New laptop helps MS spying on us - Page 3

storm5510 · 2020-05-15, 00:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by chalsall

...Perhaps someone who uses Windows 10 could enlighten us all on how to minimize telemetry from the Settings interface? (Literally, where do I click?)...

I had to do some searching in the settings for this. I never knew how wide open Windows 10 was until now.

Click the start menu. On the left, near the bottom, is an icon which looks like a gear. Hovering over that causes a fly-out to appear. In there is "Settings" Open it. Another windows will appear. Find "Privacy" and open it. Down the far-left side should be "Diagnostics and feedback." Go down that page a bit and find "Delete Diagnostic Data." Click the button below. There is a short explanation there. The next item down is "Feedback Frequency." A popup menu has the options. "Never" is what I just selected.

The diagnostic data collection cannot be fully disabled from there; the first item at the top. It can only be switched to "Basic." Having some I/T experience, I suspect there may be something in "Group Policy." I will have to hunt for it. Note: Group Policy is not something to be experimented with. One wrong selection can lead to a major problem in the OS.

Prime95 · 2020-05-15, 02:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by retina

Blocking DNS requests to all the myriad of MS sites is difficult because there are so many names to find. Plus MS also has a collection of hard-coded IP address which they use without any DNS lookup, so good luck finding all those IPs. Plus the outrageous practice of bypassing your locally installed firewall and going directly to the network means you need external equipment to block the stuff.

I've got pi-hole installed, but I wonder if Windows will switch to another DNS internally after repeated failures through mine.

Any suggestions of an easy-to-install linux firewall (and rules) to further thwart Windows spying.

retina · 2020-05-15, 03:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prime95

I've got pi-hole installed, but I wonder if Windows will switch to another DNS internally after repeated failures through mine.

There is no knowing what it might do. With DNS-over-HTTPS capability you might never see the DNS requests.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prime95

Any suggestions of an easy-to-install linux firewall (and rules) to further thwart Windows spying.

This sounds rather trite, but the only real advice is not to play the game at all. MS doesn't publish any list of IP addresses or DNS names it uses. And even if you find a list somewhere that someone has compiled it changes frequently.

Citrix · 2020-05-15, 04:37

The data collection can be turned off.

https://blogs.systweak.com/how-to-di...in-windows-10/

kladner · 2020-05-15, 15:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citrix

The data collection can be turned off.

https://blogs.systweak.com/how-to-di...in-windows-10/

Thank you!

retina · 2020-05-15, 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citrix

The data collection can be turned off.

https://blogs.systweak.com/how-to-di...in-windows-10/

If only it were really that easy. People still believe these options actually work, but they don't.

S485122 · 2020-05-15, 17:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by retina

If only it were really that easy. People still believe these options actually work, but they don't.

Setting AllowTelemetry to 0 will have no effect if one doesn't have the Enterprise version of W10, it will revert to Basic.
And the content of your disk is indexed by Bing and the help also sends one to Bing (since 1903 or so.)
Group Policy might help, there is also some work in the Task Scheduler, and so on.

But quite a lot of programs do telemetry (Firefox f.i.)

Jacob

A by-effect : only savvy users turn off telemetry, which means that the input for the "developers comes from "basic" (uncaring ?) users only.

chalsall · 2020-05-15, 18:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by retina

This sounds rather trite, but the only real advice is not to play the game at all.

Indeed.

I haven't sat at a Winblows workstation since Win 3.1, and that was just to download Slackware...

Unfortunately, some of us have to support those who just have to be on Windoze...

P.S. My misspelling of Windows is meant to be taken sarcastically towards the product, not its users. Read: no offense intended; it's just a little ribbing...

rogue · 2020-05-15, 18:29

Hmmm. One of the linked pages says "Allow Telemetry", but I also see "AllowTelemetry" (no space). Which is it? I would think that the one without a space is more likely to be correct because I don't frequently see registry keys with spaces. But I wouldn't be surprised if whatever we see on the Internet is not correct as M$ is doing a lot to hide what the OS is doing under the covers WRT data collection.

storm5510 · 2020-05-15, 23:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citrix

The data collection can be turned off.

https://blogs.systweak.com/how-to-di...in-windows-10/

Many thanks. I created the registry key. They do not need to know what everyone is doing. I wonder what their concept of telemetry is?

garo · 2020-05-17, 17:11

Hmm on Win 7 there is an option Customer Experience Improvement Program which I found disabled. Windows probably asked me when it installed the relevant update and I reflexively answered no. Went through all the other services and saw a diagnostics tracking service which I switched off but nothing else that was apparent. Thanks for raising this issue. Will get to the SO's Win 10 computers to switch off telemetry on them as well.

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2020-05-15, 04:37	#26
Citrix Jun 2003 2·7·113 Posts	The data collection can be turned off. https://blogs.systweak.com/how-to-di...in-windows-10/

2020-05-15, 18:29	#31
rogue "Mark" Apr 2003 Between here and the 11×577 Posts	Hmmm. One of the linked pages says "Allow Telemetry", but I also see "AllowTelemetry" (no space). Which is it? I would think that the one without a space is more likely to be correct because I don't frequently see registry keys with spaces. But I wouldn't be surprised if whatever we see on the Internet is not correct as M$ is doing a lot to hide what the OS is doing under the covers WRT data collection.

2020-05-17, 17:11	#33
garo Aug 2002 Termonfeckin, IE 2²·691 Posts	Hmm on Win 7 there is an option Customer Experience Improvement Program which I found disabled. Windows probably asked me when it installed the relevant update and I reflexively answered no. Went through all the other services and saw a diagnostics tracking service which I switched off but nothing else that was apparent. Thanks for raising this issue. Will get to the SO's Win 10 computers to switch off telemetry on them as well.