{"id":16301,"date":"2019-09-12T10:30:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T18:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/09\/12\/news-10043\/"},"modified":"2019-09-12T10:30:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T18:30:05","slug":"news-10043","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/09\/12\/news-10043\/","title":{"rendered":"Heads up: Microsoft is back to snooping with this month\u2019s Win7 and 8.1 'security-only' patches"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 09:32:00 -0700<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two months ago, the July Win7 security-only patch was <\/span>found to install telemetry software<\/span><\/a>, triggered by newly installed scheduled tasks called ProgramDataUpdater, Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser, and AitAgent. As best I can tell, Microsoft never admitted that its security-only patch dropped a telemetry component. <\/span><\/p>\n

The August security-only update didn\u2019t include that bit of snooping, so it looked like the July snooping was a one-off aberration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re learning that the September security-only patches for both Win 7 and Win 8.1 have this, shall we say, feature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in July, the excuses given for the snooping behavior struck me as disingenuous. Microsoft never commented, but those who defended the sneaky practice referred to the fact that Win7 is approaching end of support, and Microsoft needed the telemetry to help Win7 users move on to greener pastures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those excuses don\u2019t work an more. Windows 8.1 doesn\u2019t reach end of support until Jan. 10, 2023. And if the telemetry is intended to improve Win 8.1 features, I\u2019d like to hear about just one feature improvement in the past four years.<\/span><\/p>\n

What information is Microsoft collecting? I don\u2019t know. Telemetry is frequently downplayed as being largely uninteresting blobs of unattributed data. If that\u2019s the case, why is Microsoft collecting it now, after all these years? It hasn\u2019t even acknowledged (as best I can tell) that it’s collecting it via security-only patches.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve already installed one of this month\u2019s security-only patches, you can blunt the \u201cphone home\u201d portion by following <\/span>@abbodi86\u2019s advice<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Disabling (or deleting) these schedule tasks after installation (before reboot) should be enough to turn off the appraiser<\/span><\/p>\n

MicrosoftWindowsApplication ExperienceProgramDataUpdater<\/span><\/p>\n

MicrosoftWindowsApplication ExperienceMicrosoft Compatibility Appraiser<\/span><\/p>\n

MicrosoftWindowsApplication ExperienceAitAgent<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, there\u2019s a thorough checklist and walkthrough in AskWoody Knowledge Base article <\/span>AKB2000012 <\/span><\/a>\u2013 Neutralize Telemetry & Sustain Win 7, 8.1 Monthly Rollup Model.<\/span><\/p>\n

What on earth are they thinking?<\/span><\/p>\n

Seriously. Tell me about it on <\/span><\/i>AskWoody<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/category\/security\/index.rss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 09:32:00 -0700<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Two months ago, the July Win7 security-only patch was <\/span>found to install telemetry software<\/span><\/a>, triggered by newly installed scheduled tasks called ProgramDataUpdater, Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser, and AitAgent. As best I can tell, Microsoft never admitted that its security-only patch dropped a telemetry component. <\/span><\/p>\n

The August security-only update didn\u2019t include that bit of snooping, so it looked like the July snooping was a one-off aberration.<\/span><\/p>\n

To read this article in full, please click here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[11062,10643],"tags":[10516,5897,714,10525],"class_list":["post-16301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computerworld","category-independent","tag-microsoft","tag-privacy","tag-security","tag-windows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}