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Windows 7 and 8 updates let them send telemetry info to MS like win 10 does.

blankslate

blankslate

Diamond Member
http://thehackernews.com/2015/08/windows-spying-on-you.html

No plan to install Windows 10 due to Microsoft's controversial data mining and privacy invasions within the operating system?
Well, Windows 7 and Windows 8 OS users should also be worried as Windows 10 spying is now headed their way too…
Microsoft has been caught installing latest updates onto Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers that effectively introduce the same data collecting and user behavior tracking features used in Windows 10.
Under the new updates, the operating systems indiscriminately upload data to Microsoft's servers, which might be a major privacy concern for many users.
Click to expand...

the article also give information on how to remove the updates.

The best way to prevent Windows 7 and 8 from tracking you is to not install the latest updates. Unlike Windows 10, Windows 7 and Windows 8 updates are not mandatory, so you can choose not to download the updates.
However, if you have already installed these updates on your computers, you can remove them completely from your systems and the operating system will not automatically reinstall them without your permission.


Go to Control Panel > View installed updates > Remove all the four updates.
If you want to eliminate these updates faster, you can launch a command prompt window with administrator privileges and then type in the following commands one by one:

CODE

wusa /uninstall /kb:3068708 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3022345 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3075249 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3080149 /quiet /norestart
Once done, you can right-click on any updates shown by Windows Update and choose "Hide Update" to make sure that these updates won't be reinstalled in case you reboot your system.
Click to expand...

I already did this on a windows 7 machine and haven't experienced any issues yet. ymmv.


I wonder how windows would behave if the ip address the telemetry data is sent to is just blacklisted in the router?


.....
 
Last edited:
blankslate said:
I wonder how windows would behave if the ip address the telemetry data is sent to is just blacklisted in the router?
Click to expand...

Probably nothing. Windows telemetry would just treat it as if its server were down. That's assuming they use a separate server. If it's on the same IP as the server that pushes updates and what not, then it could be a problem.

This has to be done at the router's firewall and the router has to be able to block HTTPS connections. I have a DD-WRT router that should be able to do this.
 
I think that this is Not a Update per-se but Update of the Update client software.

I.e. the software on Windows that controls the Download of updates.

Its id is kb/3083324 and it does Not to appear on the Telemetry related Updates in the above list.



😎
 
berryracer said:
Yeah that update is for Windows 10 upgrade preparation not Telemetry

Updates to hide to prevent Windows 10 Upgrade / Disable Telemetry
Click to expand...

Well MS is being rather sneaky about this update. There is no mention of Windows 10 on the official support page.

About this update


This article describes an update that contains some improvements to Windows Update Client in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
Click to expand...

The description does not include why you need this update to Windows 7.

I noticed something else. The support pages no longer differentiate between Critical or Recommended or Optional.
 
Alright I just checked for updates on a fresh install of Windows 8.1, and none of those updates are listed. What's going on?
 
I blacklisted the telemetry sites that have been mentioned on other websites. The only thing it broke in W10 was the Universal Apps that come with W10 like News, Health, Sports, etc. I don't have any other Universal Apps installed so I can't comment on whether it affects those.
 
You don't have to uninstall any of the updates, just stop the Diagnostics Tracking Service (and set it to disabled). This was the new service that was added with the updates.

Then open "gpedit.msc" as admin and navigate to Administrative Templates -> System -> Internet Communication Management -> Internet Communication settings and set the "Turn off Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program" to Enabled.

That should take care of everything. I can't find the article right now but I'm not certain that it behaves exactly like Windows 10 does after you install those updates. As in I'm not sure it's actually any worse then how it was. At the very least I believe it consolidates a lot of what it was doing under the new Tracking Service which can be disabled.
 
Last edited:
taisingera said:
I blacklisted the telemetry sites that have been mentioned on other websites. The only thing it broke in W10 was the Universal Apps that come with W10 like News, Health, Sports, etc. I don't have any other Universal Apps installed so I can't comment on whether it affects those.
Click to expand...
After a lot of testing and noticing how the hosts file posted on some sites breaks a lot of things like OneDrive logging in and some other sites, here is my stripped down version of the hosts file that doesn't break anything and blocks some malicious sites such as SourceForge and blocks OpenCandy as well.

Code: 
# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 bi.bisrv.com
127.0.0.1 www.softonic.com
127.0.0.1 softonic.com
127.0.0.1 sourceforge.net
127.0.0.1 www.bestvistadownloads.com
127.0.0.1 image.online-convert.com/convert-to-ico
127.0.0.1 tracking.opencandy.com.s3.amazonaws.com
127.0.0.1 media.opencandy.com
127.0.0.1 cdn.opencandy.com
127.0.0.1 tracking.opencandy.com
127.0.0.1 api.opencandy.com
127.0.0.1 offer.alibaba.com
127.0.0.1 a.ads1.msn.com
127.0.0.1 a.ads2.msads.net
127.0.0.1 a.ads2.msn.com
127.0.0.1 ads1.msads.net
127.0.0.1 ads1.msn.com
127.0.0.1 adsmockarc.azurewebsites.net
127.0.0.1 ads.msn.com
127.0.0.1 b.ads1.msn.com
127.0.0.1 b.ads2.msads.net
127.0.0.1 bingads.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 oca.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 sb.scorecardresearch.com
127.0.0.1 spynet2.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 spynetalt.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 sqm.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 sqm.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 survey.watson.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 telemetry.appex.bing.net
127.0.0.1 telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 telemetry.urs.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 vortex-sandbox.data.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 vortex-win.data.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 watson.live.com
127.0.0.1 watson.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 watson.ppe.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 watson.telemetry.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 watson.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
127.0.0.1 wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
::1 localhost
 
TheRyuu said:
You don't have to uninstall any of the updates, just stop the Diagnostics Tracking Service (and set it to disabled). This was the new service that was added with the updates.

Then open "gpedit.msc" as admin and navigate to Administrative Templates -> System -> Internet Communication Management -> Internet Communication settings and set the "Turn off Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program" to Enabled.

That should take care of everything. I can't find the article right now but I'm not certain that it behaves exactly like Windows 10 does after you install those updates. As in I'm not sure it's actually any worse then how it was. At the very least I believe it consolidates a lot of what it was doing under the new Tracking Service which can be disabled.
Click to expand...

I have Win7 - How do I find this? Diagnostics Tracking Service { Found this one now how do I find gpedit.msc ?
 
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This is actually brilliant. Convince anybody who actually reads EULAs or has privacy concerns to ditch your platform en masse, and everybody who's left is definitely a user you can monetize.
 
MRGOOCH said:
I have Win7 - How do I find this? Diagnostics Tracking Service { Found this one now how do I find gpedit.msc ?
Click to expand...

Windows key + r. Has to be from an admin account though which means this shouldn't be done from your account you use everyday. In that case you can also run it by opening up an elevated command prompt (right click start button -> command prompt (admin)) then just paste "gpedit.msc" if you don't feel like switching accounts.
 
More here:

http://techne.alaya.net/?p=12499

Code: 
wusa /uninstall /kb:3083325 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3083324 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:2976978 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3075853 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3065987 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3050265 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3075851 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:2902907 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3068708 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3022345 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:2952664 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:2990214 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3035583 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:971033 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3021917 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3044374 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3075249 /quiet /norestart
wusa /uninstall /kb:3080149 /quiet /norestart

Don't bother with the HOSTS file to block Microsoft telemetry IP/addresses, instead do it straight in your router.
 
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