Vista is Watching You 458
greengrass writes "Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company."
Re:Tagged as paranoia? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Don't worry, it's not Vista... (Score:1, Informative)
And Activation, Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), Device Manager, Driver Protection, Dynamic Update, Event Viewer, File Association Web Service, Games Folder, Error Reporting for Handwriting Recognition, Input Method Editor (IME), Installation Improvement Program, Internet Printing, Internet Protocol version 6 Network Address Translation Traversal, Network Awareness (somewhat), Parental Controls, Peer Name Resolution Service, Plug and Play, Plug and Play Extensions, Program Compatibility Assistant, Program Properties--Compatibility Tab, Program Compatibility Wizard, Properties, Registration, Rights Management Services (RMS) Client, Update Root Certificates, Windows Control Panel, Windows Help, Windows Mail (only with Windows Live Mail, Hotmail, or MSN Mail) and Windows Problem Reporting are the main features and services in Windows Vista that collect and transmit user data to Microsoft.
Re:Don't worry, it's not Vista... (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry, I left out: Activation, Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), Device Manager, Driver Protection, Dynamic Update, Event Viewer, File Association Web Service, Games Folder, Error Reporting for Handwriting Recognition, Input Method Editor (IME), Installation Improvement Program, Internet Printing, Network Awareness (somewhat), Parental Controls, Peer Name Resolution Service, Plug and Play, Plug and Play Extensions, Program Compatibility Assistant, Program PropertiesCompatibility Tab, Program Compatibility Wizard, Properties, Registration, Windows Control Panel, Windows Help, Windows Mail (only with Windows Live Mail, Hotmail, or MSN Mail), Windows Problem Reporting, Windows Defender, Support Services, and Internet Explorer 7.
"This extensive enumeration is not a complete illustration of all the sources in Windows Vista that Microsoft uses to gather end user data"
Re:Egomanical monitoring of the populace? (Score:2, Informative)
Kina as many other Asian nations is moving towards Linux. They don't want to pay M$-tax and they espesialy don't want MS or NSA spying on them.
Re:Don't worry, it's not Vista... (Score:3, Informative)
On Windows time service [microsoft.com]:
The NTP Protocol is described here [wikipedia.org]. I can't verify that they haven't implemented the evil NTP protocol (not running Vista), but I don't see why i should trust the author after listing this one.
Re:This is my single biggest push to free software (Score:4, Informative)
Re:doubt it (Score:4, Informative)
The OP is right; this is a precursor to a subscription based OS; that's microsoft's dream, where everyone just pays the OS tax on a monthly/yearly basis, and gets "free" upgrades on a once-a-decade cycle.
Re:This is my single biggest push to free software (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't worry, it's not Vista... (Score:2, Informative)
For those wondering why the Games folder sends data, its to get the rating for the game and download additional information about the game (like the box art). There are many personalization features in Vista, and they're actually pretty cool.
Re:Egomanical monitoring of the populace? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Egomanical monitoring of the populace? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:doubt it (Score:3, Informative)
Cannot remember off the top of my head which one stops the "report to Microsoft" pop-ups, but with both you can rest easy and not get the annoying pop-ups each time. Hope this helps
What people forget... (Score:2, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Egomanical monitoring of the populace? (Score:5, Informative)
The point being made earlier in the thread was that this doesn't always work, because the IP addresses for certain services (Windows Update is one, IIRC) are hard-coded and the hosts file is never checked by Windows when resolving these addresses.
Re:Egomanical monitoring of the populace? (Score:0, Informative)
TRANSMIT is a verb. You were looking for the noun, TRANSMISSION.
Re:This is my single biggest push to free software (Score:5, Informative)
Oh and that's just for the printer.. the scanner part of the driver is nonfunctional on vista (despite the driver being the latest vista driver), and the whole thing won't install on OSX (a small (for them) 250mb driver) because they stopped supporting it after 10.4.2 and it's hardcoded to reject a version higher than that.
For a while now I've been telling people to avoid HP like the plague because their drivers are is spyware infested bug ridden crap.
If you read what he said, you'd see (Score:4, Informative)
While most IT environments can install Patches and Service Packs and Updates at will, this is not the case for FDA regulated companies. The update or patch will be installed on a system that has no access to any real data, each step of the installation is documented down to each mouse click complete with screen shots, then the installation is performed following that document by a person who didn't write the initial instructions, and they will then take screen shots of their installation. Then once it has passed the installation steps, then there are instructions written up for each thing that needs to be tested and validated, that is also complete with screen shots, and each mouse click and keyboard entry. Those instructions are sent to someone else who goes through each step, and takes screen shots along the way, and if that passes, it can then go on to production where the installation is performed, with screen shots, and a final series of tests, with screen shot is also done. All the documents are printed out as the FDA hasn't completely allowed electronic storage.
So where the normal IT guy clicks download/install and maybe makes a log of it. A simple windows update in an FDA regulated environment will produce a mountain of paperwork. If anything along the line has the potential of revealing any confidential information against FDA regulations, then the software will be rejected. Vista at this point has been rejected so far.
Re:The core question remains (Score:3, Informative)
Well how about reading Windows Update Privacy Statement from here http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/lib rary/3998fef5-4e07-4128-881d-754375b679121033.mspx ?mfr=true [microsoft.com] or updated version from Windows Update site from here http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6 /default.aspx?ln=en-us [microsoft.com]. And if you are paranoid enough, just add TCP dump to somewhere on your network to see what's really submitted, don't know if it's encrypted though.
Here's an explaination of the Windows CEIP (Score:0, Informative)
Detailed Service list (Score:3, Informative)
Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) - Optional feedback program.
Device Manager & Driver Protection & Dynamic Update - Gives you an option to scan for updated drivers.
Event Viewer - Optional, If you click the 'get more information' it sends a query for, (get this) more information.
File Association Web Service - Same as above.
Games Folder - Downloads pictures and ratings for your games.
Error Reporting for Handwriting Recognition - Optional error reporting..
Input Method Editor (IME) - I assume it's looking for new language packs.
Installation Improvement Program - Optional error reporting.
Internet Printing - Not sure on this one, I assume it's a driver check. Unless they're talking about the Internet printing service that prints your photos. If so, then duh, grow up.
Internet Protocol version 6 Network Address Translation Traversal, Network Awareness (somewhat), Peer Name Resolution Service - Read how these servcices work, they require an Internet server.
Parental Controls - I believe it's tied to the phishing filter.
Plug and Play, Plug and Play Extensions, Program Compatibility Assistant,Program Properties--Compatibility Tab, Program Compatibility Wizard, Properties, - Driver updates, compatibility updates.
Registration - Marketing, optional
Rights Management Services (RMS) Client - DRM as bad as activation
Update Root Certificates - Automatic updates for SSL certs.
Windows Control Panel - Not sure which panel
Windows Help - Optional Online help
Windows Mail (only with Windows Live Mail, Hotmail, or MSN Mail) - Well duh, hotmail calls microsoft?
Windows Problem Reporting - Optional error reporting.
With the exception of Activation and the RMS client, both of which are useless, these are useful Internet services, feel free to turn them off or actually answer NO, when asked.
Stop making this into a 'oooh, they're spying on me'. They're spying the same way Slashdot is spying on you when you post a message.