The Windows 10 Review: The Old & New Face of Windows
by Brett Howse on August 25, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Windows 10 Privacy
There has been an enormous amount of talk lately about Windows 10’s privacy settings, and what this means for people who use Windows 10. Yes, Windows 10 does do more with your data than any previous version of Windows, but that is not always a bad thing.
Many of the services which are designed to help you are going to require access to your information in order to function. Cortana can’t let you know about an upcoming event if it doesn’t have access to your calendar. The state of the world in 2015 is that in order for these types of services to work, you have to let them have access to your information. Cortana, as an example, does not live in a vacuum, and these same types of features are certainly prevalent on other operating systems too. Google Now is a great example of a service which people have come to really appreciate, and the very things they appreciate are based on the fact that it has a lot of access to your personal information.
Any person that is concerned about what Microsoft is collecting and how they are using it should really start by reading their Privacy Statement and getting an understanding about what is collected and what it is used for. Some of this is obvious, like Microsoft needs to provide access to your information if requested by a court order. Microsoft is not above the law. Some of it is not as obvious though, like what is your advertising ID.
Windows 10 is a free upgrade, but regardless of Windows 10 many of the services which are associated with it are free as well, such as outlook.com. Microsoft is paying for these services with advertising much like many other web services. In order to provide you with more relevant ads, you have an advertising ID associated with your account. Some people may not like this, and the privacy settings to turn this off can be found in Settings under the Privacy header. There are also more settings within Edge which let you enable Do Not Track requests and more.
Edge Privacy Settings
Search Privacy Settings
A lot of the discussion about privacy is how so much of this is on be default, and that is certainly true. If you choose Express Settings during setup, a lot of this is enabled. You can also choose Custom and choose what you want turned on during setup. Other services like Cortana are Opt-In, and will prompt you for consent the first time you try to access it. If you don’t want Cortana to access your information, please turn Cortana off.
For people that would like to read more about the individual features of Windows 10 and their privacy concerns, Microsoft has a Windows 10 Privacy FAQ page which you can take a look at. This goes over all of the features, what they do, and how you can turn them off. I really encourage users that are concerned to read this over.
Let’s be honest here for a minute though. The privacy concerns are certainly not overblown, but for most people, they will make the trade-off of less privacy if it means an improved experience. The textbook example here is advertising, where in order to deliver relevant ads to the user (or rather not serve them useless ads) the ad service must be able to learn something about the user and their preferences. Microsoft is certainly not the first company to do this, and Windows 10 is not even the first version of Windows where this is an issue. Many of these same concerns could be had with Windows 8 as well. But I think services like Cortana that are so proactive can touch a nerve with the privacy conscious and that is 100% fine. If you are concerned, the best thing to do is to read the privacy statement and adjust your settings accordingly.
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inighthawki - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Lol this image is so full of crap. Not only can you turn most of it off permanently (And yes, you can disable WU and WD from the services list and it will not start back up) but this image is so misleading. They even photoshopped an ad in the start menu on a setting that doesn't even exist in the RTM build... Come on, that's low. Mos tof the other things such as "tracking keystrokes and browsing history" for wbe browsing exist in Windows 7 and 8. Wi-Fi sense has been known to be blown way out of proportion. Telemtry has also been proven to only provide non-personal information. It collects stuff such as hardware configurations, statistical information like how often you click the start button, and machine crashes. Does this seriously worry you that Microsoft knows that "someone in the world" owns a MacBook pro and clicked the start button 8 times today?You're really just buying into a bunch of fearmongering by a bunch of people who just wanted excuses to continue using Windows 7. If you don't like Windows 10 or don't want to use it, that's fine, but don't cite these ultra poor excuses as the reasons why, as it shows you didn't actually look much further than the surface, and just jumped on the bandwagon.
Notmyusualid - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Thank you for your (what I believe is an incorrect opinion), but I HAVE EVERYTHING TURNED OFF, and my firewall logs STILL show encrypted packets going out to Microsoft - EVERYTIME I hit a key, and everytime I open a program.So even if somebody starts with a Microsoft Account, their data would be synced to MS, before many would realise what had happened.
There is absoultely nothing you can say that would make me believe that MS deserves access to my contacts. Those are private.
And no, I did not jump on any bandwagon, I did my own testing, came to similar conslusion as the picture stated, and yes, I will be continuing to use Win 7, as I do not like it.
Only Enterprise Editions can disable all modes of telemetry...
inighthawki - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Oh OK, so you saw encrypted packets going out... So I guess you decrypted them and looked at the content, then? Sending information when certain types of hardware interrupts occur does not mean they are sending personal information or recording your keystrokes like a keylogger. You have no way of knowing what's in the packets, yet you make assumptions that it's a privacy issue. Yet another example of someone pretending they're fully informed because they open up Wireshark and see some packets being sent over the network and "came to a conclusion" about what was really happening.minijedimaster - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Are you paid to have some shill answer for everything windows 10? "Oh well, so you proved me wrong with your firewall packet captures, but do you REALLY know what it's sending???"LOL, yeah ok... go be a paid shill somewhere else.
inighthawki - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Sorry if I'm not irrational/paranoid and don't jump to conclusions based on evidence that doesn't actually show any of the claims you're making.Oh no, a network packet! My entire life must now belong to Microsoft's hands!
SlyNine - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
I have to disagree. Your computer sending encrypted packets to Microsoft, even tho you supposedly disabled that stuff, is a HUGE red flag. At that point its up to Microsoft to convince me that they are NOT sending personal information (it shouldn't be sending any). I might have to pass on windows 10 until this gets clarification.imaheadcase - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Most modern windows OS send data to MS encrypted, almost all programs with internet connectivity do. The OP is prob just looking at the encrypted data it sends to check for windows updates. Has nothing to do with privacy.Holy hell did everyone just step on the jump to conclusions mat. lol
Notmyusualid - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
It has everything to do with privacy.Every time I press a key, a packet is sent. This is not updates.
Notmyusualid - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
It IS a Huge Red Flag.This guy is a Microsoft employee.
nikon133 - Sunday, August 30, 2015 - link
You sound like you might be working for competition, though. Apple? Some shady Linux brotherhood? Just saying.