to mommy and daddy. Much of this could be called benign data leakage for your average user (location information for a map, search information, etc) but it has been hinted that even disabling these features doesn't prevent data being sent from your computer. This is also true for Android, iOS devices, browsers, browser plugins, and software registration / update tools. Even a vanilla Linux or BSD install may be sending out information you aren't aware of. If you haven't checked, you don't know.

Firing up a packet monitor is fairly easy on the host OS and a decent firewall / gateway can dump all the packets from a local network. Assuming the majority of data you would be concerned about leaking out is encrypted, is there an easy way for an owner to decrypt it to see what is actually being sent out? Are there groups conducting this type of analysis and publishing their results with any level of detail?


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday August 29 2015, @12:25AM

    by frojack (1554) on Saturday August 29 2015, @12:25AM (#229257) Journal

    Because most of the noise about Windows 10 privacy is FUD. (most, not all).

    That remains to be seen.
    It won't take that long until some reports start filtering out, because hackers have much more sophisticated tools these days.
    Eventually these packets will be tracked right down to the section of binary dlls responsible and de-compiled.

    The thing is, with Microsoft refusing to say much of anything, they are just setting themselves up to be bitch slapped by some judge, either in the US or the
    EU. It would be far cheaper for them to specify exactly what and when and where data is sen't from your computer. They will have to do so sooner or later anyway, so they might as well get in front of it.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by lentilla on Saturday August 29 2015, @01:23AM

    by lentilla (1770) on Saturday August 29 2015, @01:23AM (#229281)

    It would be far cheaper for them to specify exactly what and when and where data is sen't from your computer.

    It's possible they don't actually know. Were I Microsoft, I'd be hesitant to make a definitive statement about data was being transferred - just in case I got it wrong. Besides, saying nothing allows future "flexibility" - and it's harder to down a moving target.