Just got a spoofed number phone call from "Window$"(well that's what he told me..), and the "rep" said there was a problem with my computer... :). "Oh my", I replied "what must I do?"

Kept him on the line for almost 20 minutes ostensibly entering commands(not) to allow the tech to "diagnose my problem" after many repeated tries to commandeer my system, I finally told him his scam might have a better chance of success if he could actually speak English and wasn't so stupid he couldn't recognize when someone was intentionally wasting his time.....

Best entertainment I've had in several days...

My friend just got one of these calls the other day. Very heavy Indian accent in a noisy call center.. "it appears you have not used your Windows PC computer in several weeks and it recently just came back online and detected a problem." "*gasp* Oh no, there's a problem?" "Yes, but not to worry, I can help you fix it. First, I need you to go to the Start menu.." "Wait, I can't find that." "It is in the bottom left corner of the screen." "Oh, mine's on the top, and says 'Red Hat Enterprise.'" *click*

Aww.. he wanted to keep trolling along on that one for another 10+ minutes. Oh well.

---

Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I have problems with it, but there is not much I can do about it.

Yes, you can!

Then please tell me. I don't want to start a revolution, or be arrested or die trying. How do we get our privacy back, from an entire world that is constantly learning how to get more, and more information. Even the Russian and Chinese governments are gaining access to what the US thought was secure. We may be able to delay the outcome, but can we stop it?

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

You cannot avoid everything, but the blatantly obvious, you can.
Like win 10, or cloud storage. You can buy a large capacity memory stick and carry it around your neck. A lot of the smartphone things a gimmicks, you do not really need. Marketing people always invent new things to sell and convince people,that they really need them, but they don't. They are just toys.

Since I have Vonage for my home phone, (parents' line too), I created a "nomorobo" account at nomorobo.com. Through nomorobo, I have now ELIMINATED these scam, sales and marketing, and other robo calls from our phones!!! :-)

I HIGHLY recommend nomorobo!!! :-) It is free to use for personal users; I'm not sure what charges there are, (if any), for businesses.

Nomorobo uses the Simulring feature and through it, if a robo call tries to come through, nomorobo blocks the call, and at the same time your phone rings JUST ONCE with the caller ID of the blocked call. So, if your phone ONLY rings once and stops; you know that nomorobo successfully blocked the call.

For REPEAT offenders, where the robo call comes in day after day, ringing your phone once and being blocked by nomorobo; NOW, Vonage has their own Call Blocking feature. Input the offending number into Vonage Call Blocking, and if that number tries to come through, it is blocked immediately, and your phone NEVER rings from that robo call EVER again. Vonage Call Blocking currently is allowed by Vonage to ONLY block up to 25 offending numbers. Nomorobo is UNLIMITED. Should a robo call make it through; it can manually be added to nomorobo's list, and then that caller will NEVER be allowed to get through again.

Remember: nomorobo.com

Complete peace of mind, and restoration of telephone privacy. :-)


TL

---

TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

You cannot avoid everything, but the blatantly obvious, you can.
Like win 10, or cloud storage. You can buy a large capacity memory stick and carry it around your neck. A lot of the smartphone things a gimmicks, you do not really need. Marketing people always invent new things to sell and convince people,that they really need them, but they don't. They are just toys.

I save nothing to the cloud, as I know that once it leaves my computer, then I lose control. I do think the whole problem is much bigger than that, but I would love to be wrong about it. All my files are kept offline, and backed up multiple times. The real problem, is how do we stop it in the long run.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

The real problem, is how do we stop it in the long run.

Well, being aware of it is the most important step.
Pay cash, as much as possible,and do not give away any personal details, unless absolutely necessary.
Reward/loyalty cards are absolutely ridiculous and you are never actually gaining anything in the long run.Even if you think, you are.

It is mostly laziness, that people do not try to avoid personal data collection.
If you have to send something important, do it by mail. Yes, e-mail is much easier and faster.
It takes a little bit of effort, but prior to the internet, people survived without it.

Again, we can only try.

As soon as you hit Accept, you've been Had.
It doesn't matter what settings you change or how many passwords you brew up.
Nothing is going to turn Off that TOS, or protect you from it.
Except a disk format, that would solve it...

You are right. Here is what I do know. Every time you pass a police car, your license plate is recorded. Every time you pass a road camera, which are everywhere, your position is recorded. Every time you use a credit card or debit card, that is tracked. Every phone call, text message, or other interaction with society is tracked. Cell phones actually transmit more information than Win 10. Since 9-11, we lost a lot of our privacy. The NSA became very strong, and the FBI is even stating that the public will hold no secret they can't access. When 9-11 happened, over 3000 people died needlessly, but since then over 150,000 died because of gunshots just in the US. I am coming to realize that all the spying stuff is just the new norm. I have problems with it, but there is not much I can do about it.

Steve

All you can do is try to avoid what you can. Allowing MS to read my personnel files so they can determine if they violate their TOS is basically allowing them to read my diary. They Do Not need to read my files. If you think MS is the only OS in the world, or that you have to use their latest marketing tools, then there probably isn't much you can do. People didn't buy Vista, they came out with a different system, people didn't buy 8, now they are trying something else. If that doesn't float, they will try something else. Make them try something else, don't use their garbage. I have Windows 8.1, it's in the living room attached to the TV. All it does is surf the internet, read mail, and play videos. All other work is done in OSX or Ubuntu, including paying online bills with the Ubuntu system in the bedroom. My advice would be to stay with what you had until MS comes up with a more sane TOS, otherwise, learn Linux. If everyone told MS to take the long walk, they might listen.

I beg to differ on reward cards, I've been to Hawaii twice on United Airlines points only. When their extra fees got so ridiculous I switched to a SouthWest Airlines card and have traveled to the east coast and northwest several times on points(just a $5.00 redemption charge). I put a lot of daily purchases on the card but the secret is to pay it off every month.

So far(20 years), no targeted ads or data breaches that I know of.

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

But, if you had picked cheaper flights with other airlines in the past, instead of going with united(that is what they want, to collect points), then you would have had enough money saved to pay for the "free-ish" flights, you mentioned.

That is, how reward cards work. Being lazy and always go with the same company.

I don't think you quite understood the post, I didn't buy ANY airline tickets. Just collected the points(miles) from purchases I would have made anyway. Ergo the flights were free except for the $5 redemption fee.

As to always using SouthWest Airlines, have you looked at the customer service ratings compared to all other airlines? SouthWest is always at the top.

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

Hi Tbar,

Your joke caused me to think about computing 30 years ago. Were you around back then? Then naturally I compared that to the topic of this thread. Computing has come a long way hasn't it.

Not so as anyone would notice, it its 'windows' we're on about, it still crashes routinely, still wants to rule your life etc:-)

What 'really' gets my goat, is that with all M$'s resources it still ships an OS that needs security patches within days of shipping:-(
I've just had my 3/4/5 security update:-/ If it wasn't so much of a pita guarding ones rigs, it would be laughable!

Well at least so far its not cost me any cash.. about all one can say for it.

Rig 2 got a Blue Screen after about an hour of running apps seems M$ Win10 has a problem since Cortana wasn't running and its start menu had crashed! Well I switched Cortana off on install, no need for it. But still had to 'sign' off and re-logon to cure the abberant start menu:-( Everything I wanted working seemed ok to me, boinc and projects were ok, as was my preferred weather gadget, OHM and MSI Afburner... What was actualy in a panic over I don't know, but suspect some hidden reporting app or other.

Otherwise Win10 is workable so far, its just a pita getting it working the way 'I' want it to work, not the way M$ 'thinks' it should work:-)


Regards,

---

Cliff,
Been there, Done that, Still no damm T shirt!

Hi Steve,

You cannot avoid everything, but the blatantly obvious, you can.
Like win 10, or cloud storage. You can buy a large capacity memory stick and carry it around your neck. A lot of the smartphone things a gimmicks, you do not really need. Marketing people always invent new things to sell and convince people,that they really need them, but they don't. They are just toys.

I save nothing to the cloud, as I know that once it leaves my computer, then I lose control. I do think the whole problem is much bigger than that, but I would love to be wrong about it. All my files are kept offline, and backed up multiple times. The real problem, is how do we stop it in the long run.

Steve

Well lessee now:-) How about gathering all the M$ maketing and bean counters in a single large room, cover the entire inner surface with large screens, and run Windows error messages on all of them non-stop. Place 1 table in the middle of the room with 1 bottle of water and 1 peanut butter sandwich on it.
Lock the door with all of them inside.
Do NOT open the door for at least 1 week.
After some time past 1 week open door and remove any detritus and allow any survivors out and send directly to the nearest mental institution.

Think that would sort out quite a few of the assorted Windows [instert version number of choice]problems.

Cheers,

---

Cliff,
Been there, Done that, Still no damm T shirt!

Here is a nice guide how to disable data logging in win 10.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3f38ed/guide_how_to_disable_data_logging_in_w10

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Here is a link for free tools to disable win 10 spying.

http://bgr.com/2015/08/14/windows-10-spying-prevention-privacy-tools/

---

With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

I am using Windows 10 as a Virtual Box platform to run CERN programs. My maiilbos is on a Linux box and MS can't read it.
Tullio

---

Now, if the IT support staff can make enough fuss up the management chain, and convince the cheque signer that they simply cannot support Win 10 because it is not fit for purpose, will give away company secrets, cost $millions in staff re-training, all hardware 3 years old has to be replaced because of no drivers etc etc, there might be a hope.

I know of several small to medium size companies who are shunning Window$ 8.1 for that very reason. Unlike the corporate giants they can't afford to throw out hardware and software just because M$ decides to change it's diapers every three years. The company I used to work for generates $60 million a year in sales revenue but when you get to the bottom line they work with a +/- 5% profit EBIT. Their IT supports a network that includes aprox 500 netowrked PC's, dumb terminals, or handheld devices, spread from coast to coast all requiring licenses.

They are still working with Server 2003 due to the cost of upgrading plus when they do there will be another bill for the business software (presently from INFOR) which has some customized accounting and inventory pieces they charge extra to upgrade(but of course!).

It will be the CFO's of these smaller but more numerous customers that could be the downfall of Win 10, let's hope anyway.

---

"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

i added all the tracking and ad domains M$ has to my main router's dns server and pointed them to 0.0.0.0

so 350 ppl are safe from prying eyes of microsoft on my network i keep adding more as i find em DPI FTW

---

I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

A very brief and very graphic summary for the state of the internet and technology is given by


Killswitch (Trailer)

... greatest fear is that there will be no change...


Very spooky stuff, for everyone.

Has everyone really sold their lives for free of cost and rolled over and died?

Certainly makes me wonder if Microsoft is being paid to do their part and that in effect, Win10 isn't really being given away for no cost...


Who's internet and technology is this in any case?...

IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Here is a nice guide how to disable data logging in win 10.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3f38ed/guide_how_to_disable_data_logging_in_w10

Very good guide, Mike. Anyone who installs the Windows 10 NSA Edition, should follow the directions on that page.

Edit: Of course, if you really want to give up all privacy, by all means, do NOT follow the directions on that page :-)

M$ and Big brother will be more than happy to: ...access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services.

It doesn't matter what is done after or during the install. Until you can install it without having to Accept the TOS MS is Allowed to ...access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services..
But you can't install it without Accepting the TOS, can you?
It use to be called Hacking and years ago NO One would have accepted it, except those in certain parts of Redmond.

You do know that all this snooping by 10 is just MS trying to collect all those porn links you have been saving for years?

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster