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Microsoft admits Windows 11 has a GDID tracker with no off switch, first documented publicly in an FBI hacker complaint (www.windowslatest.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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[–] 90 points 3 months ago (10 children)

Something this article glosses over is the fact that Microsoft knew all of the web URLs he was visiting. I don't know if that's because he was dumb enough to sign into Edge with his Microsoft account or if they were collecting that a different way, but the GDID wouldn't have been nearly as useful without that info.

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    IDK either. But so much is now like, ppl wanting privacy have to be right every time. The co's wanting our data, only once! A single hidden backdoor siphon to our data and we didn't protect ourself from it. A single telemetry that encodes every URL we visit. A single statistical way to fingerprint us.

    That Sisyphus dude knows our pain.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Which is why open source is important. Holes can be found and software telemetry can be avoided.

    A lot of the telemetry is sold to people as being in their benefit. Monitor installed software for updates, location data for weather etc.

    If the companies had to document the amount they collected in cash for each user based on ads and send it as a mk though report, it might be eye opening. The source if the cash would also be good. So did companies pay directly or dodgy intermediaries and data brokers.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I know people in real life that prefer targeted advertising because it's "more relevant to their interests". I think they drank the kool-aid

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I don’t think Microsoft recorded the URLs, just activity from a GDID and IP address at particular timestamps. The authorities would also have subpoenaed records from other accounts they knew were his e.g. Snapchat and Facebook. The GDID was just a way of assigning activity from his device to particular VPN endpoints at particular times. The point of the story is essentially that the GDID allowed them to track his device across multiple IP addresses. But this wouldn’t have been possible without at least some other pieces of the puzzle such as knowing which was his Microsoft account, or Facebook account etc. in the first place.

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