Windows 10 Delivers Updates to Other Users on the Internet Via Peer-to-Peer by Default

July 30th, 2015

Update: Windows 10 Default Privacy Settings: “Vague and Bordering on Scary”

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By dumb luck, I just found a setting that indicates that Windows 10 delivers updates to other computers over the Internet via peer-to-peer networking.

Not good if you’re like most people in New Zealand on metered Internet connections!

Once I got over my shock at this “feature” and disabled it, I looked for a mention of this elsewhere and yep, there it is. The author of the article below had also lived in NZ.

It makes great sense for distribution on the LAN, but no thanks to being a part of Microsoft’s involuntary CDN/botnet on the WAN side. Holy shit. I mean, what could possibly go wrong on the WAN side with this? Attackers will never get control of that thing to distribute payloads of doom to hundreds of millions of Windows 10 machines. Right?

Anyway, I wonder what other gems are packed inside this thing!? (I’ve only installed Windows 10 on a junker laptop to experiment with so far.)

Via: TNW News:

Windows 10 launched on July 29 to much fanfare — it’s a free upgrade for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users — but along with the privacy issues, there’s another small thing you should check: by default, Windows 10 uses your internet connection to share updates with others across the internet.

The feature, called Windows Update Delivery Optimization is designed to help users get updates faster and is enabled by default in Windows 10 Home and Pro editions. Windows 10 Enterprise and Education have the feature enabled, but only for the local network.

It’s basically how torrents work: your computer is used as part of a peer to peer network to deliver updates faster to others. It’s a great idea, unless your connection is restricted.

More: Windows 10 “Wi-Fi Sense” Insanity

Posted in Surveillance, Technology | Top Of Page

One Response to “Windows 10 Delivers Updates to Other Users on the Internet Via Peer-to-Peer by Default”

  1. savethepopulation says:
    July 31, 2015 at 11:44 pm

    I haven’t found much speculation/analysis from the anti-surveillance crowd regarding Windows 10. Free sounds too good to be true. They must be getting a good amount of information somehow. Or they will eventually go the subscription route. Either way, I don’t like it.

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