Microsoft Discussion, split from [picking up an Oculus Rift..?]


Because its _my_ information. _My_ privacy. I don't know the extent of the damage these people will do with it specifically. That isn't a good thing.
I do know them, and what they do with it.

One of a great many, is targeted advertising. I dont want things to cost me extra just because someone knows me better than I do.

Worst case: America++ Land of the free for everyone
 
SNESFAN said:
The government uses open source software, most if not all governments do.

Porn, really? Arrest the entire internet, ok

Everything is made in China.

Muslim falls under the Jew argument, acknowledged.

Clinical remark against the government is what I covered in my opposition to censoring infrastructure. I am against that, but china doesn't need Microsoft's help in doing that.
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Now I get the feeling that you are ignorant on purpose since you completely fail to see the point while trying to deflect single examples.
Fine, give away all your data then, but don't think it's ok to force everyone else to do it.
 
Ok man, I was just curious as to the scale of the problem. Maybe something I wasn't thinking about is all. I'll give a better answer to your other questions in a bit when I get home. Thanks for answering mine.

Edit: and yes I am deflecting unrealistic situations and acknowledging realistic fears, I'm not being opposed just to be opposed, I am trying to fully see your viewpoint. But some of the examples are not realistic concerns.
 
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There is one thing not discussed here.
No terorist takeover situation or worst case scenario.
Something much more simple.

What bothers me most is that they are allowed to collect my Data even if I don't want it.
Isn't that the where it all starts?
Why is MS allowed to collect Data without asking FIRST?
Why does a democracy spy it's people without telling them the truth about it?

If I don't want the police into my house I don't have to.
If I don't want to show them my Computer my data or whatever I don't have to.
No one is allowed to read my letters.
That's how Law is in Germany.
There has to be a serious reason or to allow the police or anyone to get past these border.

Oh wait, there's the Internet.
Luckily lots of people don't understand that technical stuff and there are no such strict laws.
And they (MS, Government, ...) DO cross these borders against my will.
And that's what is the real problem here.
It's the easiest way for Governments to undermine their own law and cross the borders that were once made to protect peoples privacy.


I'm using Linux and have installed adblocker and some addons that are meant to stop tracking.
Also I'm not the only person using my router.
But I hate not to know what's still there. Which organization is still tracking me and storing my data.
My PC is dual boot. Doesn MS secretly scan my second HDD and knows everything I have on my Computer?
 
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Sometimes I think it's just me: if there is a database with my DNA in it and use it to cure any future disease I could get I would probably be happy, if they use it to give me a disease I'm not so happy.
So there is a bit of a fear risk in there, but it can also be used for good (and I don't want to stop progress).
Maybe I'm already to old and fear new stuff, but probably it's in the middle: 50% good / 50% evil.

And most of the stuff discussed usually happens while a part of the group of people already knew some part was a potential problem but are unable to stop it (mostly because it's used for a lot of good stuff before it is turned bad).
And a lot of stuff (like NSA) is even too complex or unknown to be easily prevented so people don't bother.

So if any company is tracking you (and they do, a lot, to much in my opinion) they might not even be aware of the scope they are doing it with, and what kind of effect it can have in the future.

I recently logged my Skype traffic, and it contains mostly useless (tracking for ad purposes) stuff. I understand they want to show me ads and have analytics, but it's just so much CPU/bandwidth used for stuff I didn't really ask for and they probably won't really use.
And I can understand why people use only microsoft products, in most cases they are pretty useful (same goes for apple).
But in general I don't like the way a lot of 'connected' products are going, they collect to much information without a valid reason. And the only choice you usually get is to use it, or you don't (and that mostly means you can't use a lot similar products as they do the same).
And I would like products to give people a choice, or better: only collect the data you really need when you need it.

Even worse is if a product fails due to not being able to perform tracking/analytics/ads, which is totally weird if it's a product you bought.
 
I know your joking, but that's pretty offensive to someone who spent a decade being in the military, and the rest of my adult life being a Windows systems admin working for the military.

Thanks guy
 
Nice.

edit: the thing about secure boot is that by every good definition it must be unpatchable. The instant there's even the ability to modify it you've left a crack for injection. To be absolutely secure it would need to be burned into the ROM, unalterable. Every piece of hardware that has this key is now and forever vulnerable: either it's unpatched and you can just sign whatever you want to get it to run, or it's revealed that the "ROM" is actually patchable with a new key, the mechanism of which would inevitably be discovered.
 
In the past, this would have been solved by a jumper. Set the jumper and you are unsave, remove the jumper to have "read-only" boot... use yet another jumper to wipe all p-ROM
 
FBnil said:
In the past, this would have been solved by a jumper. Set the jumper and you are unsave, remove the jumper to have "read-only" boot... use yet another jumper to wipe all p-ROM
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Ahh, nostalgia...
Why did they change this system in the first place?
 
Klumpen said:
Why did they change this system in the first place?
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True, for virtual machines, they could have created jumper.txt file where - is connected and .. is disconnected. Change, save, and reboot that vm...
 
Klumpen said:
Ahh, nostalgia...
Why did they change this system in the first place?
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Because that's not secure. Without the key which Microsoft has helpfully provided it is impossible to run arbitrary code: every step in the boot up sequence needs to be signed and verified by the step before it, all the way up to the boot ROM. So long as the boot ROM is safe, each step below it is safe. If you can turn that off, or replace the stored key, then you've left a crack for hackers to get in and replace your good code with malicious code.
There's places that this is very, very good, like an industrial factory with giant robot arms and conveyor belts and high temperature ovens: if a hacker manages to get into one of these and replace the firmware they can do significant damage, millions of dollars in damages, and even kill people, but since the system is locked with an unalterable ROM from the initial boot, any changes are immediately caught as soon as the machine turns on.
Your desktop computer is probably a lot less critical, if someone manages to drop a virus into your boot loader they get some credit cards, maybe a couple dirty pictures you thought you deleted, but nobody is likely to get killed over it. In exchange for this "security" you are unable to install alternative operating systems: the cost outweighs the risk, in my opinion. The only reason it should exist on general purpose computers is to lock down the customer to a specific operating system, which Microsoft and Apple are actively trying to do, with a disturbing amount of success.
If you do have a need for a locked down machine that cannot be altered without your permission (like you work for a bank or something else high risk) there are thousands of options, it doesn't need to be a general solution.
 
WizardStan said:
If you do have a need for a locked down machine that cannot be altered without your permission (like you work for a bank or something else high risk) there are thousands of options, it doesn't need to be a general solution.
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The question here is whose permission?

The only reason it should exist on general purpose computers is to lock down the customer to a specific operating system, which Microsoft and Apple are actively trying to do, with a disturbing amount of success.
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If they can get people to accept having everything locked from top to bottom, like on iOS but not breakable, the companies who want DRM will be happy.
 
Can't believe the amount of things to uninstall/disable in Win10, it's honestly quicker to configure a Linux distro these days than it is to keep tabs on an update that potentially may re-enable something (or everything) you've disabled in the past.
 
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