And able to identify the specific accounts he was logging into. How are they able to do that?

IDK either. But so much is now like, ppl wanting privacy have to be right every time. The co's wanting our data, only once! A single hidden backdoor siphon to our data and we didn't protect ourself from it. A single telemetry that encodes every URL we visit. A single statistical way to fingerprint us.

That Sisyphus dude knows our pain.

I don’t think Microsoft recorded the URLs, just activity from a GDID and IP address at particular timestamps. The authorities would also have subpoenaed records from other accounts they knew were his e.g. Snapchat and Facebook. The GDID was just a way of assigning activity from his device to particular VPN endpoints at particular times. The point of the story is essentially that the GDID allowed them to track his device across multiple IP addresses. But this wouldn’t have been possible without at least some other pieces of the puzzle such as knowing which was his Microsoft account, or Facebook account etc. in the first place.

The same user posted a thread in this comm about the Linux equivalent, device-id, which is possibly more problematic.

Seems like the answer is never. The masses are too addicted to PC games to give it up.

I have tried over and over for 30 years now and every time I discover something is missing, something I’m not willing to give up. Today it was Google Drive. There are multiple solutions for Linux to mount Google Drive as a folder in the local filtersystem, none of them offer decent performance compared to the windows client. Every time I try Linux something like this comes up.

Imagine your computer has a secret ID number that Microsoft gives it when you sign in with your Microsoft account. This number is like a permanent nametag that your computer wears. Even if you use a VPN to hide your location, that nametag stays the same.

A hacker used a VPN to hide while breaking into a jewelry store's computer system. But Microsoft helped the FBI find him because his computer's secret nametag kept showing up everywhere he went online. They matched that nametag to his social media accounts and other stuff he did, and that's how they caught him. Most people didn't even know this secret nametag existed, and you can't turn it off without breaking your computer.

Enhance!!!!

Okay, buy the thing to take note here is what tech companies can hide.

You know they're tracking users but there are still things we'll never find out unless they reveal it themselves or are made to reveal in indirectly.

Not only he uses windows, but a ms online account as well!!!

Bog ID.

Current state: Happy

Owns: Nothing

Can you explain the joke?

Does Linux track you? Does LibreWolf track you? Does GrapheneOS track you? Does Vanadium track you? Does SimpleX or Signal track you? Does...

Never mind, I think you get my point.

tracking is a core function of pretty much all commercial software at this point

Yes, all of that is true.

Were you building up to making a point, or...