As with each new Windows release, we found with the arrival of Windows 11 the eternal debates on “I keep my Win 7”, “it was better before”, the very elaborate “Windaube” or the eternal “I stay on Linux”… However, and this is undoubtedly the privilege of age, it does not work so badly the last operating system of Microsoft, it is stable and relatively better born in terms of performance. But the time when a Windows that starts up quickly and doesn’t crash was enough to make enthusiasts happy is over. Today the issue that engages the crowds is the privacy of users. You can post on Instagram your naked and chubby body at the edge of your new swimming pool that your salary could not offer you but it is inadmissible that someone track you behind your PC without your knowledge. And on this point, it seems that Microsoft has made a lot of progress…But not in a good way.
Windows 11: the spy that wants you well?
If we are to refer to the latest video from The PC Security Channel (TPCSC), our friendly Windows 11 would be a real little reporter regarding data about users’ online preferences and behavior. The author of the video used Wireshark, a well-known network protocol analyzer to see what’s going on in the network. To do this he simply started with a freshly installed new laptop with Windows 11. The first observation that shocked the author was that after the first boot, Windows 11 immediately tried to reach a remote server without any authorization or prior intervention from the user. Nothing alarming so far, but by pushing the analysis, he also found that Windows 11 connected to many online services provided by Microsoft, such as MSN, the Bing engine and obviously Windows Update. But where it gets embarrassing is that W11 also tried to get in touch with third-party services (installed without any approval obviously) to tell important things to Steam, McAfee and Comscore ScorecardResearch.com. The latter is simply a market research provider that “studies and reports on Internet trends and behavior”. And that’s the problem, because upon further analysis, we discover a priori that many of the initial Windows 11 DNS queries were designed to provide “telemetry” data to market research companies, advertising providers, and even geolocation-related domains such as geo.prod.do without any required authorization or web browsing activity.
So of course, only those who have something to worry about can worry… But not only. This real probe that Microsoft sticks in your hands is potentially there to feed other business than the sale of Windows licenses…And that, Microsoft does not talk about it.
