Hi all,
recently I bought a new notebook (first impression: I doubt it will survive more than 2-3 years). Unfortunately it came with Microsoft Windows 10 (yes, soon I will install a Linux distro and a VM for B4x), so I decided to try it out for a few weeks.
As usual, I started installing a firewall and an antivirus and then set the FW to a single simple rule: deny all. That made the nb unusable at first, but gave me all the control I used to have back in the DOS days.
Now, rule after rule I came to Firefox. Set it to open on a blank page, disabled all the search engines but StartPage and Google (in that order), no history, no nothing: a bare-bone, very minimal installation.
Well, what I found sounded a bit scary on the privacy point of view.
Just launching Firefox and staring at its initial blank page I could count at leat 10 connections (mostly on port 443) thanks to my fw's monitor. Some where from address blocks of same holder.
69.195.158.197 --> Joe's Datacenter ????
52.42.115.213 --> Amazon
104.16.60.31 --> CloudFlareNet
93.184.220.29 --> EdgeCast NetBlock-03
And a couple from my ADSL provider.
Should we talk about how much traffic the OS generates on its own? Even after disabling "services" like Cortana? Have a look at svchost and all the data it sends to Microsoft. Why?
My sad conclusion is that the Personal Computer era is over. Now we live in the Interconnected Devices era, where you have to consider yourself lucky only because you're permitted to link to the Net while dismissing any direct control and privacy concern.
Are we all unaware digital slaves?
udg
recently I bought a new notebook (first impression: I doubt it will survive more than 2-3 years). Unfortunately it came with Microsoft Windows 10 (yes, soon I will install a Linux distro and a VM for B4x), so I decided to try it out for a few weeks.
As usual, I started installing a firewall and an antivirus and then set the FW to a single simple rule: deny all. That made the nb unusable at first, but gave me all the control I used to have back in the DOS days.
Now, rule after rule I came to Firefox. Set it to open on a blank page, disabled all the search engines but StartPage and Google (in that order), no history, no nothing: a bare-bone, very minimal installation.
Well, what I found sounded a bit scary on the privacy point of view.
Just launching Firefox and staring at its initial blank page I could count at leat 10 connections (mostly on port 443) thanks to my fw's monitor. Some where from address blocks of same holder.
69.195.158.197 --> Joe's Datacenter ????
52.42.115.213 --> Amazon
104.16.60.31 --> CloudFlareNet
93.184.220.29 --> EdgeCast NetBlock-03
And a couple from my ADSL provider.
Should we talk about how much traffic the OS generates on its own? Even after disabling "services" like Cortana? Have a look at svchost and all the data it sends to Microsoft. Why?
My sad conclusion is that the Personal Computer era is over. Now we live in the Interconnected Devices era, where you have to consider yourself lucky only because you're permitted to link to the Net while dismissing any direct control and privacy concern.
Are we all unaware digital slaves?
udg