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Your Windows PC Has a Permanent ID That Follows You – Even With a VPN (archive.is)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] 108 points 3 months ago (20 children)

I have a Windows PC?

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  • [–] 31 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    It’s news to me. I gotta get Mint on it.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    People should stop doing that

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

    Without a window, how else can you appreciate your RAM’s obligatory RGB features?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    Congratulations!

    Guess you won one?

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  • [–] -5 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Your network interface has a permanent ID that follows you

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago

    If that's really a concern, USB or PCIe NICs are always an option as a replacement, whether temporary or permanent. More advanced users can create virtual connections to route traffic through (macvlans) with custom configurable MAC addresses and/or use virtual machines that offer the same feature if a guest OS is preferred or necessary.

    The identifier the article is talking about is instead persistent on any Windows OS regardless of hardware, including if the OS is a virtual machine. Using the OS at all on the Internet ensures Microsoft can always track it.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    It's trivial to spoof

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  • [+] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago*

    I had a Samsung media player for the US market, its functions were super limited (music, video, images, shit games) compared to the Korean market release ( previous list, better games plus two player live Bluetooth games, subway maps for major global cities, multi language dictionaries. Note taking app, ecpanded themeing of interface)

    I found the firmware updater online, the Korean releasr OS version , and part of that process was just Editting the bluetooth MAC manually in a text file prior to reflashing....it was an eye opener to MAC/NIC stuff not being as locked down like all the software licensing vendors portrayed it was.

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    • [–] 94 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Microsoft continues to outdo itself as the best advertisement for migration to Linux.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    For Microsoft Linux, right? Right?

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    • [–] 46 points 3 months ago

    Fuck this OS, left it behind a long time ago and nothing ever will bring me back. This platform should die, they turned everything good about the platform to trash over years.

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    [–] 25 points 3 months ago (8 children)

    I don't have a Windows PC

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago* (7 children)

    I do.

    Though, those socket A boards kinda suck even after a recap. 98 runs great when it boots!

    Gotta power cycle the PSU to get it to boot the first time. Tried 3 PSUs before the recap and nothing changed.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (6 children)

    That reminds me I want to try Windows 3 in a virtual machine just for fun. See how fast it boots

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (5 children)

    It always booted fast enough (well as fast as computers were then). It was pretty fucking useless though. Dos was still way more useful and efficient in those days.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

    Office like applications and fonts disagree. DOS was annoying, Windows was pretty.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Office wasn't in use as much back then, that was still Lotus and WordPerfect territory. DOS was ok if you knew how to really use it, and it took some learning. I've always been a simplicity over fancy UI kind of guy though, so maybe it was just me.

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    • [–] 16 points 3 months ago* (3 children)

    Your Windows PC Has a Permanent ID That Follows You – Even With a VPN

    Yes, it's bad, but worth pointing out, they didn't identify the user directly by somehow extracting GDID from their traffic, they identified them because their GDID happened to be in the same place at the same time at their hacking efforts that became statistically impossible to ignore.

    Realistically this kind of tracking could be accomplished with any software with a unique ID that does, say, daily update checks or usage pings. This one is just extra bad because it's ubiquitous (on Windows) and almost impossible to change, so they have a 1-stop-shop for spying.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    All tracking is done by amalgamating as many different overlapping signals and indicators together as you can, and then establishing basically a confidence score/threshold.

    This one is extra bad because it was never disclosed previously.

    Trust = Gone, what else is MSFT hiding?

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    • [–] 15 points 3 months ago

    windows is the virus

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    [–] 14 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    Does it follow me after Linux install?

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    Well, there is /etc/machine-id on Linux...

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Just want to point out that /etc/machine-id is unique to systemd systems. AlpineLinux, for example, doesn't generate this file on install.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    We tossed systemd out the window on our Debian. Stuff broke when we removed /etc/machine-id.

    Turns out dbus ALSO uses it, but if it's not in /etc, it makes its own at /var/lib/dbus/machine-id (which was symlinked to /etc/machine-id on our system).

    So we just wrote 00000000000000000000000000000000 to it instead. 🙃

    -- Frost

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    What happens if you erase it though? System32 moment?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Honestly not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it breaks something with D-Bus based on skimming the man pages, but I've never dug into it. Its not exposed in containers I run though, and I haven't run into anything that broke there as a result... 🤷️

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    • [–] 12 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Well shit.

    I have Linux, so I don't gave that feature either! What am I supposed to do now? I want to be visible everywhere and tracked by everyone, but I had to chose Linux and again I'm left out!

    This sucks

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    • [–] 29 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Court filings in the Scattered Spider hacking case reveal Microsoft provided the FBI with a complete IP history tied to something called a Global Device ID (GDID)

    It's kinda like a MAC address

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    • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (8 children)

    There are lots of unique identifiers in computers, not just Windows.

    MAC address, serial number, bios uuid.

    Linux even has /etc/machine-id

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  • [–] 24 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    yes, but what secret undisclosed id systems, that weren't definitevely known to exist untill legal proceedings 'oopsied' them into reality?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    I mean if you have a phone in your pocket, you are completely dicked. I'm not saying we should be accepting it (dont), but it's completely fucking hopeless right now. We are boxed in on all fronts.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I mean sure, if you're fully running a mainline corporate phone and OS, with none of your own privacy or security measures utilized.

    I don't think its really possible at this point to actually bring your signature and foot print down to literally 0, but you can do a fair deal of uh... privacy hygiene, to minimize those.

    It's not totally hopeless. You... just have to actually learn how to actually be private, with technology. It's not easy, but it is also not impossible.

    And that is just passive resistance, becoming un-surveillable, to a meaningful extent.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    It takes a lot of finagling. People like you and me, we can minimize it. Custom Roms, PiHoles, VPN, onionized, etc. But the general joe? No chance.

    I also don't fully 100% believe that there isn't technology at this point that renders all of the above moot. We probably just don't fully know about it all yet.

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    • [–] 8 points 3 months ago

    Windows

    What's that?

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    [–] 7 points 3 months ago

    Well that's terrifying,

    but not unexpected...

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    [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    What kind of hacker uses windows?

    WTF

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    [–] 5 points 3 months ago (16 children)

    Does this only apply to Windows 11 or also to 10? I know the ID even works if you installed Windows on a virtual machine. I'm on Linux, but I have Windows 10 installed for very specific tasks (in example to update firmware of my 8bitdo gamepad and configure its settings, because they suck and don't provide a Linux tool for this).

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (14 children)

    apparently they do now - kinda? https://web.8bitdo.com/ but seems to require a chromium-based browser

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (11 children)

    You mean the firmware can be updated over the browser?? Well, I use Firefox and they don't support Firefox. Another L from 8bitdo. (But thanks for the link nontheless!)

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Surely using a chromium browser just for this is better than having a whole windows VM just for this.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

    That's not the point.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    I agree that it sucks they don't have better support for Linux and for Firefox, and wasn't trying to refute that.

    But like, given the two options I'd rather the browser solution than the VM one.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago*

    I already have the VM setup. I'm also not arguing VM vs browser. I'm just disappointing that I can't try it out in browser. They don't support the native driver, nor the browser for their controller on Linux. Its just disappointing. Also does the browser version support configuring the controller too? If not, then I need a VM anyway, because there is stuff I want to configure (at least initially I needed to).

    As an alternative, I've seen in the past some mentioning being able to use their Windows software over WINE. And someone pointed out how to setup without WINE, browser or VM by configuring the system). So there are plenty of options now, just not officially.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (4 children)

    clicking through that link, it obviously blocks my zen browser, and recommends google's chrome, chromium, ms edge and opera.

    this seems like a massive L still. hopefully it's not hard-coded to require those 4 only, and a stripped down chromium browser can be used. I don't have a race in this horse yet, becauseI did consider 8bitdo controllers once my gamesir controller dies. maybe I'll just have to save up for a steam controller, even though Valve still doesn't ship to my country, and I refuse to buy from scalpers. even legit businesses here are scalping hard... fucking scalpers.

    my first draft comment to you was a bit hopeful that maybe stripped down chromium browsers can replace your singular use windows VM. I apologize for assuming

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    As for the Steam Controller, I have purchased it and want to warn you about something. The controller is designed to work only as a controller, when Steam is running. Which is a deal breaker to use it outside Steam for me, because I don't want to have it running in the background when not playing on Steam. So I end up using it in Steam only. There are third party efforts for drivers to make it usable without Steam, but they have all their own quirks. However the SDL 3 library now supports Steam Controller. So any application updating to SDL 3 comes with free Steam Controller native support, in example RetroArch.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder. I've read that somewhere about the Steam controller. I'm not in a rush to buy a new controller, as mine is still working and the availability still sucks here.

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    • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    I have a photo scanner I can't get to work on Linux Mint, so I have an old laptop with Win10 on it for that single purpose. I haven't booted it in months, but I do need to get back to that project.

    It doesn't need or get internet access.

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