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More privacy rights eroded

Yesterday the  United States Senate voted to let Internet service providers (ISP’s) sell your usage data to any and all advertisers. So if you wonder why when you go to a “questionable” website and then start seeing ads for the same kind of thing shortly after your visit, you will now know why.

But this goes deeper. What if your into off road motorcycles and visit lots of websites about the sport. Would your health and auto insurance shoot up because now anybody can buy a look at your interests and see your into “risky” activities?

Since this is now legal your only defense would be to hide your browser activities. Look for my post about VPN’s if you wish to protect yourself.

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Two US firms lost 100 million to email scam

The BBC is reporting today the two firms in the United States fell victim to an email phishing scam where a man posing as an Asian manufacturer,  tricked employees into transferring money into bank accounts under his control.

While many think that just Grandma falls for these scams, it’s important to note that they can happen to anybody not practicing good computer security habits.

Via: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39351215

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Microsoft now determines when your computer is active?

Been working on a machine that had it’s updates corrupted. After getting them fixed and caught up, I went into settings to change the computers active times as I know this person is up late with their computer and is online over 16 hours a day.

The picture below shows that Microsoft will not let you set the systems active time for more then 12 hours. In other words in Microsoft’s view nobody should be using their computer more then 12 hours a day?  Weird if you ask me.

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What happens if / when the FCC relaxes your privacy protections?

It seems that on a number of fronts the new administration wishes to let companies use your data to make a bigger profit, while trashing any last remnant of privacy for their clients.

If old privacy rules are allowed to be weakened or removed altogether you can expect the these thing to occur in quick order…

1. Selling your data to marketers. After all they would love to know all your kinks so they can insert adds for your fav bull whip. 🙂

2. Hijacking your searches. Why should you get to choose where your information comes from?

3. Snooping through your traffic and inserting ads. What, you don’t want somebody looking at what your doing?

4. Pre-installing software on your phone and recording every URL you visit. It’s not like the police, NAS or CIA have ever used any of this information before against anybody, right?

You only get tot keep the rights you stand up for and protect. So it’s up to you if you will keep the freedom you expect on the Internet or let others take it from you.

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Microsoft seems not to care how much their updates will cost you.

If your on a high speed, unlimited connection, Microsoft updates should be installed as they come out to insure you have a more stable and in most cases secure computer.

But many people (AT&T I am talking about you) have low bandwidth, low data cap plans that price gouge you and / or throttle your speed after you hit their cap (22 gigs if your on a AT&T “Unlimited” plan).

So if your a Netflix / Youtube junkie with 5 other people on your “Unlimited” plan most of your data is maxed out by the end of the month.  But Microsoft makes no real effort to help you by letting you choose what to install (or not install). So your Internet data costs are now determined by Microsoft and not by you.

Via: Engadget

https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/19/windows-10-to-push-key-updates-on-limited-data-plans/

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Turn off ads in Windows 10 Explorer View

A few years back when Microsoft started pushing Windows 10 I had a bunch of clients asking me why they were going to give it away for free. My answer at the times was 1. It would not be free forever and would be sold as (Windows as a service) aka, be turned into a subscription service (See the new versions of Office ).

Or 2. Microsoft would turn Windows into a AD platform. Pushing ads to end users while they work on “their” computers.

Lately it seems that my 2nd prediction is coming true as Microsoft is now pushing ads not only in the main menu and start screens but also in File explorer.

Needless to say this is pretty annoying as most don’t want to see them when their looking for a report or Grandma’s pictures.

After playing around a bit I have come across a way to get rid of the ads in file explorer and this should work for a time until Microsoft forces a update to “fix” this fix.

Here is how to turn off ads in Windows 10 File explorer…

 

  1. Start File explorer and then click View > Options > Change folder and search options.
  2. In the Folder options pop up, select the View tab.
  3. Next,  in the Advanced Settings box, scroll down and un-check the option “Show sync provider notifications.”
  4. Click, OK.
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4 computer repairs before …

9am already finished. 5 more to go and I’ll be in the shop most of the weekend between other service calls. Looks like people are dug out of the snow and getting things in order now, lol 🙂

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Catch up day

In the computer repair shop, catching up on work and getting ready for what looks like  a busy weekend so far. Already mostly booked for next week as well.

A few hours here and then a bunch of drop offs of repaired systems this afternoon.

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Sunday in the shop

Here in the shop early this Sunday to do a bunch of in house computer repairs. And also getting ready for a busy week as I am already booked out till Friday morning.

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Some users being locked out of MS accounts

It seems some of Microsoft’s authentication services have gone down this morning. If you can’t get into your computer or other device just wait. Don’t panic and try to re-install your O/S or reset your phones.

This is the reason I prefer to still install local accounts on new computers.