Microsoft Finally Reveals What Data Windows 10 Collects From Your PC




Since the dispatch of Windows 10, there has been across the board worry about its information gathering rehearses, for the most part on the grounds that Microsoft has been exceptionally cryptic about the telemetry information it gathers. 

Presently, this will be changed, as Microsoft needs to be more straightforward on its diagnostics information gathering rehearses. 

Till now there are three choices (Basic, Enhanced, Full) for Windows 10 clients to choose from under its diagnostics information accumulation segment, with no choice for clients to quit sending their information to Microsoft. 

Likewise, the organization has never said exactly what information it gathers behind these alternatives, which raised colossal protection worries among security cognizant clients. 

In any case, now surprisingly, Microsoft has uncovered what information Windows 10 is gathering from your PC with the arrival of the Windows 10 Creators Update, conveying a conclusion to about two years of its strange information accumulation rehearses. 

The Windows 10 Creators Update, which will be accessible from April 11 for clients to download for nothing, accompanies a patched up Privacy settings segment. 

 

Amid the way toward moving up to the Creators Update, you will be shown another Privacy Settings screen that will request that you flip the accompanying elements: 

Area – Allow Windows and applications to ask for your area and impart that information to Microsoft. 

Discourse Recognition – Allow Cortana and Windows Store applications to perceive your voice and send that information to Microsoft to enhance discourse acknowledgment. 

Customized encounters with symptomatic information – Allow Microsoft to utilize indicative information from your PC to offer tips and proposals. 

Pertinent promotions – Allow applications to utilize publicizing IDs to show advertisements all the more fascinating to you in view of your application use. 

Also? On Wednesday, Microsoft distributed a huge rundown of diagnostics information – both the Basic and Full levels of diagnostics – on its TechNet site, indicating what information gets gathered. 

Essential – The Basic level gathers a restricted arrangement of information that is basic for understanding the gadget and its design. This information incorporates essential gadget data, quality-related data, application similarity, and Windows Store. 

Full – The Full level gathers information for the accompanying nine classes: regular information; programming setup and stock information; item and administration utilization information; perusing, pursuit and question information; content utilization information; connecting, writing, and discourse articulation information; and authorizing and buy information. 

 

Windows boss Terry Myerson said in a blog entry distributed Wednesday that Microsoft trusted the straightforwardness would permit clients to make "more educated decisions" as the organization begins revealing its new Creators refresh to the working framework. 

This more straightforwardness in get-together demonstrative information following two years of the Windows 10 discharge is likely Microsoft's reaction to European Union controllers that is openly constraining the organization about its protection rehearses for as long as year. 

In February, European Union controllers said they're as yet unsatisfied with the protection changes declared by Microsoft and looking for further elucidation from the organization. 


Marisa Rogers, the security officer of the Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group, said that the organization is wanting to "share more data about how [it] will guarantee Windows 10 is consistent with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation."

WTF is a VPN?

You’re watching a movie. A criminal is trying to evade a crime scene in a sports car on the highway. A helicopter is following the car from above. The car enters a tunnel with multiple exits and the helicopter loses track of the car.

A VPN works just like the tunnel in this movie scene — it connects different roads and turns them into one, and a helicopter can’t see what’s happening inside the tunnel.

I’m sure many people around you have recommended you a VPN service. They usually tell you that a VPN is great, it lets you watch geo-blocked content, avoid the Great Firewall of China or browse the internet securely. VPNs are great, sometimes. But using a VPN can be as dangerous as not using one if you don’t know what you’re doing.

What the hell is a VPN?

If you have multiple computers, phones and tablets at home, you are using a local area network. These devices are all connected to the same Wi-Fi network and you can even transfer photos or movies from one computer to another without using the internet. Local area networks are private networks by design.

A VPN is a virtual private network. It lets you remotely connect to a private network. For instance, your office might be using a VPN for remote employees. This way, you can establish a connection with your company’s intranet and use your computer as if it were in the office. You’re virtually in the office, using your company’s Wi-Fi network.

Using a VPN is quite simple. Usually, a company or a developer installs a VPN server on a computer at home, in your office or in a data center. Then, users with the right credentials can connect to this server using a VPN client. There are many VPN clients out there on computers, mobile devices and even routers. Windows, Android, iOS and macOS even come with a basic VPN client in your device’s settings.

Let’s say you’re establishing a VPN connection on your computer. Your computer and the VPN server will start a point-to-point connection and all your network traffic will go through this connection. Think about this connection as a tunnel between your computer and a server. This tunnel is usually encrypted, and everything goes through the tunnel, from one end to another.

Why should I use a VPN?

Many of you probably first started using a VPN for work, especially when you’re working from home. There are a few advantages in using a VPN for a company. For example, it lets employees access office servers that aren’t connected to the internet, as you’re all connected to the same private network. Back in the days before cloud-hosted Office 365 servers or the G Suite, many companies were managing their own email and calendar servers. IT services could force you to connect to the company’s VPN first to access your emails and calendar events. It’s a good way to protect sensitive information.

But there are a few drawbacks as well. When you use a VPN connection, all network traffic goes through the VPN, including your internet traffic. Your company’s IT service could enforce strict browsing rules and prevent you from using Twitter. Or they could even watch and record your internet browsing habits to find a good excuse to fire you later down the road (too much Reddit, kthxbye).

But office environments aren’t the only use case for a VPN. If you live outside of the U.S., you know that a VPN can save the day when you’re trying to stream something from HBO Now, Netflix’s U.S. movie library, Hulu or one of the many streaming services that restrict you from using them abroad.

Many companies provide access to a bunch of servers around the world so that you can pretend you’re in another country. As I told you, once you set up a VPN connection, all network traffic goes through a tunnel and HBO’s servers will think that they’re sending data to a customer in the U.S. They’re sending data to an American IP address indeed (the address of the server), but everything is then sent through the VPN tunnel to your device on the other side of the world.

Sometimes, the VPN server doesn’t have enough bandwidth to upload the movie through the tunnel in a good resolution and your movie will look like crap. Sometimes, content companies like Netflix try to ban IP addresses that belong to well-known VPN servers, rendering this trick useless.

And finally, if you’ve traveled to China or another country that blocks many internet services, you’ve been relying on a VPN to connect to Gmail, Facebook or Twitter. China blocks websites at the network level. You need to connect to a VPN server outside of China to access those websites. Just like Netflix, the Chinese government tries to ban IP addresses of popular VPN services, making it more difficult to establish a reliable connection with a server outside of China.

Should I use a VPN to be secure on the internet?

Many coffee shops or hotels don’t spend too much time securing their Wi-Fi networks. Just like at home, it means that a user can see another user’s computer on the local network. And if there’s a hacker in your favorite coffee shop, they could snoop on your internet traffic to learn some information about you.

This was a serious issue a few years ago. Many websites didn’t use a secure connection on their login page. Hackers could get your bank account’s login and password and steal all your money.

Not using the Wi-Fi network at all was the best way to avoid that. But if you really needed to checked your email account, you could use a trustworthy VPN server to prevent snooping — nobody can see what’s happening in the tunnel.

Things have changed quite a lot. Now, a vast majority of internet services have switched to HTTPS and end-to-end encryption to make sure that nobody can see your private information, even without a VPN.

All of this leads me to today’s false assumptions about VPNs. No, a VPN doesn’t mean that you’ll be more secure on the internet. It depends on the VPN server.

When you use a VPN to change your country, avoid censorship or protect your connection in a coffee shop, the VPN server at the other end can see all your network traffic. You’re just moving the risk down the VPN tunnel, and it can be quite dangerous if you’re not careful enough.

Assume that all the free VPN apps that you see in the App Store and Google Play are free for a reason. They’ll analyze your browsing habits, sell them to advertisers, inject their own ads on non-secure pages or steal your identity. You should avoid free VPNs at all costs.

When it comes to paid options, some of them promise you internet privacy for $5, $10 or $20 per month. But look at the privacy policy and terms of service first. I’ve seen plenty of VPNs that log your internet traffic, share information with law enforcement and more. Read the small print.

And even if the privacy policy looks good, you’ll have to blindly trust them as it’s hard to verify that they actually do what they promise they’re doing. In many cases, a secure home connection with a MAC address whitelist is better than connecting to some random company’s VPN server. You don’t want to give a stranger your home keys even if they say that they promise they won’t break into your house.

As for encryption, some protocols aren’t as secure as you might think. L2TP with a pre-shared key for authentication can be decrypted for instance, destroying the concept of the unbreachable tunnel. A secure server running OpenVPN with a server certificate is more robust.

All of this might sound a bit complicated, but the bottom line is quite simple: a VPN is great and can fill different needs, but don’t do business with someone shady.

Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning

What Is The Difference Between Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are two very hot buzzwords right now, and often seem to be used interchangeably.

They are not quite the same thing, but the perception that they are can sometimes lead to some confusion. So I thought it would be worth writing a piece to explain the difference.

Both terms crop up very frequently when the topic is Big Data, analytics, and the broader waves of technological change which are sweeping through our world.

In short, the best answer is that:

Artificial Intelligence is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way that we would consider “smart”.

And,

Machine Learning is a current application of AI based around the idea that we should really just be able to give machines access to data and let them learn for themselves.

Early Days

Artificial Intelligence has been around for a long time – the Greek myths contain stories of mechanical men designed to mimic our own behavior. Very early European computers were conceived as “logical machines” and by reproducing capabilities such as basic arithmetic and memory, engineers saw their job, fundamentally, as attempting to create mechanical brains.

As technology, and, importantly, our understanding of how our minds work, has progressed, our concept of what constitutes AI has changed. Rather than increasingly complex calculations, work in the field of AI concentrated on mimicking human decision making processes and carrying out tasks in ever more human ways.

Artificial Intelligences – devices designed to act intelligently – are often classified into one of two fundamental groups – applied or general. Applied AI is far more common – systems designed to intelligently trade stocks and shares, or manoeuvre an autonomous vehicle would fall into this category.

Generalized AIs – systems or devices which can in theory handle any task – are less common, but this is where some of the most exciting advancements are happening today. It is also the area that has led to the development of Machine Learning. Often referred to as a subset of AI, it’s really more accurate to think of it as the current state-of-the-art.

The Rise of Machine Learning 

Two important breakthroughs led to the emergence of Machine Learning as the vehicle which is driving AI development forward with the speed it currently has.

10 biggest hacks,protect yourself in 2017

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

How Does an IP Address Give Away Your Location?

While it's true that your IP address doesn't reveal your address or identity, it can reveal to someone what city or even general area you are in...within several miles in some instances. And it does it in an instant. (Remember—only people with some technical know-how can do that. The average person won't have a clue.)

That amazing technological feat is made possible by something called geolocation software. Like something from a movie, geolocation software first zeroes in on your country, and then your region, city, and often finally your ZIP code.

But what exactly is geolocation software, and does it work?

How they know where we are.

For the most part, anyone (an individual or business) can pay for geolocation services through a subscription service. There are also free geolocation services available, but the paid services tend to provide location services that are more accurate at zeroing in on a ZIP code level, for instance.

Geolocation services have access to a number of databases (different kinds) that give them the information needed to locate someone online through their IP address. A primary source for IP address data is the Regional Internet Registries. These are large, official organizations responsible for managing and distributing IP addresses in specific regions of the world. You can read more about RIRs here. The RIR for North America is called the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN).

That's just a start. To further zero in, geolocation services use other sources to try to find the location of your IP address. In the same way gold diggers mine for gold, geolocation services mine for data by digging for more information until they reach their objective...your neighborhood.

A service might probe data sources where your IP address has shown up before. For example, if you went to an online weather site and typed in your city or ZIP code, that information was linked to your IP address because you made the request online in real time. (That's why you get such instant and accurate weather data with a simple query.)

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) also may contribute information to databases that is helpful to geolocation services. The services might use statistical formulas and other sophisticated analytical tools and analyze the data submitted by us in our specific online activities. This helps them fine-tune their search and improve their service to subscribers.

Here's how IP2Location, a geolocation provider, describes its product in a sales pitch:

"IP2LocationTM is a non-intrusive geo IP solution to help you to identify [a] visitor's geographical location, i.e.[,] country, region, city, latitude, longitude, ZIP code, time zone, connection speed, ISP, domain name, IDD country code, area code, weather station code and name, mobile carrier, elevation and usage type information using a proprietary IP address lookup database and technology without invading the Internet user's privacy. The solution is available as [a] database, programming API and hosted solution. Request your free copy of the demo database today."

Serious business.

Geolocation services weren't and aren't designed to be harmful. In fact, in many ways they're highly beneficial for many of the industries and organizations that use them. The services are used in legitimate and important business practices in a variety of industries, including banking, telecommunications, travel, hospitality, entertainment and law enforcement. Banks themselves prevent "phishing" attacks, money laundering and other security breaches by determining the user's location as part of the authentication process.

Law enforcement will use the service to track online financial transactions to prevent money laundering. Investigative agencies will use geolocation to monitor online trafficking with suspected terrorist organizations, or online trading with banned nations. Geolocation services protect banks from transferring funds for illicit purposes.

IP address geolocation is also used in online fraud detection. Companies that sell merchandise online, credit card providers, and companies that handle online payments use geolocation to prevent fraudulent transactions. Here's how:

A customer puts in an order for valuable items. As the transaction is being processed, a company will compare the billing address, where the merchandise is to be sent, to the location of the IP address of the online customer. If a geolocation service reveals the online shopper is somewhere in China, but their shipment is going to a ZIP code in Charlotte, North Carolina, that could signal a fraudulent transaction—the shipment address might be a drop point for illegal activity. (At that point, the company would request more information to complete the transaction.)

Geolocation on your side.

If you visit the Trace Email page on our website, you can learn how to extract someone's IP address from their email to you. You can then use our Trace Email Analyzer to find the location of the person.

Why bother? Well, if an email from cousin Bernie says he's trapped overseas and needs money for a plane ticket back to the U.S., but his IP address reveals that he's really in Florida, there's a good chance it's not Bernie sending you the message. And you won't be out $1,000.

5 Everyday Habits That Kill Your Intelligence

You have already worked a lot to increase your intelligence and this is something you don’t want to lose. Many things you probably do every day have a negative influence on your brain and kill your intelligence. Fortunately, there are ways to avoid them.

1. Multitasking

Reading this article while watching TV and answering your text messages may make you think you are simply doing more things in a shorter amount of time, but it actually is not a good idea. Multimedia multitasking lowers gray matter density, affecting your cognitive and emotional control. People who constantly use gadgets can not concentrate and recall information as well as those who don’t. So, in fact,multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time.

2. Poor Nutrition

You should be concerned about consuming saturated fats and sugar not only for the sake of your health but also because such kind of foods reduce your cognitive flexibility, which is the ability to adapt to changing situations, and can affect your memory and ability to learn. Your brain (as well as your stomach) will also thank you for not taking the easy way by eating pre-cooked and processed foods, since they can lead to excessive cravings and contain ingredients that have the ability to affect your behaviors and cognitive functioning. And don’t think caffeine is truly the best way to start your day since it easily causes headaches and makes you less calm. Eating healthy homemade food is what is going to give you the energy you need.

3. Googling vs Being an Expert

Searching the Internet makes people believe they know more than they really do as they can find almost any answer online. However, that doesn’t mean that your brain is doing the work. Knowing you can easily access information, you don’t remember it that well, which also affects your critical thinking. Even if you are an expert in your field and use your own brain, psychologists have found that people who think they know much about a topic are more likely to claim that made-up facts are true. In fact, we are more likely to believe the statements that prove us right and thus tend not to question them.

4. Being Asocial

Our brains are made for socialization and we need to be in contact with other people to think and function properly. Studies show that people who socialize much perform better on cognitive tests than those who don’t. Being with friends also gives you a chance to take a break and avoid too much stress, which can help enhance your memory and mental acuity. Not enough social life increases the likelihood of developing psychological disorders, which can potentially damage your brain, so you should think twice before sacrificing time you could spend with your friends to concentrate on your work.

5. Lack of Sleep

You love sleep because your brain loves it too. Poor sleep damages your thinking skills, which makes studying all night long before an exam a really bad idea.Being sleepy negatively affects your short-term and long-term memory, attention and planning skills, as well as the ability to understand other people’s facial emotions. Needless to say that this all makes it harder for your brain to work effectively. Even if you are tired not because of the lack of sleep but because of the physical and mental exhaustion, you should probably take a break. Sleepiness can even lead to mental disorders like depression and anxiety, so even if you have a lot of things to do, you better take some time to rest and recharge your batteries.

Lawsuit: Texts between Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Andreessen say the Facebook founder may want to go into government

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has considered plans to go into government, according to court documents seen by Bloomberg.

The documents were filed as part of a shareholder lawsuit that alleges the
 board of Facebook failed to represent the best interests or holders of Facebook's common stock.

The lawsuit focuses on a change to Facebook's stock structure earlier this year.
 Zuckerberg currently holds a majority share of voting Facebook stock, giving him control of the company. But he wanted to be able to sell this off to fund his new philanthropy efforts — the "Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative" — without losing this control. (The Financial Times reports that the plaintiffs are accusing Zuckerberg of a "self-interested agglomeration of power.")

So Zuckerberg proposed creating a new class of shares for himself that would let that happen, and three board members were placed on a special committee
 to represent shareholders in the discussions. They were tasked with deciding whether Zuckerberg's request to sell stock but maintain control was fair to other
 shareholders. The committee eventually agreed to Zuckerberg's plan. The suit
alleges the plan diluted other shareholders' votes over the stock.

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment to Business Insider.
A company rep told Bloomberg that "Facebook is confident that the special committee engaged in a thorough and fair process to negotiate a proposal
 in the best interests of Facebook and its shareholders."

One of the board members on the committee was Marc Andreessen, the Netscape cofounder-turned-Silicon Valley investor, who now runs Andreessen Horowitz, the VC fund.

Andreessen is specifically accused of a conflict of interest because he allegedly communicated with Zuckerberg repeatedly while serving on the committee that was supposed to be making an independent decision about the stock.

Some of the texts sent between Andreessen and Zuckerberg have been made public in court documents — providing unusual insight into the inner workings of the social network's leadership.

One of Zuckerberg's motivations was — allegedly — that he wanted to be able work in government while still retaining control of Facebook.

The documents allege that Erskine Bowles, one of Facebook board
members on the special committee, was "worried that one of the concessions Zuckerberg wanted -- to allow the billionaire to serve two years in government without
 losing control of Facebook -- would look particularly irresponsible,"
 according to Bloomberg. (Bowles is a former White House chief of staff.)

According to copies of the texts seen by The Guardian, Andreessen texted Zuckerberg in March that the "biggest issue" was "how to define the gov't service thing without freaking out shareholders that you are losing commitment."

"I think the biggest remaining issue is still around the government service," Andreessen texted later.

"Erskine is just massively uncomfortable with you getting to low economic ownership and then going off on leave with no involvement by the board and retaining control,'' he said.

"We rediscuss it on every call ... I'm going to try to drag it over the line one more time. ☺ ''

"He's worried that it's the straw that breaks the camel's back on the optics of good governance."

"He's worried it's the thing people will point to on announcement and say 'what the fuck are you guys doing agreeing to this' Particularly since he thinks gov't service would require you to give up control of FB anyway and it's a moot point."

"My counter argument is that because it's likely a moot point let's just give on it and it will probably never matter."

Beyond that, the case is light on details as to what Zuckerberg's purported government ambitions entail — whether he had an elected role or an appointed one in mind, for example, or whether there was a possible area of focus.

Another of Zuckerberg's board members, Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel, also
has a new-found appetite for public service. Thiel was one of the few Silicon Valley leaders to back Donald Trump in the run-up to the election, and has now scored a position on Trump's transition team.

The case also claims that Marc Andreessen's texts to Mark Zuckerberg show
he texted Zuckerberg during discussions to give pointers on strategy and effective lines of argument: "This line of argument is not helping. ☺" he wrote
in one, and saying, "NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH GAS" in another.

Once Andreessen became sure that Bowles was persuaded to let Zuckerberg's plan go through, Andreessen allegedly texted to the CEO: "The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river."

Zuckerberg replied: "Does that mean the cat's dead?"

Andreessen responded: "Mission accomplished ☺"