Is Windows 10 telemetry a threat to your personal privacy?

[RV_]

Here's the straight poop from Ed Bott, one of the best, and most accurate tech writers out on the Internet. It correlates with my experience. Now this is never intended to try to convince or convert anyone to Windows. But some won't listen or believe and that's OK. Of course the tinfoil hat brigade will still believe Windows is sending telemetry to the saucer people.

 

Excerpt:

 

"Microsoft has built an entirely new telemetry system for its 'Windows as a Service' engineering model. In Windows 10, you can dial data collection back almost to zero, but you can't turn it off completely. Here's why.

 

Yesterday my colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes shared his thoughts on Microsoft's telemetry process, arguing that Microsoft needs to build a data collection 'off switch' into Windows 10. He characterized this suggestion as part of a "privacy brawl" between Microsoft and its customers.

 

The trouble is, Windows 10's telemetry system isn't designed with a simple on-off switch. Instead, it's a series of knobs that go to ... well, you know.

 

The argument for a telemetry kill switch baffles me, as does the implication that telemetry data is inherently at odds with personal privacy.

 

As far as I can tell, that "off switch" already exists, and when it's flipped to the correct position, I believe there's virtually no chance that Windows 10 telemetry information constitutes even a remote privacy issue.

In fact, there are more privacy protections in the telemetry framework for Windows 10 than there were in earlier Windows versions. I described these privacy options several weeks ago, but will repeat that section in its entirety here, because it's worth reading carefully, and because Adrian's post doesn't seem to have considered the privacy protections already available in Windows 10.

 

For Windows 10, Microsoft completely rebuilt its telemetry system. Last year, just in advance of the public launch of the first Windows 10 preview, Mary-Jo Foley wrote an excellent post about these engineering changes, which are at the heart of the "Windows as a Service" model. Here's where telemetry fits in:

 

I've heard Microsoft built a new real-time telemetry system codenamed "Asimov" (yes, another Halo-influenced codename) that lets the OS team see in near real-time what's happening on users' machines. This is how Microsoft may be able to measure how successful the features it "flights" with different user groups are. One of my contacts said Asimov is a system that the Xbox team originally built and used during its development process.

 

That real-time data is exceptionally valuable with Fast Insider builds, where the code is less polished and the whole point of telemetry is to find and fix bugs as quickly as possible.

 

But that data stream continues to be incredibly valuable, both to Microsoft and to the community of Windows 10 users, after the code is released to public branches. In recent years, Microsoft has been criticized for too many releases of defective patches and updates. Here's just one example from around the same time that Microsoft was getting ready to unveil Windows 10.

 

Without telemetry data, this type of problem isn't identified for days or weeks, until the support lines start lighting up and someone notices a pattern. With accurate real-time data about crashes and hangs, Microsoft engineers can spot a problem before it becomes a widespread support issue. There's already at least one high-profile example, published in late September:

 

[J]ust last month ... aggregate data showed us that a particular version of a graphics driver was crashing on some Windows 10 PCs, which then caused a reboot. ... We immediately contacted the partner who builds the driver and worked with them to turn around a fix to Windows Insiders within 24 hours. We used the data on Insiders' devices to confirm that the problem was resolved, and then rolled out the fix to the broad public via an update the next day - all-in-all, this data helped us find, fix and resolve a significant problem within 48 hours.

 

In earlier Windows versions, the telemetry system was known as Windows Error Reporting, which traces its ancestry to the Dr. Watson feature from the earliest days of Windows.

 

Windows Error Reporting was an opt-in feature. In Windows 10, the expanded telemetry system is on by default."

 

He goes on into much more detail in the rest of this article, and well worth the read! Go here: http://www.zdnet.com/article/is-windows-10-telemetry-a-threat-to-your-personal-privacy/?tag=nl.e589&s_cid=e589&ttag=e589&ftag=TREc64629f

[fortytwo]

Saw a news feed tonight that claims that Spybot can create an "off" switch for Windows 10 data to Microsoft. Can anyone confirm that? If so it could make Windows 10 palatable to those, like me, that will never use it otherwise.

[RV_]

I don't use Spybot, haven't for about five years now.

[Ray,IN]

I don't use Spybot, haven't for about five years now.

Derek, I've used Spybot ever since you recommended it to me. I've noticed it identifies many things Windows Defender does not. Is there a reason to NOT use Spybot now?

[RV_]

Ray,

Spybot is OK and was good with the paid antivirus edition back then. But I found my needs met with MSE, then Defender, with the paid for Malwarebytes Premium running real time alongside them on all my systems with lifetime licenses. That combined with CCleaner free gives me all I need. Maybe a review of Spybot today would be helpful to many here. The Malwarebytes Premium and CCleaner do all I need.

 

I also dropped Adaware, Zone Alarm, all registry editors, as CCleaner has one that is fine for once a month after Windows updates registry cleaning and before/after new program installs. I do use Piriform's (CCleaner's company) Speccy as a fast reference for computers I am using/working on/or own. There are lots of other resources I have dropped in favor of clearer or better ones for my uses.

 

I also use some cloud storage and am about to really increase that as I have unlimited photo storage and music storage on Amazon with my Fire 7" HDX tablet. I keep it turned off as it is Android based and phones home. Scratch that. It is getting sold.

 

I don't do scans manually or worry much as between Defender and Malwarebytes, with scheduled scans, and CCleaner used regularly, including once a month with prefetch cleaned too under advanced and only that under advanced checked, I am set. I do have Task Manager pinned to the task bar, so when any weird stuff happens like a drive by may be happening I can force shut down IE quickly and reliably, without clicking on anything in the browser that may be rigged.