Microsoft has finally broken the silence, responding to Windows 10 privacy concerns in a post on the Windows Experience blog.
Unfortunately, the post does little to address actual concerns, instead making a lot of vague promises about not using your data to target ads “Unlike some other platforms” (a clear reference to Google reading your GMail communication to target ads).
For example, there’s nothing about Windows 10’s persistent and frequent communication with Microsoft servers, even when privacy-compromising settings are disabled.
Techdirt, Ars Technica and The Verge have additional analysis.
A strange – and possibly harmful – update started being delivered to Windows computers yesterday. Early speculation ranged from problems with the Windows Update infrastructure to the service being compromised by attackers.
Microsoft eventually weighed in, saying that the update was part of a test, and that it was never intended to end up on user computers.
Apparently the update was installed on some Windows 7 computers, at least one of which was rendered nearly inoperable, according to the user.
Presumably there will be additional followup from Microsoft. This is the kind of problem that makes people (including myself) justifiably nervous about the forced automatic updates in Windows 10.
Ars Technica has additional details.
The latest Firefox fixes a few bugs that caused crashes and hangs in relation to Flash, bookmarks, and Facebook. There are no security-related changes in this release.
The version 41.0.1 release notes provide additional detail.
It looks like Mozilla finally decided to stop putting all previous release notes for the associated major version on every release notes page. Instead, they’re adding a link to the major version’s release notes at the top of the What’s New list. Unfortunately, they managed to mess that up with this release, because the Reference: Release notes for Firefox 41.0 link actually points to the notes for Firefox 40.0. Here’s a link to the Firefox 41 notes.
Rants and musings on topics of interest. Sometimes about Windows, Linux, security and cool software.
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