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Old June 22nd 18, 06:02 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
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Default How do I turn off Cortana's connection to Bing on the net?

Arlen Holder wrote:
On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 00:03:48 -0400, Paul wrote:

Needless to say, anything typed in Cortana, can be labeled
and sent to Bing, as well as labeled and sent to Vortex,
so it could conceivably be recorded more than once.
But don't expect to find a web page explaining the
(varied on purpose) identifier strings they use.
It's not like you will find an "SSN-like" identifier
stamped on everything. That would be... too simple.


Hi Paul,
Whatever that URL encodes, it's scary enough to want to eliminate it.
I ran a few Cortana searches, where *some* of the numbers are repeated.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=snafu
&form=WNSGPH&qs=SW&cvid=e2aa5a29f880494bad8d5252d1 6927ac&pq=snafu&cc=US&setlang=en-US&nclid=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&ts=15296 38877237&nclidts=1529638877&tsms=158
&form=WNSGPH&qs=SW&cvid=55ba37aea02e455285a1a4fb64 14844e&pq=abcde&cc=US&setlang=en-US&nclid=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&ts=15296 38939480&nclidts=1529638939&tsms=567
&form=WNSGPH&qs=SW&cvid=38c8ea81879748c6bc6ecd8a84 1028f2&pq=fghij&cc=US&setlang=en-US&nclid=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&ts=15296 38980492&nclidts=1529638980&tsms=386
&form=WNSGPH&qs=SW&cvid=d1df059135a84a4cb4542a8edd 409a60&pq=klmno&cc=US&setlang=en-US&nclid=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&ts=15296 42409972&nclidts=1529642409&tsms=897

Notice that the WNSGPH is some kind of browser keyword
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1094852
https://pastebin.com/REGm8FyV

And notice that the xxx'd-out identifier is the *same* on every search!
(My guess is that's a unique fingerprint for every single machine!)


If you like numbers, in an Administrator Command Prompt try

slmgr /dlv

which gives the OS license status. In it, is a UniqueID for
the installation itself.

And for at least some of that info, they obfuscate the
format to make registry searches harder. For example, the
OS license key, isn't stored as 25 letters. There's a
kind of string compression scheme. Someone of course
figured it out, which is why there is MagicJellyBean and
so on. There was no crypto on that one.

So while you could try searching for some of those
strings in the /dlv output, don't be surprised if
you can't find them in Regedit.

Paul
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