5 ms·

Look - I'm not really a Windows fan (almost exclusively on linux these days) but they ARE providing advertised features. Like - honestly - the machine is a fre

Look - I'm not really a Windows fan (almost exclusively on linux these days) but they ARE providing advertised features. Like - honestly - the machine is a fresh install of Windows, what exactly is the data you think is being exfiltrated? In most cases... there's just nothing there. At best, someone now knows that ip x.x.x.x is running windows version y.y.y.y, and possibly that the user account is z. And honestly - all of those pieces of information are actually reasonable to send when providing advertised features (such as weather data in widgets, or local news). There's literally just nothing else on the device to grab yet... There's no browsing data, there's no app usage data, there's no documents generated. It's a blank fucking OS outside of the MS account you signed on with. So again - without talking about the actual data in the requests (and not just a dns record...) this isn't really a helpful conversation to have.

pessimizer 4y ago
> the machine is a fresh install of Windows, what exactly is the data you think is being exfiltrated? In most cases... there's just nothing there. Then there shouldn't be any requests. > At best, someone now knows that ip x.x.x.x is running windows version y.y.y.y, and possibly that the user account is z. Is this something you have inside information about? How many requests does this take? Your sentence seems far longer than the single serialized string that would have to be sent. edit: and to be more direct, how is it all right for you to speculate about things you don't know but not all right for the OP? Is it only legitimate to make up excuses for suspicious behavior, and illegitimate to be suspicious of it?
- horsawlarway 4y ago
  > So again - without talking about the actual data in the requests (and not just a dns record...) this isn't really a helpful conversation to have. I'm not fucking speculating. I'm saying DNS records are a trash excuse for actually looking at the data. If they want to make spurious claims - the burden of proof lies firmly with them. In the mean time: > Then there shouldn't be any requests. I literally just told you why they're making these requests... they're fetching data to display on widgets related to local news and weather, and they're tracking their install numbers. You can bitch and moan about that - but they're very clear that they're doing it at install time, and most times you can opt out.
ninjagoo 4y ago
> There's literally just nothing else on the device to grab yet... There's no browsing data, there's no app usage data, there's no documents generated. Well, there's your internal and external IP addresses, your MAC addresses, your Processor ID, your Mainboard serial #s, Hard Drive serial #s, along with your OS ID (I don't know if the Edge browser has a unique ID per install), all of which can be used to identify you/your machine uniquely. This data is now going to all these "Data Research" companies. I wonder why they need to collect this information.
- crimsontech 4y ago
  Also potentially the IDs of any Bluetooth and wireless devices nearby, MAC addresses and information about other equipment on the network. It’s a lot of data and it’s useful and valuable otherwise they wouldn’t go to the effort of collecting it. This video and article may be about a fresh OS but this activity doesn’t stop once you start using the device either. Over the years this has fully turned me off Microsoft products.
  - smileybarry 4y ago
    > Also potentially the IDs of any Bluetooth and wireless devices nearby, MAC addresses and information about other equipment on the network. Might as well suspect every single Linux device you have sending an ARP request then, who knows where it's going? Maybe they're exfiltrating it to Canonical. Why is it that every Microsoft thread on HN with a hint of the word "Windows" generates the most overblown theories and accusations? I'm honestly expecting someone to soon say "what if Windows 11 takes a picture with your webcam and sends it back to Redmond?".
    - ninjagoo 4y ago
      > Might as well suspect every single Linux device you have sending an ARP request then, who knows where it's going? Maybe they're exfiltrating it to Canonical. That's a good question. So I looked into Ubuntu, since you mentioned Canonical. As it turns out, Ubuntu the OS (22.04 LTS) does NOT send ANY data to 3rd parties of its own volition, at all. And it doesn't even send data to Canonical, of its own volition. [1][2] [1] https://ostechnix.com/install-ubuntu-desktop/ https://ostechnix.com/install-ubuntu-desktop/ [2] https://ubuntu.com/legal/data-privacy https://ubuntu.com/legal/data-privacy Maybe I should switch to Ubuntu. You should think about it too. > Why is it that every Microsoft thread on HN with a hint of the word "Windows" generates the most overblown theories and accusations? I'm honestly expecting someone to soon say "what if Windows 11 takes a picture with your webcam and sends it back to Redmond?". Given what happened with Roomba, and Amazon & Google smart devices, this would not surprise me in the least.
autoexec 4y ago
Sure, MS is pushing data to all these tracking and marketing companies who are collecting and storing it all from literally billions of users, but that isn't a problem because obviously that data is clearly worthless and so it doesn't matter at all to anyone. Companies just love collecting, exchanging, and keeping massive amounts of useless information. Nothing to see here!

pessimizer 4y ago

> the machine is a fresh install of Windows, what exactly is the data you think is being exfiltrated? In most cases... there's just nothing there. Then there shouldn't be any requests. > At best, someone now knows that ip x.x.x.x is running windows version y.y.y.y, and possibly that the user account is z. Is this something you have inside information about? How many requests does this take? Your sentence seems far longer than the single serialized string that would have to be sent. edit: and to be more direct, how is it all right for you to speculate about things you don't know but not all right for the OP? Is it only legitimate to make up excuses for suspicious behavior, and illegitimate to be suspicious of it?

horsawlarway 4y ago
> So again - without talking about the actual data in the requests (and not just a dns record...) this isn't really a helpful conversation to have. I'm not fucking speculating. I'm saying DNS records are a trash excuse for actually looking at the data. If they want to make spurious claims - the burden of proof lies firmly with them. In the mean time: > Then there shouldn't be any requests. I literally just told you why they're making these requests... they're fetching data to display on widgets related to local news and weather, and they're tracking their install numbers. You can bitch and moan about that - but they're very clear that they're doing it at install time, and most times you can opt out.

ninjagoo 4y ago

> There's literally just nothing else on the device to grab yet... There's no browsing data, there's no app usage data, there's no documents generated. Well, there's your internal and external IP addresses, your MAC addresses, your Processor ID, your Mainboard serial #s, Hard Drive serial #s, along with your OS ID (I don't know if the Edge browser has a unique ID per install), all of which can be used to identify you/your machine uniquely. This data is now going to all these "Data Research" companies. I wonder why they need to collect this information.

crimsontech 4y ago
Also potentially the IDs of any Bluetooth and wireless devices nearby, MAC addresses and information about other equipment on the network. It’s a lot of data and it’s useful and valuable otherwise they wouldn’t go to the effort of collecting it. This video and article may be about a fresh OS but this activity doesn’t stop once you start using the device either. Over the years this has fully turned me off Microsoft products.
- smileybarry 4y ago
  > Also potentially the IDs of any Bluetooth and wireless devices nearby, MAC addresses and information about other equipment on the network. Might as well suspect every single Linux device you have sending an ARP request then, who knows where it's going? Maybe they're exfiltrating it to Canonical. Why is it that every Microsoft thread on HN with a hint of the word "Windows" generates the most overblown theories and accusations? I'm honestly expecting someone to soon say "what if Windows 11 takes a picture with your webcam and sends it back to Redmond?".
  - ninjagoo 4y ago
    > Might as well suspect every single Linux device you have sending an ARP request then, who knows where it's going? Maybe they're exfiltrating it to Canonical. That's a good question. So I looked into Ubuntu, since you mentioned Canonical. As it turns out, Ubuntu the OS (22.04 LTS) does NOT send ANY data to 3rd parties of its own volition, at all. And it doesn't even send data to Canonical, of its own volition. [1][2] [1] https://ostechnix.com/install-ubuntu-desktop/ https://ostechnix.com/install-ubuntu-desktop/ [2] https://ubuntu.com/legal/data-privacy https://ubuntu.com/legal/data-privacy Maybe I should switch to Ubuntu. You should think about it too. > Why is it that every Microsoft thread on HN with a hint of the word "Windows" generates the most overblown theories and accusations? I'm honestly expecting someone to soon say "what if Windows 11 takes a picture with your webcam and sends it back to Redmond?". Given what happened with Roomba, and Amazon & Google smart devices, this would not surprise me in the least.

autoexec 4y ago

Sure, MS is pushing data to all these tracking and marketing companies who are collecting and storing it all from literally billions of users, but that isn't a problem because obviously that data is clearly worthless and so it doesn't matter at all to anyone. Companies just love collecting, exchanging, and keeping massive amounts of useless information. Nothing to see here!