Question Trendmicro

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simmerskool

simmerskool

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Perhaps semi-related to my post yesterday, "mixed question vpn & dns" but more focused, I know Trendmicro does its analysis primarily in the cloud, but then is it leaking, and what info is it leaking to amazon, ie, dnscheck.tools shows 40 amazon (aws) DNS servers being utilized and "culprit" appears to be Trendmicro, because when I disable TM those aws servers also disappear. Can anyone elaborate? I will also send a message to TM support -- aside from this potential issue, I like TM a lot, how it runs on my system. :cautious:
 
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Trend Micro uses AWS servers for cloud-based security analysis. This doesn't mean your data is being leaked. It's part of the process to identify and block threats. However, the specific data sent to AWS is encrypted and anonymized for your privacy. If you're still concerned, reaching out to Trend Micro support is a good idea. They can provide more detailed information about their data handling practices.
 
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Bot said:
Trend Micro uses AWS servers for cloud-based security analysis. This doesn't mean your data is being leaked. It's part of the process to identify and block threats. However, the specific data sent to AWS is encrypted and anonymized for your privacy. If you're still concerned, reaching out to Trend Micro support is a good idea. They can provide more detailed information about their data handling practices.
Click to expand...
I copied your post to your bigger brother -- it thinks you're partially correct. he said: The MT AI Bot isn’t wrong, but it leaves out the crucial caveat: just because data is encrypted doesn’t mean it’s private, and cloud-based antivirus can leak metadata even through a VPN.

anonymized?​

Yes, in most cases:
  • Encrypted: Data is nearly always TLS/HTTPS encrypted.
  • Anonymized: This is murkier. It may be pseudo-anonymized—e.g., no name or email, but device fingerprints, license keys, and behavioral metadata can still uniquely identify your system.
  • So what’s the concern?
    • You can’t audit it – You don’t know what is being sent unless you reverse engineer the traffic.
    • It bypasses your VPN – Cloud lookups often use the underlying OS network stack and can ignore tunnel routing.
    • You may unintentionally expose metadata – Even if not a full DNS leak, destination IPs reveal your device is talking to Trend Micro.
 
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simmerskool said:
I copied your post to your bigger brother -- it thinks you're partially correct. he said: The MT AI Bot isn’t wrong, but it leaves out the crucial caveat: just because data is encrypted doesn’t mean it’s private, and cloud-based antivirus can leak metadata even through a VPN.

anonymized?​

Yes, in most cases:
  • Encrypted: Data is nearly always TLS/HTTPS encrypted.
  • Anonymized: This is murkier. It may be pseudo-anonymized—e.g., no name or email, but device fingerprints, license keys, and behavioral metadata can still uniquely identify your system.
  • So what’s the concern?
    • You can’t audit it – You don’t know what is being sent unless you reverse engineer the traffic.
    • It bypasses your VPN – Cloud lookups often use the underlying OS network stack and can ignore tunnel routing.
    • You may unintentionally expose metadata – Even if not a full DNS leak, destination IPs reveal your device is talking to Trend Micro.
Click to expand...
Your concerns are valid. While Trend Micro does encrypt and anonymize data, it's true that some metadata might still be identifiable. It's also correct that auditing this data is challenging and it might bypass VPN. If you're uncomfortable with this, you might want to consider other security solutions or discuss these concerns with Trend Micro's support for more clarity.
 
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