If you thought that Microsoft forcing Windows 10 onto the hard drives of Windows 7 and 8 users was bad. Here’s something that’s worse. Software specialist website gHacks has discovered that Microsoft is shoving the sort of user tracking features that are found in Windows 10 on to Windows 7 and 8 computers. They’re doing this in the form of three updates. KB3075249, KB3080149 and KB3068708 (which replaces KB3022345) are all meant to add “customer experience and diagnostic telemetry” to Windows 7 and Windows 8. Translation: Microsoft is watching what you do and your computer is reporting back to Redmond Washington with that info. And here’s what’s worse:
“These four updates ignore existing user preferences stored in Windows 7 and Windows 8 (including any edits made to the Hosts file) and immediately starts exchanging user data with vortex-win.data.microsoft.com and settings-win.data.microsoft.com.”
Lovely. Now KB3068708 is classified as ‘Recommended’ which means Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs with Windows Update set to automatic will install it by default. That said for the update to appear at all, you will need to be a participant in Microsoft’s Customer Experience Improvement Program, an opt-in program which already has you agreeing to send user data to the company.
Now if this creeps you out, and it should, here’s how you can get your privacy back:
- Go to Control Panel
- Go to Programs
- Go to Uninstall or change a program and locate each update by name
- Double click on each update to uninstall it or right click on the update and choose uninstall
To hide the updates so they won’t install in future:
- Go to Control Panel
- Go to System and Security
- Go to Windows Update
Microsoft really needs to get their act together. Users don’t want this sort of tracking and they would be best advised to do an about face on this front as this is the sort of stupidity that annoys them and sends them running to Apple to buy Macs.
Shame, shame Microsoft.
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This entry was posted on September 12, 2015 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Microsoft’s Stupidity Gets Worse As It Brings Windows 10’s Worst Features To Windows 7/8
If you thought that Microsoft forcing Windows 10 onto the hard drives of Windows 7 and 8 users was bad. Here’s something that’s worse. Software specialist website gHacks has discovered that Microsoft is shoving the sort of user tracking features that are found in Windows 10 on to Windows 7 and 8 computers. They’re doing this in the form of three updates. KB3075249, KB3080149 and KB3068708 (which replaces KB3022345) are all meant to add “customer experience and diagnostic telemetry” to Windows 7 and Windows 8. Translation: Microsoft is watching what you do and your computer is reporting back to Redmond Washington with that info. And here’s what’s worse:
“These four updates ignore existing user preferences stored in Windows 7 and Windows 8 (including any edits made to the Hosts file) and immediately starts exchanging user data with vortex-win.data.microsoft.com and settings-win.data.microsoft.com.”
Lovely. Now KB3068708 is classified as ‘Recommended’ which means Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs with Windows Update set to automatic will install it by default. That said for the update to appear at all, you will need to be a participant in Microsoft’s Customer Experience Improvement Program, an opt-in program which already has you agreeing to send user data to the company.
Now if this creeps you out, and it should, here’s how you can get your privacy back:
To hide the updates so they won’t install in future:
Microsoft really needs to get their act together. Users don’t want this sort of tracking and they would be best advised to do an about face on this front as this is the sort of stupidity that annoys them and sends them running to Apple to buy Macs.
Shame, shame Microsoft.
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This entry was posted on September 12, 2015 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.