3 ms·

It has some qualities of keylogger software and that's the implied context. It may not be and probably isn't a variant of what would one think as classical keyl

It has some qualities of keylogger software and that's the implied context. It may not be and probably isn't a variant of what would one think as classical keylogger (but what do we know, they say they collect keys without explaining at all how they are processed before they are sent) but if it sends every second or every third keystroke or if it sends poorly aggregated statistics that still leak usable entropy in Shannonian sense then that software could rightfully be said to mimic a keylogger.

scholia 10y ago
Think of it this way: Microsoft isn't interested in individual cars, or their occupants, it's interested in traffic flows, and especially in crashes. It's dealing with anonymized, aggregated data, and the dashboards that Microsoft programmers can access look much like Google Analytics. Microsoft wants to know how often people use, say, Notepad, but it has no interest at all in what you write in it. They're doing that to improve the product, in exactly the same was as Google does with Gmail or Facebook does, though I think Windows 10 is a much lower privacy risk than those. Personalization is another step, and you can turn it off. Every major voice recognition and handwriting program has always done this: they create templates (or whatever) that enable them to work better for specific users. Most of that info is held locally anyway. None of this is remotely like a traditional keylogger.
- RaleyField 10y ago
  > Microsoft isn't interested Who knows what's on Microsoft's mind. They are burning bridges by including ads in Windows, by that alone they are (mildly) evil or insane so appeals to what Microsoft wants or is interested in loses meaning because they aren't acting completely rationally. > It's dealing with anonymized, aggregated data Even if I trusted them to not act maliciously I can't trust them to be competent, and there's plenty of historical evidence for that. Either they spew how they aggregate data or I don't trust them for the already mentioned reasons. > you can turn it off. Informed consent is the keyword. They didn't get it for arguably very invasive behavior many informed people would object to. I shouldn't be flying around turning three pages of settings off on my relatives' computers because Windows 10 installed itself or explain lengthily why turning certain settings isn't necessarily in their best interest, that's Microsoft's job and they failed at it.

scholia 10y ago

Think of it this way: Microsoft isn't interested in individual cars, or their occupants, it's interested in traffic flows, and especially in crashes. It's dealing with anonymized, aggregated data, and the dashboards that Microsoft programmers can access look much like Google Analytics. Microsoft wants to know how often people use, say, Notepad, but it has no interest at all in what you write in it. They're doing that to improve the product, in exactly the same was as Google does with Gmail or Facebook does, though I think Windows 10 is a much lower privacy risk than those. Personalization is another step, and you can turn it off. Every major voice recognition and handwriting program has always done this: they create templates (or whatever) that enable them to work better for specific users. Most of that info is held locally anyway. None of this is remotely like a traditional keylogger.

RaleyField 10y ago
> Microsoft isn't interested Who knows what's on Microsoft's mind. They are burning bridges by including ads in Windows, by that alone they are (mildly) evil or insane so appeals to what Microsoft wants or is interested in loses meaning because they aren't acting completely rationally. > It's dealing with anonymized, aggregated data Even if I trusted them to not act maliciously I can't trust them to be competent, and there's plenty of historical evidence for that. Either they spew how they aggregate data or I don't trust them for the already mentioned reasons. > you can turn it off. Informed consent is the keyword. They didn't get it for arguably very invasive behavior many informed people would object to. I shouldn't be flying around turning three pages of settings off on my relatives' computers because Windows 10 installed itself or explain lengthily why turning certain settings isn't necessarily in their best interest, that's Microsoft's job and they failed at it.