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Comment by deadalus | Hacker News Reader

First thing to do after installing Windows 11 : Disable Telemetry

I've rarely ever seen any discussion of Windows Telemetry actually discuss how it violates their privacy.

Is it not possible that the telemetry exists only to collect data on how to improve software? Do we know it's being used for advertising?

There are other risks than advertising/privacy. They can for instance analyse what applications from other vendors are frequently used and build in alternatives.

Do we know it’s not? Is it illegal for them to switch to using it for advertising in the future?

What I know is that they collect huge amounts of data and we don’t have protections on how that can be used.

And what that means is that it comes down to trust. And anyone who trusts Microsoft (or any of the tech giants) is naive or uninformed/ignorant.

It has become quite clear that user data is the goldrush that the majority of the world's biggest tech companies are feverishly mining. Whether they sell it today (advertising) or not is the smallest concern compared to a myriad of society-harming ways that it could be used in the future. A company like MS could sit on your data for a decade and then decide that can get away with far more data abuse than they could today. It seems like a good bet that the ways that our data can be used will continue to expand. We probably can just watch the tea leaves of China to see what our data use future looks like. How long will it be until we have a social credit system like China's?

>actually discuss how it violates their privacy

The privacy violation is the collection itself.

Unwanted surveillance is itself something that many of us object to. For example, I run uBlock Origin to reduce tracking, not because I think ads are evil.

If you want your software improved, open source it, and people will post gitlab issues. We all saw what happened with MS Calculator. It was a successful experiment.

They will never do this in areas where that would threaten their vendor lock-in.

Even if that was the case, and that there was no way to use the data to harm me, and it wouldn't be used to make a bland user experience, why take the risk?

Personally I don't care what it's used for. I just don't want it :)

We live in a hell world if we need to take extra steps to NOT be spied by your operating system

Already here - I’ve had windows 10 auto updates re-enable it at least 3 times over the years. I’ve given up frankly. It’s really crazy they get away with it.

Windows 10 still respects the Group Policy on Windows Update . If you’re on Home edition, there’s a powershell script that can enable gpedit for you.

I use WPD to block and disable it all. There's a lot more than a few settings to change.

Can all of it be disabled? Can you point to how?

Thank you for mentioning this program. I didn't know it exists, and I just downloaded it and ran it, and everything was set to enabled. I thought I had opted out of spying when I upgraded Windows 7 to 10.

Then don't use Windows.

If you aren't happy with Apple's telemetry, then use Linux.

If you aren't happy with bug reporting tools remove it.

Indeed. Regular people I get but developers voluntarily using it make no sense. But UI, but telemetry, but appl... As if there are no viable options out there

I'm glad the standard we hold ourselves to is to just not use shitty products that spy on their users instead of expecting/requiring them to be better

Their QA process is based around their telemetry.

They're not going to change it.

Also exaggerating by saying "spy on their users" is just misrepresentative.

And muddies the water when discussing actual spying on users computers.

It's also an exaggeration to say that they have QA process. They keep shipping faulty updates again and again.

It's not really a quality assurance process anymore if you wait for things to go wrong in the field. More like a quality remediation process.

It is near impossible. There are probably in excess of 30 or more group policy settings that would be needed to try to disable it. Even something as simple as signing into the Microsoft Store seems to enable additional telemetry like sending app launches to your Microsoft account history.

Did you check your firewall logs to see if it actually disabled it?

Best way to thoroughly block all telemetry on Windows is actually the built in firewall. Just block all outgoing connections and only enable them for your browser and whatever else you need.

According to a tcpdump running on the host of a Windows VM this blocks absolutely everything, even connections originating from kernel drivers. I tested this with LTSC though, so YMMV.

And then update your software because you need security updates. And then disable telemetry again. And then update your software again. And then disable telemetry again. And then update software again. And then disable telemetry again. And then install Linux and never install Windows ever again.

I have since relegated to totally disabling Windows update due to this. As a bonus, my PC stays the same way, goes to sleep and stays asleep as expected without new unexpected features clogging my desktop every month.

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