It’s not a security flaw, it’s by design. Microsoft has been building this surveillance apparatus for years, and the purchase of government access to your computer and data using your tax dollars is a lucrative alignment of state and corporate power. Their recent design choices point to a rabid desperation to turn your PC into an Apple-style walled-garden.
It goes like this:
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Require online Microsoft account creation.
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Require TPM compliance to run Windows.
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Forcibly encrypt the user’s data under the guise of “security”, even without permission or even user action. (Encryption is good! Right?)
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Link your identity, payment information, data, online activity, and encryption keys to your hardware ID.
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Record everything you do and use that data to train an AI model with onboard tensor hardware.
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Exfiltrate the entire model, or just query it remotely for “online services.” Or, in this case, just have MS give you the fucking recovery keys. lol
All done “securely” with tamper resistance and mathematical verifiability that whatever is on your device is yours, and that you took that action with limited plausible deniability.
If you think you’ve got nothing to hide, think again about the current activities of ICE, law enforcement investigations based on reproductive health data, the pornography suppression movement, age verification, and the data harvesting of dissenting speech. What’s legal today can quickly become “illegal” tomorrow. The constitution is just a piece of paper in a fancy climate controlled box.
Linux, people. Linux.
Suggest Pop!_OS for the fearful.
Suggest Pop!_OS for the fearful.
Mint, I think you mean Mint.
If they were that interested, why would they push encryption at all?
That’s a great question, and it is because it enables a chain of cryptographic controls that enable verification, tamper resistance, and secrecy while selling Bitlocker as computer security. It is technically secure, except that MS has your recovery keys and can just give them to whoever they want, like the FBI!
This way, they can mathematically verify:
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Who you are and the exact unique machine you use (verification from a unique machine ID associated with your encryption keys and Windows account data)
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Know that the data has not been altered in transit (tamper resistant hashing of your data)
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No one else knows except them (secret encryption keys stored in hardware that only Microsoft controls, not you, Microsoft)
This architecture also keeps their data on your machine secure. If someone maintains an encrypted archive on your hard drive that only they control the keys to, say like a movie or a video game, who owns that data really? If it’s decrypted only for authorized use, you’re really only renting that content from the owner. This is called Digital Rights Management, and it’s much easier when this security chain is in place.
Technically they could do this remotely if they really wanted to and your machine were powered. Imagine what you could do with this power for every Windows machine on the planet.
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Why can’t just one of our companies not be blood-sucking assholes?
*laughs in rich*
It’s all being dumped into data centers now. Google and Meta don’t need your face to prove who you are to create a new login, they need it to link data. What’s awful is the need to log in is so intense, it worked. Apparently YouTube aspirations are worth it. And shopping Facebook marketplace.
Now, Amazon isn’t allowing returns for many an individual without a pic or upload of government issued ID. Amazon allowed you to both pay and have an item shipped without this ID. But for a return, they now need it. I’m not saying this ask isn’t multipurpose, but it also links your data together and is probably being dumped into data centers with everything else.
My point is, it’s not just Microsoft’s choices.
Because if a company gives up profits to be nice, another company will swoop in and get inherently rewarded by doing the profitable thing instead
Why would a company not be, not like people are going to stop using Windows
If only there were another operating system that people could use rather than have their privacy and security raked over the coals by poor design fueled by next quarter’s profits.
It’s a shame that, according to a recent study of social media respondents, 98% of the Internet are Professional Valorant streamers, who play League of Legends and side hustle as a Mechanical Engineer and Digital Artist or they could browse around the world of alternative operating system and mayhaps find some other Operating System which fits their needs (TempleOS).
LINUX.
So glad im on Linux
🐧
If they’re selling bitlocker as “full-disk encryption”, doesn’t that open them up to a class action since encryption with a backdoor isn’t encryption?
Nah, it’s encryption all right, they just back up the key in case you lose it. Which is a feature. https://aka.ms/bitlockerrecovery
I hear iMessage e2e-encrypted messages are also backed up into cloud as plaintext…
Apple did add a new feature to iCloud called Advanced Data Protection, which enables E2E encryption on iCloud contents, which includes message and device backups.
After enabling this, it is likely prudent to regenerate FileVault keys. It’s also notable that for the initial setup of macOS, it does offer you to forego uploading the recovery key to iCloud, but selecting this option presents a warning stating that Apple will be unable to help you retrieve your data if you lose it. Thus, I am certain most Mac users just upload them to iCloud, which opens them up to exactly the same issue as in the article, but does help protect against thieves or adversaries with brief device access.
I have tried to convince Apple users I know to enable ADP, but I have been faced with the expected dismissal of it being unnecessary because they are not interesting, etc.
More people need to engage in a culture of security and privacy when it comes to their digital lives.
Edit: added missing word
One more reason never to use a
MicrosoftMicroslop product.Don’t store your secrets on the cloud.
EVER.
sentiment yes but there are FOSS tools to store things in google/microsoft/apple drives or the various object stores (s3, backblaze, etc) that work just like the various drives, but with end to end encryption where you control the keys
in general just don’t let anyone else control your encryption keys… where you store things is almost beside the point
bonus: encryption means they can’t dedupe/compress so you get to waste their money
Could you point me in the right direction for these tools?
Apple is more secure than microsoft.
Apple markets security well, but this isn’t about apple vs microsoft vs google. All of them work with governments and collect data. “more secure” depends on threat model, configuration and transparency; not the brand.
We are not talking about privacy, right… They are making the world safe for us within no privacy… very well :)
