david brooks (Devon) The stalker at work....

On Sat, 25 Feb 2017 11:17:43 +0000
"David B." wrote:

On 25/02/2017 10:48, John Corliss wrote:
R wrote:
John Corliss wrote:

That is, unless it can't block W10's hard-coded IPs and ports.

Otherwise, it even works with XP:

http://www.ghacks.net/2017/02/22/net-disabler/

Program is he

http://www.sordum.org/9660/net-disab...8+%28Sordum%29

or:

http://tinyurl.com/zuz3k5p

At the risk of starting a firestorm

Pretty obvious after reading your post that this is *exactly* what
you intended.

- has anyone any evidence that shows MS
is actually compromising the security of your systems or your
privacy that would require actions to stop the transmission of
system status? I have a pfSense firewall at one of my clients as
well as WireShark setup on a test system and have trapped the
outgoing traffic (encrypted) to specific locations with Ireland,
Hong Kong and Amsterdam being some of the MS server locations as I
recall. I believe my total IP list was near 20 IP addresses.

I did this months back when I was testing this myth of
security/privacy being compromised.

Amount of proof you've provided that it's a myth = 0 (zero).

The frequency can be reduced by disabling specific
settings or uninstalling apps but blocking the IP's only made the
phoning home attempts increase since it's not able to get the
handshake done with the server. Something that would only go out
perhaps once a day was now forced to keep trying many times per
minute using up system resources.

You can turn off most of the reporting but then you lose the
capabilities of some of the useful apps.

Useful only in your opinion. People's needs vary. To violate every
W10 end user's privacy on the off chance that they may use such
"apps" (the correct word being _APPLICATIONS_ on a computer or
maybe utilities, not "apps"*) is just plain wrong. By default,
telemetry should be turned off and then if a person uses any such
"app", the first time they start it is the time to ask if they want
to give up privacy, and only enough to serve the needs of that
"app". To do otherwise (as M$ is indeed doing) gives away
Microsoft's true, duplicitous character.

*From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/app#Noun , the following:

app (plural apps)

1. (computing, mobile telephony) An application (program),
especially a small one designed for a mobile device.
2. (informal) appetizer
3. (military) application (not a computer program)
4. (sports) an appearance in a game (e.g., a player with 10 apps
in a season played 10 times)

I certainly understand the concern but I have yet
to read a single report from any security firm or on-line blogs
(Krebs on Security, Paul Thurrott, Windows Secrets, etc..) that
say privacy or personal data was being compromised.

Privacy and personal data are compromised the second they're
violated by telemetry. Once such information gathering occurs, you
have no control over how that data is used. You have to take the
word of M$ and that's the issue here.

Do you, or do you not, believe the word of a corporation which (IMO)
bailed itself out of monopoly charges by (again, IMO) making an
agreement with the United Stated Department of "Justice"?

https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/

The original version of that document was 45 pages long.

No, M$ has no credibility IMO. They're motivated by profit and
backed by the government.

Since I couldn't unencrypt the data
stream going out, I can't say what the data is but if you're using
Cortana, then yes, what you say is being sent to their servers but
it is encrypted.

Then ask yourself: why would it NEED to be encrypted if it doesn't
contain anything which would be of concern?

Not being a fan boy for Windows but in my limited experience I
can't think of how any company that makes an operating system (OS,
Android, Chrome, Linux or whatever) can not make updates and
patches without knowing what problems need fixing.

Perhaps you meant "can (remove the word "not") make updates and
patches without knowing what problems need fixing."

As for that, there's a little thing called "customer feedback",
which M$ is notorious for ignoring rather than encouraging.

If they stopped the phoning home, within 3 months
everyone would be screaming at them because they didn't get an
update to a zero-day attack or some bug fix.

Yes, that's the excuse they use for their telemetry all right.
Funny how earlier version of Windows without telemetry managed to
avoid that kind of thing.

Besides, this doesn't have anything to do with what they may or may
not be actually using the data for. You would have to be able to
prove that one of the two largest software companies in America
doesn't cooperate with the NSA, CIA, FBI, Department of Fatherland
Security, and the rest of the alphabet soup police state agencies
running amok in the United States. But you can't do that.
Admittedly, I can't prove that they do either, but gambling that
they don't is sheer lunacy.

Yes Microsoft keeps the data just as Apple and Google do.

That, that is exactly what's in question here. *Do* they keep it
_OR_ (far more likely) do they share it with the government?

If you can't accept the OS license or their privacy policies then
use something else.

*groan* Old snarks like that old one reflect poorly on you. Next
you'll drag out the old "tin hat" one or start calling people Nazis.

You know perfectly well how limited the options are out there.
That's like saying to a starving person as you hand them a moldy
slice of bread that you just ****ed on, "Don't like it? Then go eat
something else!"

Oh yeah - anyone use a phone provider that doesn't keep a record
of your phone calls and just exactly how long do they keep your
digital phone call metadata?

Personally, I don't use cell phones. Never have even owned one. And
never will. However, I (along with increasingly more and more
people) am very, very careful what I say on the phone.

How about that shopping card you use at the grocery stores - use
it and they know everything you purchased.

Only if a person is stupid enough to provide them with their
information when they get the card. Personally, I never use
shopping cards *precisely* because they allow tracking of purchases.

How about your credit cards....?

Don't use them, never have. Never have even had one. Never have
applied for one either. Don't even have a checking account, never
have. Never will.

Downsides and benefits to all of those.

For lazy sheeple.

And all those *free* software apps we use. How many of those are
phoning home after they have scrapped

"scraped".

your system of data used to monetize that free software?

And how, exactly, would they be monetizing that free software by
gathering and collecting info?

That's what firewalls are for. And if they operate at a kernal level
(like MS's programming for hard coded ports and IP addresses), then
they get tagged as malware by any number of anti-malware services
and programs.

If you have any real evidence, please post back with the proof.

Evidence? Evidence of what? Oh, that's right:

"- has anyone any evidence that shows MS is actually compromising
the security of your systems or your privacy that would require
actions to stop the transmission of system status?"

No, YOU post back with any proof that M$ keeps the data they gather
secure, doesn't share it with Amerika's government.

Note: like any other large corporation, M$'s word doesn't hold
water.

One more thing.... There's an old argument concerning the police
state out there which goes:

"If you don't have anything to hide, then you don't have anything to
worry about."

There are numerous claims out on the internet that there's no
effective argument against that statement.

Well I have one. You may not have anything to hide right now, but
there's no guarantee that in the future you won't. Especially as
freedom grows more and more eroded by excessive lawmaking.

Thank you for giving us an insight into your character and
philosophy, John.

I don't know WHY you worry so much, especially as everything about
you is already freely available on-line!

https://www.mylife.com/john-corliss/john_corliss

You have a great day! :-)

On 25/02/2017 12:02, burfordTjustice wrote:
On Sat, 25 Feb 2017 11:17:43 +0000
"David B." wrote:

On 25/02/2017 10:48, John Corliss wrote:
R wrote:
John Corliss wrote:

That is, unless it can't block W10's hard-coded IPs and ports.

Otherwise, it even works with XP:

http://www.ghacks.net/2017/02/22/net-disabler/

Program is he

http://www.sordum.org/9660/net-disab...8+%28Sordum%29

or:

http://tinyurl.com/zuz3k5p

At the risk of starting a firestorm

Pretty obvious after reading your post that this is *exactly* what
you intended.

- has anyone any evidence that shows MS
is actually compromising the security of your systems or your
privacy that would require actions to stop the transmission of
system status? I have a pfSense firewall at one of my clients as
well as WireShark setup on a test system and have trapped the
outgoing traffic (encrypted) to specific locations with Ireland,
Hong Kong and Amsterdam being some of the MS server locations as I
recall. I believe my total IP list was near 20 IP addresses.

I did this months back when I was testing this myth of
security/privacy being compromised.

Amount of proof you've provided that it's a myth = 0 (zero).

The frequency can be reduced by disabling specific
settings or uninstalling apps but blocking the IP's only made the
phoning home attempts increase since it's not able to get the
handshake done with the server. Something that would only go out
perhaps once a day was now forced to keep trying many times per
minute using up system resources.

You can turn off most of the reporting but then you lose the
capabilities of some of the useful apps.

Useful only in your opinion. People's needs vary. To violate every
W10 end user's privacy on the off chance that they may use such
"apps" (the correct word being _APPLICATIONS_ on a computer or
maybe utilities, not "apps"*) is just plain wrong. By default,
telemetry should be turned off and then if a person uses any such
"app", the first time they start it is the time to ask if they want
to give up privacy, and only enough to serve the needs of that
"app". To do otherwise (as M$ is indeed doing) gives away
Microsoft's true, duplicitous character.

*From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/app#Noun , the following:

app (plural apps)

1. (computing, mobile telephony) An application (program),
especially a small one designed for a mobile device.
2. (informal) appetizer
3. (military) application (not a computer program)
4. (sports) an appearance in a game (e.g., a player with 10 apps
in a season played 10 times)

I certainly understand the concern but I have yet
to read a single report from any security firm or on-line blogs
(Krebs on Security, Paul Thurrott, Windows Secrets, etc..) that
say privacy or personal data was being compromised.

Privacy and personal data are compromised the second they're
violated by telemetry. Once such information gathering occurs, you
have no control over how that data is used. You have to take the
word of M$ and that's the issue here.

Do you, or do you not, believe the word of a corporation which (IMO)
bailed itself out of monopoly charges by (again, IMO) making an
agreement with the United Stated Department of "Justice"?

https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/

The original version of that document was 45 pages long.

No, M$ has no credibility IMO. They're motivated by profit and
backed by the government.

Since I couldn't unencrypt the data
stream going out, I can't say what the data is but if you're using
Cortana, then yes, what you say is being sent to their servers but
it is encrypted.

Then ask yourself: why would it NEED to be encrypted if it doesn't
contain anything which would be of concern?

Not being a fan boy for Windows but in my limited experience I
can't think of how any company that makes an operating system (OS,
Android, Chrome, Linux or whatever) can not make updates and
patches without knowing what problems need fixing.

Perhaps you meant "can (remove the word "not") make updates and
patches without knowing what problems need fixing."

As for that, there's a little thing called "customer feedback",
which M$ is notorious for ignoring rather than encouraging.

If they stopped the phoning home, within 3 months
everyone would be screaming at them because they didn't get an
update to a zero-day attack or some bug fix.

Yes, that's the excuse they use for their telemetry all right.
Funny how earlier version of Windows without telemetry managed to
avoid that kind of thing.

Besides, this doesn't have anything to do with what they may or may
not be actually using the data for. You would have to be able to
prove that one of the two largest software companies in America
doesn't cooperate with the NSA, CIA, FBI, Department of Fatherland
Security, and the rest of the alphabet soup police state agencies
running amok in the United States. But you can't do that.
Admittedly, I can't prove that they do either, but gambling that
they don't is sheer lunacy.

Yes Microsoft keeps the data just as Apple and Google do.

That, that is exactly what's in question here. *Do* they keep it
_OR_ (far more likely) do they share it with the government?

If you can't accept the OS license or their privacy policies then
use something else.

*groan* Old snarks like that old one reflect poorly on you. Next
you'll drag out the old "tin hat" one or start calling people Nazis.

You know perfectly well how limited the options are out there.
That's like saying to a starving person as you hand them a moldy
slice of bread that you just ****ed on, "Don't like it? Then go eat
something else!"

Oh yeah - anyone use a phone provider that doesn't keep a record
of your phone calls and just exactly how long do they keep your
digital phone call metadata?

Personally, I don't use cell phones. Never have even owned one. And
never will. However, I (along with increasingly more and more
people) am very, very careful what I say on the phone.

How about that shopping card you use at the grocery stores - use
it and they know everything you purchased.

Only if a person is stupid enough to provide them with their
information when they get the card. Personally, I never use
shopping cards *precisely* because they allow tracking of purchases.

How about your credit cards....?

Don't use them, never have. Never have even had one. Never have
applied for one either. Don't even have a checking account, never
have. Never will.

Downsides and benefits to all of those.

For lazy sheeple.

And all those *free* software apps we use. How many of those are
phoning home after they have scrapped

"scraped".

your system of data used to monetize that free software?

And how, exactly, would they be monetizing that free software by
gathering and collecting info?

That's what firewalls are for. And if they operate at a kernal level
(like MS's programming for hard coded ports and IP addresses), then
they get tagged as malware by any number of anti-malware services
and programs.

If you have any real evidence, please post back with the proof.

Evidence? Evidence of what? Oh, that's right:

"- has anyone any evidence that shows MS is actually compromising
the security of your systems or your privacy that would require
actions to stop the transmission of system status?"

No, YOU post back with any proof that M$ keeps the data they gather
secure, doesn't share it with Amerika's government.

Note: like any other large corporation, M$'s word doesn't hold
water.

One more thing.... There's an old argument concerning the police
state out there which goes:

"If you don't have anything to hide, then you don't have anything to
worry about."

There are numerous claims out on the internet that there's no
effective argument against that statement.

Well I have one. You may not have anything to hide right now, but
there's no guarantee that in the future you won't. Especially as
freedom grows more and more eroded by excessive lawmaking.

Thank you for giving us an insight into your character and
philosophy, John.

I don't know WHY you worry so much, especially as everything about
you is already freely available on-line!

https://www.mylife.com/john-corliss/john_corliss

You have a great day! :-)

Not really. John was easy to find. ;-)

--
"Do something wonderful, people may imitate it." (Albert Schweitzer)

On Sat, 25 Feb 2017 12:49:27 +0000
"David B." wrote:

From: "David B."
Subject: Brilliant investigator!
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2017 12:49:27 +0000
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Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.7.1
Newsgroups:
alt.comp.freeware,alt.politics.scorched-earth,alt.computer.workshop,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.windows7.general
Organization: blocknews - www.blocknews.net

snip horse **** from the stalker.

..
--
"Do something wonderful, people may imitate it." (Albert Schweitzer)