Comment Re:people use bing (Score 1) 119
I've yet to find a downside to this either.
SmartScreen Filter is designed to help warn you about unsafe websites that are impersonating trusted websites (phishing) or contain threats to your computer. If you opt in to SmartScreen Filter, it first checks the address of the website you are visiting against a list of high traffic website addresses stored on your computer that are believed by Microsoft to be legitimate. Addresses that are not on the local list and the addresses of files you are downloading will be sent to Microsoft and checked against a frequently updated list of websites and downloads that have been reported to Microsoft as unsafe or suspicious. You may also choose to use SmartScreen Filter manually to verify individual sites with Microsoft. When you use SmartScreen Filter to check websites automatically or manually, the address of the website you are visiting will be sent to Microsoft, together with standard computer information and the SmartScreen Filter version number. To help protect your privacy, the information sent to Microsoft is encrypted.
Emphasis mine.
Source here
It's actually quite difficult to stay opted out. Every time they alter WGA it gets offered again, and it gets offered to any user who is with local admin rights irrespective of whether other users have declined or hidden it.
RMDIR "%APPDATA%\Macromedia"
/S /Q
Paste this into a
For God's sake, stop researching for a while and begin to think!