6 ms·

> then described domains as if that is meaningful in itself It would be one thing if it was all MSFT domains, but scorecardresearch.com is pretty terrifying fr

> then described domains as if that is meaningful in itself It would be one thing if it was all MSFT domains, but scorecardresearch.com is pretty terrifying from a data sovereignty perspective. > which I'd suggest disabling either way. This isn't alarming because of how it affects tech-savvy users, it's alarming because of how it affects average people.

Someone1234 4y ago
The widgets are a [bad] wrapper on bing.com. bing.com uses those analytics products. Yes, it should be disabled by default, just like a lot of unacceptable practices on Windows 11. Just don't need to shoot a video with Wireshark running and talk through DNS lookups to get to that critique.
- mixmastamyk 4y ago
  The video was useful and informative.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  > Just don't need to shoot a video with Wireshark running and talk through DNS lookups to get to that critique. Or, you could do that. Why shouldn't that be done again?
  - Xeamek 4y ago
    Probably because the only reason why you would do that is to bait Clicks and confuse non-tech people? Nobody would care to make news out of it if all you said was "windows is basically doing the same thing google does, or any of the most popular websites for that matter"
    - ShroudedNight 4y ago
      Popular websites don't get to co-opt my computing device before I am able to establish policies about what behaviour I find acceptable.
    - CamperBob2 4y ago
      Google doesn't run my computer.
    - UncleEntity 4y ago
      I would care… I honestly don’t believe that an OS should go poking around the internet at all without doing something I specifically told it to. I’m currently upset with fedora because I can’t figure out how to turn off the automatic update feature, honestly I haven’t tried too hard, and all that is doing is connecting to servers that I would do anyways just on my own timeframe. If it started sending out every detail of my computing sessions, like TFA is claiming and you are defending, it would be off my computer as fast as I could download another distribution. I deal with google’s shenanigans with using chrome but that’s my choice, I downloaded the repo data, approved the signing keys and installed it manually.
moose_man 4y ago
Tech community treats Microsoft since Balmer with kids gloves, like it's some sort of non-profit organization for saving the planet.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Where do you come up with this information? Just look at the weekly anti-Microsoft articles around here, including this one you're commenting on.
  - wrldos 4y ago
    This place can be quite bipolar. I actually quit HN for a long period over the "second coming of Microsoft" when the entire HN crowd was crowing of Satya's ascent into grand hegemon position because the sycophantry was making me wretch. My comments about the same old Microsoft were downvoted to oblivion and any dissident voices squashed. The US tech community spoke and would not listen to warnings. And here we are, back at ground zero.
- Jenk 4y ago
  From my perspective it's the younger (and/or less mature) tech community that do this, and even then that's just sychophancy posts on reddit or elsewhere about how amazing C# is and you're a dumb-dumb for using anything that isn't C# etc. Those of us with longer teeth treat MS just the same as any org: We don't trust a single one of them.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    The young whippersnappers will learn with experience.
  - wrldos 4y ago
    I think you're right on the mark there. I'm jaded and cynical enough to know what's going to hurt me and what's going to pay the bills and that's where my interest stops. 20 years of C# and 35 years of Unix now :( Worshipping any vendor is quite frankly a bit sad. I tend to avoid having to solve problems now. If I do it tends to go somewhere vendor neutral like python on whatever platform happens to be lying around and not annoying me at the time.
anthk 4y ago
get https://github.com/stevenblack/hosts
- klipklop 4y ago
  There are components of windows that completely bypass the hosts file so it can 'phone home'.
- Vortigaunt 4y ago
  Sadly this no longer works for Microsoft domains. Had Windows Defender mark my host file as having a 'severe' issue just because I copy pasted a list of Microsoft telemetry domains (1). Everything worked perfectly fine before that update. (1) https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-hosts-file-blocking-telemetry-is-now-flagged-as-a-risk/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-h...
  - hiccuphippo 4y ago
    I use DNSCrypt (SimpleDNSCrypt in Windows). It has extra features like wildcards for blocking subdomains. It doesn't touch your hosts file so it should bypass that.
  - justsomehnguy 4y ago
    Unbound works fine in Windows.
torginus 4y ago
Taking the risk of (fairly) being accused of whataboutism - I'm not sure what the alternatives are - Macs are just as brazenly collect date about you in the background to the point that like in Windows, the data collection bogs down the computer so that the user experience suffers noticeably. I'm also fairly certain even vanilla Android is a privacy nightmare, and when you add in the preinstalled vendor trash, it becomes 1000x worse. The only option that exists right now afaik is Linux, and in my experience daily driving Linux on a production/development machine is a nightmare.

Someone1234 4y ago

The widgets are a [bad] wrapper on bing.com. bing.com uses those analytics products. Yes, it should be disabled by default, just like a lot of unacceptable practices on Windows 11. Just don't need to shoot a video with Wireshark running and talk through DNS lookups to get to that critique.

mixmastamyk 4y ago
The video was useful and informative.
pessimizer 4y ago
> Just don't need to shoot a video with Wireshark running and talk through DNS lookups to get to that critique. Or, you could do that. Why shouldn't that be done again?
- Xeamek 4y ago
  Probably because the only reason why you would do that is to bait Clicks and confuse non-tech people? Nobody would care to make news out of it if all you said was "windows is basically doing the same thing google does, or any of the most popular websites for that matter"
  - ShroudedNight 4y ago
    Popular websites don't get to co-opt my computing device before I am able to establish policies about what behaviour I find acceptable.
  - CamperBob2 4y ago
    Google doesn't run my computer.
  - UncleEntity 4y ago
    I would care… I honestly don’t believe that an OS should go poking around the internet at all without doing something I specifically told it to. I’m currently upset with fedora because I can’t figure out how to turn off the automatic update feature, honestly I haven’t tried too hard, and all that is doing is connecting to servers that I would do anyways just on my own timeframe. If it started sending out every detail of my computing sessions, like TFA is claiming and you are defending, it would be off my computer as fast as I could download another distribution. I deal with google’s shenanigans with using chrome but that’s my choice, I downloaded the repo data, approved the signing keys and installed it manually.

moose_man 4y ago

Tech community treats Microsoft since Balmer with kids gloves, like it's some sort of non-profit organization for saving the planet.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Where do you come up with this information? Just look at the weekly anti-Microsoft articles around here, including this one you're commenting on.
- wrldos 4y ago
  This place can be quite bipolar. I actually quit HN for a long period over the "second coming of Microsoft" when the entire HN crowd was crowing of Satya's ascent into grand hegemon position because the sycophantry was making me wretch. My comments about the same old Microsoft were downvoted to oblivion and any dissident voices squashed. The US tech community spoke and would not listen to warnings. And here we are, back at ground zero.
Jenk 4y ago
From my perspective it's the younger (and/or less mature) tech community that do this, and even then that's just sychophancy posts on reddit or elsewhere about how amazing C# is and you're a dumb-dumb for using anything that isn't C# etc. Those of us with longer teeth treat MS just the same as any org: We don't trust a single one of them.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  The young whippersnappers will learn with experience.
- wrldos 4y ago
  I think you're right on the mark there. I'm jaded and cynical enough to know what's going to hurt me and what's going to pay the bills and that's where my interest stops. 20 years of C# and 35 years of Unix now :( Worshipping any vendor is quite frankly a bit sad. I tend to avoid having to solve problems now. If I do it tends to go somewhere vendor neutral like python on whatever platform happens to be lying around and not annoying me at the time.

anthk 4y ago

get https://github.com/stevenblack/hosts

klipklop 4y ago
There are components of windows that completely bypass the hosts file so it can 'phone home'.
Vortigaunt 4y ago
Sadly this no longer works for Microsoft domains. Had Windows Defender mark my host file as having a 'severe' issue just because I copy pasted a list of Microsoft telemetry domains (1). Everything worked perfectly fine before that update. (1) https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-hosts-file-blocking-telemetry-is-now-flagged-as-a-risk/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-h...
- hiccuphippo 4y ago
  I use DNSCrypt (SimpleDNSCrypt in Windows). It has extra features like wildcards for blocking subdomains. It doesn't touch your hosts file so it should bypass that.
- justsomehnguy 4y ago
  Unbound works fine in Windows.

torginus 4y ago

Taking the risk of (fairly) being accused of whataboutism - I'm not sure what the alternatives are - Macs are just as brazenly collect date about you in the background to the point that like in Windows, the data collection bogs down the computer so that the user experience suffers noticeably. I'm also fairly certain even vanilla Android is a privacy nightmare, and when you add in the preinstalled vendor trash, it becomes 1000x worse. The only option that exists right now afaik is Linux, and in my experience daily driving Linux on a production/development machine is a nightmare.