MS Diagnostic & Tracking File Information?

[jamis]

This update begs the question of where does MS store these "diagnostics" and "tracking" files? Do they upload them immediately or store them on our systems and batch them up at some future time? Is there any way to know what files are being created for this information so we can see, or delete, them? I have found a few uncommon temporary internet files that I routinely delete with CCleaner, but it would be nice to know if there are others.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3022345

2 words I don't like "Diagnostics" and "Tracking".

 

[Layback Bear]

Microsoft is not saying what they intend to track or why.

 

[Alejandro85]

The first step to do is to immediately uninstall the faulty update, so that it stops spying on you.
Since MS (or any other malware writer, actually) won't tell how does it work, we can only guess. To be on the safe side I would suggest doing some serious research on firewalls and use one to block all outbound connections from untrusted programs, that will at least prevent it from phoning home (but with data still collected).
Not about this one in particular, but another well-known built-in piece of spyware in Windows is the WER service, used supposedly to "try to look for solutions" when program crashes but in fact it sends data about all crashing programs and hardware to MS and NSA. I have no idea if this update might use it, but it's a good idea to disable it asap for privacy purposes nevertheless.

 

[jamis]

I haven't installed the updates related to the W10 upgrade preparation, but I'd still like to know what data they are collecting and reporting. I like the idea of blocking any uploads via my firewall, but I'm not sure what to block at this point in time, even though I haven't installed the updates.

 

[Alejandro85]

Difficult to say without having downloaded the "update" myself and being undocumented doesn't helps. No idea really what they do under the hood. Of course, the only safe course of action is to NOT to install those, at the very least.

About the firewall, the only safe choice is to do the opposite. You initially block everything and then selectively allow some things to access the network (browsers, mail programs, anything known safe) instead of trying to block the offenders.