The current trend is toward more mobile computing, cloud based services and storage, and sharing information between devices. All of the major companies are battling to be your service provider, all the while gathering information about your on-line browsing habits with which to display ads targeted at you personally.
With Windows 10, Microsoft has joined the ranks of other companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. in collecting personal information about you and sharing that information with 3rd party vendors in order to tailor your on-line experience.
For the privacy minded, some of the new features in Windows 10 are disturbing in their ramifications. For instance Cortana, which is the equivalent of SIRI on the iPhone or “OK Google” on the Android phone, must know all sorts of stuff about you in order to become an effective personal assistant.
Although you should review all of the privacy settings in Windows 10 (Start – > Settings -> Privacy), the paragraphs below highlight some areas in which I strongly suggest you review your settings. This should not be treated as a comprehensive list. Future blog posts will address other security and privacy settings that are sprinkled throughout many of Windows 10 settings.
Keep in mind that Microsoft’s intention with Windows 10 is to allow you to connect all your Microsoft devices and share information between them. This includes your Windows phone, your Xbox, your laptop and your desktop and your Microsoft Surface tablet. Windows 10 is also designed to provide a consistent interface between all of these devices.
If you need the connectivity just described or are working with Windows 10 on a phone or tablet, some of the recommendations below are not going to fit your situation. The settings below are oriented towards the business community and work environments where that kind of connectivity is not desired for security reasons or for personal users who wish to keep more control over their privacy.
Local Account: With Windows 8, Microsoft started pushing users toward creating a Microsoft account in order to log in to your computer as opposed to using a local account which does not have to “call home” to Microsoft before you can log in. With Windows 10, this almost has become a requirement although there is still a way to set up a Windows 10 computer without creating a Microsoft account. I strongly suggest making your login a local account although this will prevent you from being able to use OneDrive as easily.
Cortana: As mentioned above, Cortana is Microsoft’s answer to SIRI, “OK Google” and other voice responsive search engines. The settings for Cortana are found on the “Speech, Ink, & Typing” tab. If you tell Cortana to “Get to know me”, Microsoft will start tracking pretty much everything you do on the computer. This, to me, is the single most important privacy setting in Windows 10. As you can see, I have Cortana turned off!
Advertising ID: The second most important privacy setting is controlling how Microsoft uses your “advertising ID” to share your browsing and ad habits with third party companies and advertisers in order to ensure that the ads you see are more closely tailored to your likes and dislikes. This setting is on the “General” settings tab. I recommend turning all the settings on this tab to “off”.
Location: This is similar to your advertising ID in its purpose to let apps and websites have access to your location. Note that there is a large “Change” button at the top of the page which affects the overall setting. If you turn location on, you can specify further down on the page specifically which apps can access your location. This might be useful, for example, with the maps application.
Feedback: The last area we are going to cover in this blog post is that of feedback. You cannot turn feedback totally off but you can minimize what information is sent back to Microsoft. My recommended settings are shown in the picture here.
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