Microsoft Is Now Sending User Tracking Updates to Windows 7 and 8

Secrecy hasn’t been Microsoft’s strongest suite. As if privacy concerns with its chief OS, Windows 10, weren’t enough to make you lose your sleep, the previous two versions are being riddled with privacy invasions as well.

According to Ghacks.net, several new user-tracking updates have been rolled out recently to Windows 7 and 8. Described as an “Update for Customer experience and diagnostic telemetry”, the three updates can all potentially send your details to Microsoft:

• KB3068708– “This update introduces the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices. By applying this service, you can add benefits from the latest version of Windows to systems that have not yet upgraded. The update also supports applications that are subscribed to Visual Studio Application Insights.” This update replaced KB3022345.
• KB3075249– “This update adds telemetry points to the User Account Control (UAC) feature to collect information on elevations that come from low integrity levels.”
• KB3080149– “This package updates the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices. This service provides benefits from the latest version of Windows to systems that have not yet upgraded. The update also supports applications that are subscribed to Visual Studio Application Insights.”

The last of these updates falls under “Recommended” so if you have are part of Microsoft’s Customer Experience Improvement Program, it will be installed automatically and scratching it out won’t be really easy after all.

What’s important to note is that all this data collection taking place is virtually unstoppable. And no, they can’t be fully disabled with the use of a privacy tool, either as they’re hard-coded to bypass the Windows HOSTS file. You’ll need a firewall with HTTPS blocking and manual configuration to block KB3068708.

The most-straightforward thing you can do is to uninstall the mentioned updates and prevent them from installing again. Also hide them from recommended and optional updates (any corresponding place i.e.) to prevent them from appearing again.

Still, with Windows 10 already installed on 75 million systems worldwide and counting, one can only imagine the extent of easy pickings for data-collectors.

Credits to Ghacks, ExtremeTech, PCWorld