3 ms·

Anyone feeling tempted to play the Devil’s advocate here? :)

by cpach 4y ago

sdflhasjd 4y ago
The numbers on their own are a meaningless metric, most of these are just CDN IPs for windows updates, and CRL IPs.
Gigachad 4y ago
IP address and domain name count mean nothing. Why would you care if windows pinged 1 Microsoft domain vs 20,000. If they are all controlled by the same entity and send the same data, these numbers mean nothing.
- rob_c 4y ago
  Ok so if we all send data to azure it's safe or to ovh that's just fine. It's not terrifying but it does reveal the scale, this isn't a licence check against something like genuine.microsoft.com this is a completely different scale all together
longcat 4y ago
As someone who works within an operations team, the telemetry that is seen within MEM/365 is extremely useful for detecting issues and providing overall health of the environment. While MS does not help itself with some of the more invasive tactics, some of the telemetry is super valuable in detecting issues with drivers, updates and many other things. Even the episode of MS08-067 https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/57/ https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/57/ has some interest bits on early telemetry.
nokya 4y ago
I will. I am actually glad that the OS interacts with many different hosts. This allows me to set up fine-grained rules to prevent specific communication channels. The real information I am missing here is which ones should be left reachable to ensure proper maintenance of the OS. Having a small number of hosts and smaller number of queries would likely result in a worse situation: queries would be impossible to filter because filtering 1 host would likely break too many things. Also, in terms of telemetry, I consider Microsoft to be the disabled child in the classroom. I am sincerely convinced they have absolutely not the skills nor the vision to turn the data they collect into a process that could be personally harmful to me. Google and Apple, on the other side, specialize in employing engineers and product managers that have absolutely no concern to privacy. Their only constraint is to make sure whatever they do is lawful, which is, in my opinion, the worst way a company should behave. Until today, I haven't seen Microsoft do anything worrying except showing traces of telemetry collection in my router logs.
- pmoriarty 4y ago
  "I am sincerely convinced they have absolutely not the skills nor the vision to turn the data they collect into a process that could be personally harmful to me." Never underestimate your enemy.

Anyone feeling tempted to play the Devil’s advocate here? :)

by cpach 4y ago

Anyone feeling tempted to play the Devil’s advocate here? :)

sdflhasjd 4y ago

The numbers on their own are a meaningless metric, most of these are just CDN IPs for windows updates, and CRL IPs.

Gigachad 4y ago

IP address and domain name count mean nothing. Why would you care if windows pinged 1 Microsoft domain vs 20,000. If they are all controlled by the same entity and send the same data, these numbers mean nothing.

rob_c 4y ago
Ok so if we all send data to azure it's safe or to ovh that's just fine. It's not terrifying but it does reveal the scale, this isn't a licence check against something like genuine.microsoft.com this is a completely different scale all together

longcat 4y ago

As someone who works within an operations team, the telemetry that is seen within MEM/365 is extremely useful for detecting issues and providing overall health of the environment. While MS does not help itself with some of the more invasive tactics, some of the telemetry is super valuable in detecting issues with drivers, updates and many other things. Even the episode of MS08-067 https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/57/ https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/57/ has some interest bits on early telemetry.

nokya 4y ago

I will. I am actually glad that the OS interacts with many different hosts. This allows me to set up fine-grained rules to prevent specific communication channels. The real information I am missing here is which ones should be left reachable to ensure proper maintenance of the OS. Having a small number of hosts and smaller number of queries would likely result in a worse situation: queries would be impossible to filter because filtering 1 host would likely break too many things. Also, in terms of telemetry, I consider Microsoft to be the disabled child in the classroom. I am sincerely convinced they have absolutely not the skills nor the vision to turn the data they collect into a process that could be personally harmful to me. Google and Apple, on the other side, specialize in employing engineers and product managers that have absolutely no concern to privacy. Their only constraint is to make sure whatever they do is lawful, which is, in my opinion, the worst way a company should behave. Until today, I haven't seen Microsoft do anything worrying except showing traces of telemetry collection in my router logs.

pmoriarty 4y ago
"I am sincerely convinced they have absolutely not the skills nor the vision to turn the data they collect into a process that could be personally harmful to me." Never underestimate your enemy.