Windows 10 China Government Edition allows to control encryption and telemetry | Hacker News Reader

Windows 10 China Government Edition allows to control encryption and telemetry

betanews.com

40 pointsdaenney18 comments

So the Chinese governments gets the privacy and security controls we want, but we don't get to turn any of this off?

This looks like the most dystopian cyberpunk global corporate state-- mass surveillance for the masses, privacy and security opt-outs for the elite and governments.

No kidding. What about US customers that want "to manage all telemetry and updates"?

You're a captive audience, China is the next billion.

From the article ... "The Windows 10 China Government Edition is based on Windows 10 Enterprise Edition".

AFAIK the option to control telemetry was always there for Enterprise Edition.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/confi...

"IT pros can use various methods, including Group Policy and Mobile Device Management (MDM), to choose a telemetry level. If you’re using Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, or Windows Server 2016, the Security telemetry level is available when managing the policy. Setting the telemetry level through policy overrides users’ choices."

> AFAIK the option to control telemetry was always there for Enterprise Edition.

From what I've read, it doesn't work.

https://twitter.com/m8urnett/status/866353982217699328

> AFAIK the option to control telemetry was always there for Enterprise Edition.

( ) A lot

( ) All of it

https://xato.net/windows-spying-and-a-twitter-rant-19203babb...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12959097

Yes, and I think it's a great thing. The masses need to be spied on, and I don't think it even needs to be a secret. But the funny part is that it's completely voluntary. You can opt-out any time you want, by simply abandoning Windows and choosing an alternative OS. But almost no one is going to do that; they're just going to keep using Windows with its spyware and then complaining about it like you do here.

Maybe abandoning Windows is not easy. Cannot the problem be solved by blocking all Microsoft's networks with a firewall? Except for skype there is nothing useful anyway.

>Maybe abandoning Windows is not easy.

The best things in life don't come easy.

Isn't Skype in china done through a JV?

> Windows had been banned from Chinese government computers in 2014 amid concerns about security and US surveillance.

Really? Which ones? I see Windows running in the police station, DMV, ... "Government" is a quite broad term.

What do they use instead? Ubuntu Kylin or their internally developed Linux?

I'd imagine the ban was much more of a political stick to bring Microsoft to heel than an actual change in policy.

In short though: thanks, NSA, for providing exactly the argument authoritarian nations around the world were looking for in order to meddle with US software.

Reportedly starting with Windows 8:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/china...

http://thediplomat.com/2014/05/why-china-banned-windows-8/

Maybe you can get a better understanding/verify from the original Chinese source:

http://www.zycg.gov.cn/article/show/242846

Yeah, that last report specifically refers to Windows 8, in the context of energy savings (typical Chinese style, but still a mention of Windows 8, so I guess the Windows XPs, 7s and 10s would not fall under this).

Anyway, lot of generalization going on from the original article without clear grasp on the specifics in the field in China, as always.

pretty sure they meant the new version of Windows available at the time of ban, not the WXP powering half of China

They use Windows because that is the platform which a vast majority of software is written for.

Excellent! Where can I get my copy?

> Lenovo will be among the first OEMs to provide hardware with Windows 10 China Government Edition preinstalled.

eBay?

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