Comment by oridecon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by oridecon | Hacker News Reader

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It's not "off". My workstation running Windows 10 Enterprise still makes a lot of network calls (even explorer.exe) not related to Windows update. I never came across an in-depth analysis of what exactly is being sent, please share if you know of one.

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https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/manage/con...

The lowest telemetry setting level supported through management policies is Security.

[Security Security data only. 0]

Information that’s required to help keep Windows, Windows Server, and System Center secure, including data about the Connected User Experience and Telemetry component settings, the Malicious Software Removal Tool, and Windows Defender.

The Security level gathers only the telemetry info that is required to keep Windows devices, Windows Server, and guests protected with the latest security updates. This level is only available on Windows Server 2016, Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise, and Windos IoT Core editions.

Ah… I did some more looking around and found out that the “Off” option actually did still exist¹ in the release version of Windows 10 Enterprise. However, it seems like some update to Windows 10 changed the label from “Off” to “Security”² instead. I can only think of two possible explanations for the change:

• Microsoft removed the already existing capability to completely turn off Telemetry for some reason, or

• the “Off” label wasn’t accurate in the first place, so Microsoft changed it to something less misleading

In any case, it seems like Microsoft has no plans to include a way to fully turn off telemetry on Windows 10 Enterprise anytime soon³.

As for your inquiry, unfortunately, I haven’t seen a more in-depth analysis of what being sent than the one at the link you’ve posted (although it actually does go into a bit more detail than just the part you’ve quoted here). There is this⁴, although it’s just a list of hostnames and IP addresses; there was no packet inspection done, so it doesn’t make it clear what’s actually being sent.

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¹ — http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/window...

² — http://i.imgur.com/ubCQrWk.png

³ — http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/02/11/microsoft...

⁴ — https://voat.co/v/technology/835741

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