On Sun, 03 Jun 2018 03:35:46 -0400, Paul wrote:

What hope do you think they have, against a determined adversary ?
Microsoft is a determined adversary, with the resources to counter
anything they throw at Windows.

I haven't posted because it took me DAYS to recover from using Spybot
Anti-Beacon because I couldn't log into my system after I tweaked the
settings in my attempt to disable Cortana-to-net access.

So I won't be touching Spybot Anti-Beacon ever again.
I'm sure it's good stuff - but it's like using a chainsaw in the registry.

Microsoft could also be "data mining" social media, including
USENET. So if you "discovered a way to block X", keep it to yourself
until you can hand it off to someone who can apply the info.

One thing I learned from all my attempts is that it seems you are correct
that Microsoft is blocking, one by one, all the methods it knows about to
disable the Cortana-to-Internet search.