4 ms·

You could set up the proxy for (not Microsoft) web browser on your router and disallow all the traffic forwarding other than going via that proxy.

by snaky 8y ago

wolfgke 8y ago
See chapter 3 of the linked German paper > https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/BSI/Cyber-Sicherheit/SiSyPHus/Analyse_Telemetriekomponente.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/BSI/Cyber-Si... for other suggestions. The variant with an HTTP proxy is described in section 3.2.1.
- snaky 8y ago
  As far as I can tell, what they do with proxy is 'allow all, disallow telemetry' policy. That's not what seem to work reliably, because Microsoft is free to change everything at any second, and the 'telemetry' list is moving target. What I'm talking about is 'disallow all, allow the traffic from Firefox only' basically.
  - wolfgke 8y ago
    > That's not what seem to work reliably, because Microsoft is free to change everything at any second, and the 'telemetry' list is moving target. Principally, you are right. But keep in mind that the paper refers to Windows 10 LTSB 1607. It would surprise me a lot if Microsoft changed the telemetry servers for a Long Term Servicing Branch release.
    - snaky 8y ago
      A couple of years ago, I would agree with you, considering the fact that enterprise customers with volume licenses and huge investments in Microsoft infrastructure are bread and butter for Microsoft, and the foundation of that is trust between those enterprise customers with platinum support contracts and Microsoft. But nowadays I don't know. Microsoft is moving to Azure and 'freemium' data-collecting based business so fast, and breaking so many things. Anyway, the 'disallow all, allow only Firefox' have additional benefits in that it's prevents any 3rd party software from phoning home or something worse. The obvious downside might be the inability of those 3rd party software to auto-update itself.

You could set up the proxy for (not Microsoft) web browser on your router and disallow all the traffic forwarding other than going via that proxy.

by snaky 8y ago

You could set up the proxy for (not Microsoft) web browser on your router and disallow all the traffic forwarding other than going via that proxy.

wolfgke 8y ago

See chapter 3 of the linked German paper > https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/BSI/Cyber-Sicherheit/SiSyPHus/Analyse_Telemetriekomponente.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/BSI/Cyber-Si... for other suggestions. The variant with an HTTP proxy is described in section 3.2.1.

snaky 8y ago
As far as I can tell, what they do with proxy is 'allow all, disallow telemetry' policy. That's not what seem to work reliably, because Microsoft is free to change everything at any second, and the 'telemetry' list is moving target. What I'm talking about is 'disallow all, allow the traffic from Firefox only' basically.
- wolfgke 8y ago
  > That's not what seem to work reliably, because Microsoft is free to change everything at any second, and the 'telemetry' list is moving target. Principally, you are right. But keep in mind that the paper refers to Windows 10 LTSB 1607. It would surprise me a lot if Microsoft changed the telemetry servers for a Long Term Servicing Branch release.
  - snaky 8y ago
    A couple of years ago, I would agree with you, considering the fact that enterprise customers with volume licenses and huge investments in Microsoft infrastructure are bread and butter for Microsoft, and the foundation of that is trust between those enterprise customers with platinum support contracts and Microsoft. But nowadays I don't know. Microsoft is moving to Azure and 'freemium' data-collecting based business so fast, and breaking so many things. Anyway, the 'disallow all, allow only Firefox' have additional benefits in that it's prevents any 3rd party software from phoning home or something worse. The obvious downside might be the inability of those 3rd party software to auto-update itself.