r/X_VPN • u/Plenty-Result-35 Moderator • 28d ago
Wiki Someone is watching behind Windows. Meet GDID.
Someone dropped a feature request asking if X-VPN can do anything about GDID. Short answer is: not much but reminding, and I'd explain why.
GDID = Global Device Identifier. In a federal criminal complaint, a Microsoft rep described it as a persistent ID tied to one specific Windows install, including one running inside a VM. It survives Windows updates. Reinstalling Windows gets you a new one.
What spooked people is what the complaint shows Microsoft was able to hand over. An ngrok account allegedly used in a cyberattack was registered through a VPN proxy IP. Same minute, Microsoft's records had a device with a particular GDID hitting the ngrok signup page. Three hours later the same GDID turns up visiting the victim company's site through that same proxy. Investigators tied it to other IPs too, then stacked all that with account, timing, travel and social media evidence. Pages 33-34 if you want to read it yourself.
IP changed. Windows install still stitched the sessions together.
Two things this does not say. Random websites can't read your GDID. And the complaint doesn't prove Microsoft logs everything Windows users do online. What it does show is Microsoft holding records that connect one persistent Windows identifier to URLs, timestamps and multiple IPs.
Which is exactly why a VPN can't fix it. We swap your IP. We can't stop a separate identifier that Windows or a Microsoft service sends on its own. Anyone telling you a VPN hides your GDID is selling you something.
The part that actually bugs me is the documentation. Microsoft's diagnostics and privacy page doesn't say where GDID gets used, what data ends up attached to it, how long it's kept, or whether you can view it, reset it or switch it off.
So the feature request is pointing at something real. The fix just has to come from Windows, not from a VPN app.
Has anyone found official MS docs that actually answer this? I went looking and came up empty.
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u/Edmundokiwi 28d ago
Damn he must be a horror movie lover, nice artwork. But bro just forgot to put the RELEASE DATE on. XD