Re:Every 30 minutes Windows 10 sends all typed text to Micro...
by mikeash on Thursday August 13, 2015 @11:52AM
(#10055084)
The trouble is that not every place you type a password will necessarily have something identifying it to the OS as a password field. For example, what if you're entering a sudo password into an ssh client, or saving a password into a text file (saved on an encrypted drive, surely) using a text editor?
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Re:Every 30 minutes Windows 10 sends all typed text to Micro...
by ewzimm on Thursday August 13, 2015 @11:59AM
(#10055151)
I'd like to know too. Maybe they compare typed data to a dictionary and throw away everything that doesn't match so that every slice contains only dictionary words that couldn't be identified as passwords. That's just speculation of course.
Re:Every 30 minutes Windows 10 sends all typed text to Micro...
by mikeash on Thursday August 13, 2015 @01:07PM
(#10055660)
It's hard to see the utility in a bunch of individual unassociated dictionary words being sent back. Maybe there is some that I just don't know about. However, my money is on them being more confident in their scrubbing than is warranted. There have been so many cases in the past where companies have scrubbed and anonymized data, only to find that they missed something critical.
Re:Every 30 minutes Windows 10 sends all typed text to Micro...
by ewzimm on Thursday August 13, 2015 @01:26PM
(#10055802)
Even the frequency of words used might be valuable for typing predicion, but I would guess they would probably group a few words together. I really would love to know how it works.