Spying on my Laptop

[marykhazak11]

From the first day of its purchase, this little HP Stream laptop was being remotely spied upon--movements, emails and documents.  

The restore point feature in Windows 10 was malfunctioning and unavailable. My assumption of installed malware led me to want to do a recovery--I could not solve this problem.

I discovered from hearsay and circumstantial evidence that someone close by was using wireless means to read my computer whenever I used it.  I complained several times to my state's Attorney General Office for Computer Crimes, but could not provide a suspect.

This state of affairs has continued for the life of this Stream--over two years. It is not being remotely accessed by any agency of local government or a Federal agency.  I am mystified.

I have not been able to identify or locate any malware on my computer.  I do not know how someone gained access to it to install malware in the first place.

I am angry as you can see!  I cannot afford to strip this down to factory and start over. I cannot afford to buy a new computer. This is my first HP purchase. It seems to have been compromised from day one--from the factory.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@marykhazak11 

What OS version are you using on this, Win10?

You do KNOW that Microsoft routinely monitors stuff you do on Win10, right?

There are settings that are ENABLED by default that allow them to do that, including capturing any audio recorded by an internal microphone.  How do you think "Cortana" is able to respond to voice commands unless "she" is listening all the time?

This is NOT HP's doing -- this is Microsoft at work.

You can stop SOME of this by following the directions in this thread:  https://thegeekpage.com/disable-spying-and-telemetry-windows-10/

NOTE: I have ALL the stuff turned off, so I don't worry about being "monitored".

[marykhazak11]

Thanks, so much! I feel on top of things right now, in control, and having privacy, relatively speaking.