Windows 10 has more monitoring and telemetry activities than any previous version of Windows. In fact, there are at least 13 pages of privacy settings to be configured and there has been a large amount of concern about what information Microsoft is collecting and what they are doing with this information. It did not help people’s concerns that Microsoft kept more or less mum about exactly what was being collected.
Now Microsoft has finally made an official statement about the privacy issue and tried to clarify what is going on. You can read the post by Terry Myerson, the Executive VP for the Windows Devices Group at Microsoft, and judge for yourself whether Microsoft has made their privacy practices clear.
In the meantime, be sure to set all the multitude of privacy settings to your personal preference. You can get information about these settings in the previous article, Understanding and Dealing with the Windows 10 Privacy Issue. You can also watch a video, “Windows 10 Privacy Settings Walk Through,” at SuperSite for Windows.
Added later: Woody Leonhard gives his assessment of Micrososft's privacy position in this post.
What's your opinion? Has Microsoft answered the questions that have been raised about privacy issues with Windows 10?
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Comments
What does the bottom of the blog post tell us?
"We will continue to listen ..."
Followed by:
"Comments for this post are currently closed."
"as Microsoft is now learning"
Don't kid yourself, Microsoft knows exactly what it's doing. They knew exactly what would happen when the details came to light. They knew/know ahead of time what percentage of users will drop W10 and what percentage will drop Microsoft altogether. They may appear stupid on the surface but everything is done with a best/worse case scenario thought out beforehand, with the exception of doing away with the start menu. Like Coca-Cola's "New Coke" blunder, some dumb ideas make it through no matter what.
Your giving Microsoft way too much credit. This is a company that has had a monopoly with it's Window product seemingly forever, so it's not surprising their arrogance has almost no limits. Dumb ideas really don't make it through no matter what. If you don't believe that take a look at how Blackberry (which also once had a monopoly) self destructed.
"You are in control with the ability to determine what information is collected."
That is very misleading. Terry Myerson knows it and he knows we know it. What he should have said is...
"You can reduce how much data is collected but you cannot stop it completely."
Your assessment is correct Joe. Data collection business is worth billions of dollars now to corporations like Google, Apple, Facebook etc so they are not going to stop. If their access to information is restricted by users they will simply develop other means of circumventing that. It has become a high stakes chess match and the user is always the one playing catch up.
I think Vic has correctly pointed out that the real issue here is not data collecting per se but transparency relating to the practice of data collecting. Everyone understands that we are in an information age now and there is no turning back the clock on that. Any company that collects data on customers should be forthcoming with answers to what is being collected, and how that information is intended to be used. Secrecy and subterfuge will only result in a public backlash as Microsoft is now learning.