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I don’t use Skype anymore, but I was able to successfully block Skype updates by blocking their update server. I do this VIA DNS blacklisting, but it should work using firewalls and such. This is their update server:
ui.skype.com
Blocking access to this site will block the downloading of new Skype updates. If a package has already been downloaded, it won’t stop that install. I don’t remember where Skype downloads update packages to on the hard drive as you could delete it there as well if one exists. By blocking the update server, I was able to avoid updates completely. That may have changed in the time I have abandoned it, but hopefully, it still does work.
You can also block Skype’s ad servers if you wish:
- g.msn.com
- apps.skype.com
Hope that helps. I should note that blocking apps.skype.com will also block the Skype home page. I didn’t care since it served no benefit to me, but worth a mention.
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Much more than the majority
You’re a good man, Woody. I take back what I said, you do whatever you have to do. That’s a ton of money for one man to be putting into a website. I’m thankful just to be able to participate here at all.
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All in, the site and newsletter cost more than $10,000/month
So.. what you’re saying is you’ve been paying the majority of that out of pocket all this time? That’s way more than I would have expected.
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Well, I was more replying to the previous poster’s opinion that he believes the only reason Microsoft would do this is for the purposes of improving Skype or other MS programs and that MS doesn’t engage in data collection for any reason other than product improvement.
As to your post, you make some valid points. I would say that I am not necessarily complaining that the service was rendered, but if that service is the only reason for the invasion. I don’t believe for one second that they are only monitoring Skype calls for the purposes of translation services. The NSA has bragged about being able to listen to Skype calls in the past, so what purpose would that have for improving translation services? Is the NSA rendering those services? Why would Microsoft help the NSA circumvent their own encryption in order to do this?
I won’t get further off topic on this as I’m sure the mods here love me dearly enough already, but it’s more that it has already been definitively demonstrated that they are not only interested in improving their services. If that were true, they’d have actual in-house testing going on perpetually to improve this service as opposed to making once secure connections insecure by handing encryption keys and access of collected data over to government agencies. That’s all I’m saying.
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https://edri.org/microsofts-new-small-print-how-your-personal-data-abused/
Collecting things like your communications such as the content of emails and text messages, contact list information, search engine history and so on have nothing to do with product improvement. Microsoft has Windows and the Cloud. They don’t need to plant stuff all over websites like Google does though they now have Chromebooks and their browser helps as well.
Also, PRISM. Microsoft shares this collected data with government agencies who can access said data any time they like. Are they getting free access? These participating companies are surely getting something out of this. MS and these other tech companies can say whatever they want about how they value your privacy and don’t share your data, but Snowden released classified US documents proving that they are liars each and every time they utter those words or include them in their privacy policies.
So, unless one believes he has been forced to live in exile in an enemy country and is wanted on charges of espionage for releasing information that wasn’t true and hasn’t been verified as true since then, any claims of protecting privacy or being benevolent in their data collection methods falls on deaf ears unless those ears prefer to engage in selective hearing and revision. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Google and MS do it differently, but they definitely both do it.
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No surprises at all that these devices are used to listen in on things going on in your house when you’re not using it. These things are listening devices that, AFAIK, can’t be disabled. They are always listening and don’t think for a second Apple devices are the only ones doing this. Apple, after all, is also in the PRISM program and it’s amazing they or any of these big tech companies still have a reputation for privacy at all.
This is just another price people pay for convenience; that strangers in a room somewhere are going to hear what’s going on in your bedroom, living room and wherever else you may have one of these things set up. I’ll never have one and this is just another thing that people should have taken as a given right from the start when they decided it was a good idea to bring one of these devices into their homes especially in this era of big brother surveillance.
They even figured out a way to package and market it to people so that they will willingly and gleefully buy the devices to bug their own homes and welcome surveillance into their most private spaces. Of course, your phone can also do this if you’re not careful with what apps you grant microphone access to. Have to really think twice before doing anything tech in today’s world.
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So, does this mean there are folks who want this to happen? There’s now an online tutorial explaining how to use BlueKeep on a Microsoft-owned website? Sweet. They might want to do something about that, but then again maybe not.
I’m still waiting for Spectre/Meltdown exploits to be in the wild from a year and a half ago to make all the performance losses from the patches worth it for those who installed them. I guess this online tutorial is an attempt to make sure this isn’t just FUD and something actually comes of it this time.
It’s a shame FUD works so well on people even techies, but if this tutorial does cause exploits to be released into the wild, it’s on a Microsoft-owned site and are therefore responsible for it to some degree, are they not?
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I mentioned Net Neutrality and Internet Privacy protections separately for that reason, but they are both under the same umbrella. Your comment about VPN’s isn’t entirely accurate. While there are plenty of people who fit that mold, I know 6 or 7 people who aren’t in the least bit tech savvy, yet pay for a VPN on their mobile devices. VPN awareness is creeping into the non-techy world and they are effortlessly easy to use especially on mobile, so it’s not like you have to be tech savvy at all to use one. Of course, I also know people who don’t know and don’t care what a VPN is, but many of them wouldn’t need one anyway. Just because people like that exist does not free those who are aware of what’s going on from the responsibility to fight against it on the behalf of everyone else.
More people care about this and are becoming aware of it than you think. VPN usage is going up even more sharply in countries where censorship and surveillance are more prevalent, but are significantly increasing worldwide. People do use them for other reasons, but all involve getting around government censorship and restrictions of the flow of information while being able to do so virtually anonymously. I don’t agree that it’s a done deal at all. That is far too much of a defeatist a view for me especially since there is good reason to believe otherwise.
I think that it was estimated that 90 million people in China use VPNs and many of them are ordinary people. You have to use one just to get over the great firewall. Regular folks in Indonesia have to use VPN’s just to access social media. This isn’t restricted to just tech people because the forces pushing people to use VPNs extend far beyond the techie world.
Moderator Note: VPNs , Net Neutrality and political implicatons are off-topic. Please stay on topic here.
Rebuttal Note: You’re right, my bad. Got carried away with the discussion there.
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What about the 98% of the country who were against overturning Net Neutrality and Internet Privacy protections? It was done anyway, but against the will of the majority of people living here. Do you think those people freely exchanging their privacy to use social media would choose to share all of that data if they could say no and still use the services? Uploading selfies is privacy given up intentionally and voluntarily.
There is still a fight going on over all this stuff and the spike in VPN usage (almost 200% increase) in response to the Net Neutrality situation shows that people DO care about their privacy. The spike continues and it’s happening worldwide. It’s not just dinosaurs, it’s a growing majority of people. Some countries have even made them illegal to prevent citizens from having privacy online and hiding their activities from government surveillance.
As long as your VPN keeps no logs of personal information (several don’t, a few have been audited to prove they don’t), so the opposite of “letting it go” is occurring fortunately. People are fighting it and they should fight it if they care at all about this stuff. Not fighting it means that people don’t care what their government is doing and never deserved internet freedom/privacy/net neutrality in the first place.
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Relax, guys. It’s just crash data. Nothing to see here.
On a more serious note, is anyone really surprised? It has been public for seven years at least that MS collects your personal information and gives whoever they want access to it. Anything new including fully patched legacy Windows systems. I have no regrets being in Group W for this long. None. Saw this coming years ago and I’m glad this came out now. Fortunately, not many people use IE or Edge, but I don’t think for one second that this is all they’re collecting. Not even close.
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