Only way to be safe is to not to use windows.
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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Admin accounts on Windows have little more control of core functions than a guest user. Its unrealistic to expect this can be prevented it can be mitigated but any workaround will be undone by the next major update.
It's not that hard really... application-level firewall, only allow the apps you actually use. Or you could block all access from your router except to a proxy, and then configure just the apps you use to use the proxy. Eliminates 99.9% of unwanted outbound traffic.
Many other OSes, distros and apps phone home/have telemetry too (yes even Linux ones), it's not like this is some egregious behavior nobody else does.
Most distros are forthcoming about telemetry if they have any, and they tend to be opt in rather than opt out, and even when they're opt out they actually respect your choice.
Telemetry as a tool is useful and it makes little sense to bash it as a whole, but you're comparing the results of very different design philosophies.
I haven't touched Windows since 7. I can't imagine how horrible it is to use now.
Fantastic news , and now release the Epstein files
Would be interesting to see how this changes with changing official settings, then again with common tools like O&O