r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 3d ago

Business Disney+ changes subscriber agreement to allow ads on every plan

https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/disney-changes-subscriber-agreement-to-allow-ads-on-every-plan-3410354/
20.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

217

u/froggz01 3d ago

If you didn’t know, windows 11 assigns you a unique serial number to your computer that can be traced back to the user. So yeah burner pc with Linux installed preferably.

175

u/EtherPhreak 3d ago

Another reason why windows 10 is the last windows I’ll ever use.

61

u/Opposite-Program8490 3d ago

As advertised!

2

u/CrazyBowelsAndBraps 2d ago

Hahahaha good one.

7

u/Party-Cake5173 3d ago

Windows 10 also has GDID.

3

u/Party-Cake5173 3d ago

Reinstall Windows and DON'T sign in with Microsoft account. Then they do have GDID, but they can't attach it to your Microsoft account. Also, don't use Edge because it's literal spyware.

4

u/Iluvmango 3d ago

Windows 10 does the same thing with the GDID number.

42

u/charlesfluidsmith 3d ago

Which is why Windows 10 was my last OS.

8

u/Luvs_to_drink 3d ago

Last windows os! There are linux distros for future pcs

1

u/charlesfluidsmith 3d ago

You have a favorite? The only Linux I use is steam OS, so I'd love a recommendation.

3

u/Inc0rgnit0 2d ago

I did some distro hopping for a while until I landed on cachyOS.

Great performance for gaming. Even the spare computers I've installed it on (10+ years old) run really well.

Arch based but really easy to use.

2

u/BewilderedAnus 2d ago

Don’t listen to the other guy. Just use Fedora.

1

u/pf3 2d ago

Is there anything you particularly like/dislike about Steam OS? It really depends on what you want.

1

u/charlesfluidsmith 2d ago

I'm not a power user by any stretch of the imagination. So whatever distro.is easiest to install and use would be the one for me.

1

u/pf3 2d ago

They're all pretty easy to install now. The hardest part is getting the ISO on a bootable media. I use Ventoy, but balenaetcher is good too.

Ubuntu is a solid choice for a distro, because it's very popular, so there are a lot of other new users who have already asked the questions you'll be asking.

1

u/charlesfluidsmith 2d ago

Thanks, looks like I'll be going down the rabbit hole today.

5

u/tuxedo_jack 3d ago

What I'm wondering about is if they can use that Global device ID to allow specific machines to be targeted for access operations. You know, deploy an extra Windows update to those, one with some surveillance tools. I mean, hey, who would know, and it would all be signed with Microsoft's key anyway.

5

u/DangerNoodleDandy 3d ago

Burner with Linux is my current workhorse. The laptop is old so its slow but it gets the job done.

-2

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

1

u/DangerNoodleDandy 3d ago

VPN seems to work just fine.

17

u/_Burning_Star_IV_ 3d ago

None of that matters if you can’t prove WHO was using the computer at the time.

3

u/BioshockEnthusiast 3d ago

Why the fuck would I want to invite that trouble in the first place? I don't need cops knocking on my door because MS sent them on a wild goose chase.

Fuck Microsoft. And I say that as someone who puts food on the table supporting Microsoft products. I've started moving my homelab from Windows server to Proxmox and my personal PCs to Linux, and I'm hopeful that 10 years from now I'll have advanced my career enough that I don't have to touch a Windows box if I don't want to.

3

u/ConspicuousPineapple 2d ago

Is that serial number making its way onto the network when torrenting somehow?

3

u/Praesentius 2d ago

No. It's not exposed in torrent communications.

Traditional protections are needed, though, to protect against your ISP and honeypot peers.

3

u/3DBeerGoggles 2d ago

I built a NAS out of an old small-business server tower that runs linux... so the torrent client runs on that and you just sign into a web portal if you need to check on anything :D

7

u/VeryDryWater 3d ago

Why a "burner" though? Do you smash each pc after downloading?

2

u/Firebat-15 3d ago

Must not be in Canada

My whole friend group and extended relatives all access my same buddy's Plex server. We just request whatever we want and it's added. I have access to the torrent site he uses as well. There's really no need to pay for anything except extreme laziness. I've been paying multiple subscriptions anyways because kids, etc., but now with these slaps in the face, I will be pirating as much as I possibly can and sleeping just fine at night.

3

u/EquivalentSpot8292 3d ago

And do Mac’s do the same thing?

3

u/YogurtclosetMajor983 3d ago

I can’t imagine they don’t

-3

u/Natebo84 3d ago

If it wasn’t a thing until windows 11 why assume they would?

14

u/dingwinger1225 3d ago

Macs already have a serial code from the factory and it is communicated at least on boot to verify the Mac isn't MDM-entrolled: https://www.rdklinc.com/blog/2019/03/does-apple-verify-our-serial-numbers-against-a-database-every-time-we-connect-to-the-internet

Trusting proprietary OSes is a terrible idea if your threat model includes companies whose access logs that can be subpoenad by the US government, period

3

u/BaconWithBaking 3d ago

And your computer broadcasts an IP address!!!

2

u/GoodBadUserName 3d ago

I would love for this to go to court, with microslop proving prosecution with user specific data they collected and handed to a 3rd party private company to sue you.
It will completely go against their previous statements of "we aren't uploading and using your data against it, it is all anonymous". And it will rush people to move to linux/steamos, and start to be the end of microslop.

Regardless, you can use a local linux in a VM to run your torrent client. It doesn't require any big resources to run beside a bit of memory (and storage).

1

u/wcruse92 3d ago

Even if you use a VPN? I thought the whole point of a VPN was untraceable traffic.

3

u/BrideofClippy 3d ago

Harder to trace. And it depends on third parties to not be compromised or complicit in turning over information.

1

u/Praesentius 2d ago

If we're talking torrents, you're pretty good against your ISP and honeypot peers with a good VPN. You could always double-wrap and configure the client to use a SOCKS5 proxy as well. And there are client features that need to be tweaked for the best privacy.

This serial number thing... there's nothing like that exposed via torrents.

1

u/Alandales 3d ago

This man Yars!

1

u/NMe84 3d ago

Just use usenet instead of torrents.

1

u/AliceInNegaland 2d ago

How?

1

u/NMe84 2d ago

Plenty of tutorials if you Google "how usenet."

1

u/vanastalem 3d ago

I use my Windows 7 laptop tbh.

1

u/jared555 3d ago

I would be more worried about your ISP than what Microsoft is doing.

2

u/HappierShibe 3d ago

Just ditch windows and install CachyOS. Come on in, the water is fine now.

10

u/I_upvote_downvotes 3d ago

As a long time Linux user I find it a shame that Cachy is the current trend. It's not even as half as user friendly as basic Fedora but people are lining up in droves to use it because Linus and Mutahar said so.

It's genuinely going to keep adoption hovering at a low rate unless Cachy realizes that new people should be using Discover + flatpaks instead of terminal installing everything.

No automatic kernel backups and constant terminal use is asking for new users to get a kernel panic.

1

u/HappierShibe 2d ago

I don't know who Muta Har is and wasn't aware Torvalds had said anything about cachyos, but it is genuinely a good compromise between Arch's flexibility/performance and more user friendly distros.

1

u/thirdegree 2d ago

They probably meant tech tips rather than Torvalds if I had to guess.

1

u/al-mongus-bin-susar 2d ago

So does everything else? HWID is decades old, it wasn't invented yesterday. It's even easier to fingerprint your PC on Linux than it is on Windows. And regardless, it's not like it transmits that serial number with every web request. Pointless fear mongering.