this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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[–] FE80@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago
[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 171 points 1 week ago (6 children)

There's a very easy trick to defeat this: use Linux.

[–] bloogoose@lemmy.zip 102 points 1 week ago (6 children)

No you don't understand... I've spent the last 30 years investing in increasingly awful software companies to create "industry standards" and leaving these companies behind would require me to change and learn!!!

[–] Dindonmasker@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I talked with the women i'm working with where we print our price lists about changing from adobe to something else and she told me it would be a bad idea since it would make both of our work much more buggy and time consuming with more chances of the end result being worse. So i'll keep using indesing and the adobe suite for now but i did switch from sketchup to blender for 3D modeling and it's a bit challenging and more messy then i'm used to but i get better rendering results from what i tried so far.

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[–] M137@lemmy.today 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So many issues with the world boils down to that last part, people refusing to change and learn. I never understood it, I've always loved change and learning. I've seen so many people go from having that same openness to only caring about keeping everything the same and never learning, it's really disturbing. Some are like that from a very early age, others fall into it at any other part of their lives and it's never a good thing IMO.

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[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 week ago (3 children)

If your system uses systemd, it has an etc/machine-id, which is used for a lot of different things. And changing it will break a lot of stuff, probably until you reboot. I guess you could write something to randomly shuffle it every time you reboot? But it is the go-to way for lots of programs (including browsers) to identify themselves. Which means (unless you have done the work to scramble your machine ID) you can be tracked on Linux as well.

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 56 points 1 week ago (16 children)

The difference is that Linux isn't sending telemetry to some central entity associating that ID to an IP.

Microsoft’s records showed that at that exact same minute, a Windows device carrying GDID g:6755467234350028 had visited the ngrok signup page. Three hours later, the same GDID visited the retailer’s own website, through the same Tzulo proxy address used to set up the ngrok account.

This article is super vague about this as well. How does Microsoft not only have the GDID->IP link, but they have Web history as well? Are they just exposing all this through advertising telemetry?

Fucking gross. And if you know of anything on Linux exposing/transmitting the machine-id, please do let everyone know because nothing should. Anything that does should be considered malware.

[–] hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It’s not just Windows tracking your web browsing history. GPU drivers do it too.

..on Windows. if you explicitly install their malware and agree to data sharing.

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[–] inari@piefed.zip 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's wild. Shit like this makes me distrust proprietary drivers

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago

I distrust proprietary anything at this point

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[–] DevDave@piefed.social 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

also there's the TPM chip.

[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Upvoting both comments for awareness, since Linux is the first of a multi-step process, not a privacy panacea.

But we must be clear that in both theory and practice there’s little comparison between systemd and modern Windows machine-user association.

Someone using Windows regularly has a gaping wound, is actively bleeding out. Switching to Linux is just a tourniquet, but every other treatment is at best no-effect until that tourniquet is applied.

E: transpose systemd/Windows for clarity

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[–] db2@lemmy.world 111 points 1 week ago (2 children)

So they're saying that all these "secret" societies online, like the Peter Thiel psychopathy, are relatively easily identified and rounded up and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and they're just choosing not to do it? I'm shocked.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago

Why would they catch pedophiles? Their founder is one

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 17 points 1 week ago

I mean Epstein was actively talking about his crimes over plaintext Gmail

[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 82 points 1 week ago (2 children)

What idiot hacker uses Windows?

[–] Eximius@lemmy.world 64 points 1 week ago (7 children)

A genz hacker. In a world where "hacking" is writing prompts and calling IT help desks.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

and calling IT help desks.

It always amazes me how much people shit talk social engineering, when it's been a power house for hackers since the beginning.

The human (or I guess AI now) element is always the weakest link

[–] heartSagan5@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wait, calling IT Help Desks isn’t social engineering now?

[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

It always is. Even if you're actually calling for help, you need to basically trick them into helping you these days.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Okay look, I'm old, I'm inadequate, and I'm drunk. But I'm also a millennial, and I was a flight instructor at the age of 23. I pray to whatever god actually exists instead of Jesus for the unceremonious deletion of every soul that doesn't give young folks a chance to learn, grow and actualize themselves. Because I am so inordinately sick of being written off due to the year in which my parents fucked that I've got room on the docket to be pissed off when you do it to cohorts other than mine.

It is our responsibility to teach the kids, to let them learn, to let them fuck up in order to learn some more, so that they can become the actual adults someday. And it hurts my mind, soul and dick that I'm apparently the only human on earth not excessively lead-addled to realize that. And bitch I've washed my hands in 100LL. It's blue and feels cold at any temperature.

If there's one thing I'm going to teach you commie retards before I'm banned outright from this platform, it's that you treat your students with at least the benefit of the doubt if you can't manage genuine respect. Believe it or not, they're real people living real lives that are different than your own. Things that are obvious to you aren't to them because their lives led them to be curious about a different set of things than you did. And if you find yourself in the role of "teacher", almost always your path led you to expertise sooner than your students. Sooner. Not Younger. I can tell you that, having served as a flight instructor at 23 mostly teaching men in their 50's.

You think you're the senior in a field? You think it's your job to reign superior over your juniors? Think again. Because it's your job to sit in the right seat as a kid twice your age sits in the Captain's seat and fails to use the rudder correctly, because falling off a bike is how you learn how to ride. You have to let them slam the plane into the runway, because how the hell else are they going to learn?

Anyone with more experience expressing contempt for those with less experience for having shown up later: FUCK YOUR FUNERAL. Die unmourned.

[–] CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The amount of times boomers on worksites called me retarded for not knowing how to do something I'd never done before astounded me.

Meanwhile these fuckers would get real butthurt and start yelling and making a fuss when they'd struggle to find a file they just saved on their PC and you do anything besides silently assist them.

I vowed to be different, to teach my people what it means to be competent and respectful. I tell them I expect to see the same level of professionalism and respect I show them going to everyone around them. It's working! They aren't coming to work high or hungover, they aren't being pieces of shit, and they're communicating with each other instead of yelling insults at each other (well except for when its funny lol).

This has made me unpopular with the boomer leaders but fuck em: we get shit done, we get it done right, nobody gets hurt, and everybody feels respected and doesn't dread coming to work.

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[–] lordziv@lemmy.nz 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (7 children)

Tbf, some of the best hackers were social engineering their way into the backend just by calling up certain support numbers in the 80s

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[–] Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Sounds like the tagline for a really crap movie. How far we've fallen from two people on one keyboard.

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[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 12 points 1 week ago

Gen Z knows how to use Windows?

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[–] someone@lemmy.today 62 points 1 week ago

I can't believe Microslop would do something like this to its loyal customers!

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

The level of naivete to think it's a good idea using a microsoft account on a microsoft product for your illegal activity is astounding. Especially when you consider the amount of technical knowledge required to do such a thing.

I legitimately cannot make that connection, Microsoft has never been shy about tracking you or their tight relationship with 3 letter agencies. It doesn't take a genius to know they are going to snitch, I figured that was a foregone conclusion.

Kids need to learn about OPSEC.

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[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was gonna comment something about Linux distro also having a machine ID, but then I remembered that it's not in a big database, and it's so well enforced I routinely have multiple machines with the same ID pop up :D

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Linux users will probably tell you their id if you ask them nicely and seem interested in their distro of choice.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 week ago (13 children)

Microsoft fucked their customers for the #69514026th time, will it be enough to make people switch to Linux, or do they just like being fucked? Who knows.

[–] impairedimperator@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 week ago (15 children)

I legitimately tried to switch to Linux a few days ago. Got virtual ox running, got one of the recommended noob distros (cinnamon?) and then got an error message that I cannot make sense of during install. Even googling it didn't help

I'm not a computer guy, and I'm legitimately concerned that if I ask for help on the Linux forums I'll be the punching bag of the week.

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago (7 children)

You've got two things going on:

  1. If you are trying to switch, a virtual machine is a bad way to start and it's the hard way. What you really want is to use Rufus or something (easy Google) to make you a bootable USB and you just boot in and play around. It MAY require you to change boot order in BIOS if you plug it in and reboot and nothing happens, but that's an easy fix
  2. You want to ask for help. You only get "beat up" if it looks like you did nothing first and you are asking people to do it for you. Pretty much every place you go if you can say, "I want to do X, it doesn't work so I tried Y and Z." Nobody will say shit to you. Also, on Lemmy if you say you're new, people like me and the other guy who replied will probably offer to just DM us directly (which for me you can).
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[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I'm switching. I've been intimidated by the command lines but jfc these people are cartoonishly evil.

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[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I switched to Linux Mint a long ass time ago. Micropenis can go fuck themselves.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Don't be euphemistic. Shame them by their actual name. It's Microsoft. Microsoft makes software that is dangerous to its end users. SAY IT.

[–] luciferofastora@feddit.org 14 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I'd also endorse calling them Microslop, half because their software seems to be rapidly ensloppifying and half because it pisses off their CEO

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[–] EpicMuch@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 week ago (3 children)

My laptop came with Win11, I’ve removed that drive a few months ago and replaced it with Mint.

Does this mean MS has my motherboard, WiFi, other hardware identifiers that would still tie that laptop to their database?

[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (15 children)

Yup!

Motherboard, CPU, GPU models and serial numbers. Ram size and speed. Those were used during Windows activation as old as windows 95. But likely yes, a full list of every component connected.

Your Android phone collects every WiFi network it has ever seen and sends it to Google, so we should assume Microsoft does the same (Android can locate you without GPS by using your neighbors' WiFi signals as position identifiers, and can triangulate you to a few feet using the relative networks' signal strengths)

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (9 children)
[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Cannot wait for the Motorola/GrapheneOS collab phones.

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[–] Hairyfishnuts@feddit.online 22 points 1 week ago
[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 week ago
[–] iterable@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Cant wait for someone to make or reveal they already have a GDID spoofer and can now make grandma look like the worlds number 1 hacker.

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[–] mystik@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Ctrl-f NSAKEY (sees nothing)


it seems the internet has forgotten the NSAKEY debacle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY

[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (14 children)

Identifier. Not tracker. They're not phoning home, thank god.

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