The app automatically installs Bing Visual Search and includes code to decrypt cookies saved in other browsers, Rivera said, and it also brings a “free” geolocation web API to the system.
The developer discovered “many” nasty tricks Microsoft integrated in Bing Wallpapers, which include trying to change the browser’s settings and set Edge as the default system browser. If the default browser isn’t Edge, the app will open the default browser after some time asking to enable the previously installed Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome extension.
This doesn’t sound “malware-like”. It sounds like just plain malware.
Or just plain Microsoft.
Microsoft produces malware, that’s nothing new.
at least malware is free
“Free as in freedom?”
“Free as in free data for Microsoft to harvest.”
Haven’t we already categorized windows as malware and Microsoft as a malware company? We really shouldn’t be surprised that they put out another piece of malware. It’s their MO.
I’m not a windows fan boy, in fact I haven’t used one in years, and have no intentions to.
But this is a weird way of thinking about MS shenanigans.
- Hate it or like it, windows update is still an update to your system, to fix security vulnerabilities even. I wish they had implemented it in a user friendly way. But it is NOT a thing that disrupts you with ill intent as you mentioned here.
- That is a task manager running some process. But no indication on what the process is !
- Enabled by default is an horrible design decision no matter who does it. I agree on that. But this is NOT unauthorised access. You signed up for it when you decided to use windows.
Again I don’t like MS. Hate them for their bad decisions, but don’t hate them by misrepresenting them.
(My comment is only about this screenshot posted here)
The good thing is you can disable most of their telemetry crap if you know what you are doing.
Should be opt in to begin with
A lot of it pops up and asks, but it’s inside a barrage of questions that requires users to actually pay attention at a point when they’re just trying to get into their computer
Why would you download bing wallpaper app anyways? First rule of computers: only install from trusted sources
“Megacorp learned nothing from Active Desktop being an utter fucking security disaster.” Yeah, no shit. Everything old is new again.
Active Desktop was entirely ahead of its time. Let’s not forget that it was only around a decade later that JIT-compiled JavaScript engines like V8 paved the way for web apps, including the iPhone which at launch only supported third-party apps as web apps.
Why do people need an app for wallpapers? Just find some nice photos on Flickr, DeviantArt, whatever, save them all to a folder, and configure the OS to change it once per week.
Reminds me of the “free smileys” and “free mouse cursors” apps from the 2000s. I thought we had evolved past that.
How do you save a picture? Where is Downloads? How do you apply a saved picture as a wallpaper?
These are confusing questions to boomers and Gen Z.
Why not have a simple app which “automatically” does all the hard work (just in exchange of a little of your data)?
As a “boomer” myself, I do know the secret of the ‘right click: Save as’. Who do you think thought up the idea-- that’s right, a Boomer. And we taught Gen X about it. Not my fault they didn’t pass on the ancient and now arcane knowledge to future generations. But I suppose you need to know how to use a mouse before you can right click anything. Having attempted to teach 3D CAD to high school students, my first job was to show them how to use a mouse and why fingers and CAD don’t mix. And do it before we could actually move on to the subject matter they were supposed to be learning.
Still I do use an app for rotate my backgrounds and quotes. The app Variety works well with KDE Plasma with a large selection of repositories to choose from with beautiful backgrounds without taking up extra space on my drives. But what do I know, I’m just a boomer.
As a millennial myself, I have immense respect for “tech boomers”. They walked so that we could run during the 90s tech boom.
I have seen young people not knowing any other directory other than
Downloadsand not understanding that there is a filesystem inside their phone.
The file is not in my downloads
Me: Have you checked other directories?
Other directories?
Me: Okay, open your file manager.
What’s a file manager?
Me: Okay, do you have Google Files (an application which I detest but I know is pre-installed in Android phone)
Umm…have to check.
Those are the lazy people. Lazy people refuse to learn new things. You don’t sound lazy.
Don’t be like them. Hang out with those people that piss excellence.
Oh lord, as someone teaching a bunch of technologically illiterate college students something that requires a lot less computer skills, teaching CAD to today’s high schoolers sounds rough. I am a millennial that started on DOS, and joke to them that back in my day, to play video games I had to climb uphill both ways in the snow, and, use a terminal lol. And funny that you mention your KDE setup, I use plasma and one of my first thoughts was “I bet there’s a KDE widget/applet for that” haha
I suspect it might be easier to teach high school students. You get them younger and they don’t know no better. Fewer things to unlearn. But the skill gaps can be eye opening for sure. I’m old as dirt. I got my feeble tech start in front of a printer terminal-- we didn’t have such things as monitors. I don’t think I saw my first DOS prompt until I was maybe 19 or 20. But we stilled played Oregon Trail and some Space Invader game. And we loved it!
And the first rule of KDE is “There is ALWAYS a widget!”
I do enjoy all the NASA photos and National Geographic backgrounds served up to me on a rotating basis without needing to take up local storage space to do so. But I ain’t running Windows either.
Every time I see stuff like this it makes me slightly glad they got laughed out of the smart phone game. Can you imagine if a Microsoft mobile OS became a serious third between Android and iOS? I mean, those two aren’t great by any stretch of the imagination (and are probably doing or planning similar shit), but Microsoft is just going gloves off at this point.
If there was more competition they (probably) wouldn’t be doing this stuff as people would leave.
I was actually a fan of Outlook for Android. Followed system dark mode before it was cool, had real multi account inbox, good wearos app, and other useful features. Then they started inserting Bing search into my long press menu system wide. And also recommending Edge when I clicked links. This kind of horizontal integration is just too baked into the company DNA. They can’t help themselves, even when it actually harms them
What’s the difference between horizontal and vertical integration? (I know a few business words but usually not enough to be intelligent, this is a genuine question of confusion)
Vertical would be if MS owned the carrier, the manufacturer, the operating system etc. Horizontal applies here where they own many interconnecting parts of the same layer of the market. Search, browser, email, etc, all being used to promote each other at the expense of competitors
Yeah. On my work desktop, our IT people have told us to not use the Outlook program but rather to just go to the website. On my phone, I run it in Vivaldi instead of the app (which is a little jankie, but not as bad as it was running in Chrome or Firefox).
While scummy indeed, if you need a desktop application to get yourself new wallpapers, my sympathy only goes so far.
Also not at all surprised the top comment speaks of Linux.
Linux, hating Musk, and Star Trek: the Lemmy trifecta.
You only have sympathy for people who are already technically competent to some standard you’ve chosen? It’s those who don’t have technical competence that this shit works on. I’d bet that’s the reason a wallpaper app was chosen for these shenanigans, because it filters out the people who will be wise to it.
Like it or not, building a secure internet means making systems that are safe for regular internet users, and if you’re getting snooty about the kinds of programs a person installs, I’d wager that’s not you. Even if it’s just the least competent 5 or 10% of the internet falling prey to this, it’s the predators that make the environment more dangerous for everyone. Put the blame where it belongs.
Also, those people aren’t using Linux partly because Linux is an elitist community that shits on anyone who’s not comfortable in the command line. If you want Linux to be a viable threat to the Windows monopoly, you need to accept that these people will need to be accommodated, unless you’re happy selfishly keeping it to cloistered group of nerds who are toxic towards every newcomer, and you think that’s the way it should be. I’ve certainly met Linux people who think that way.
I only hate Musk and love Star Trek. Does that mean I’m not a true Lemmy?
Those are rookie numbers. You gotta pump those numbers up.
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I’m always surprised at how devious this windows spyware is. 99% of people would probably just accept to share all their data but that’s not good enough; MS has to try and squeeze out every last drop.
A wallpaper app is already targeting the most vulnerable. Nobody who knows how to remove the spyware that’s already in Windows is installing a wallpaper app.
Microsoft
sofficial “Bing Wallpaper app”does some nasty, malware-like thingsto WindowsBREAKING: Microsoft is still shitty
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