Why is Microsoft watching everything you do in Windows 7, 8.1 and 10? And what can you do to prevent it?
If you’re upgrading from Windows 7 or 8, Windows 10 doesn’t cost you any money. But there is a big hidden cost to Microsoft’s free operating system (OS): your privacy. Concealed within Windows 10 are numerous options that give the operating system permission to record a variety of information about you and the way you use your PC – including what you search for online and anything you type on your keyboard. All this is then sent back to Microsoft for analysis. What’s worse is that most of these options are enabled by default. So, unless you take action, you could be unwittingly handing your private data to Microsoft on a plate.
Windows 7 and 8 users aren’t safe from from Microsoft’s snooping. The company recently added similar tracking abilities to those systems. So even if you’ve decided against upgrading to Windows 10, you won’t be able to avoid Microsoft’s prying eyes.
Until recently, Microsoft has seemed to be relatively respectful of its users’ privacy, so what has changed? What types of information is the company now gathering? And what does it do with your data once it has got it? We’ll answer these questions and more, and show you how to protect your privacy, whatever version of Windows you’re using.
YOUR PRIVACY QUESTIONS ANSWERED
What exactly is Microsoft doing?
It’s using tracking tools built into Windows 10 to monitor users’ activity. This data is then sent back to Microsoft. But that’s not all. Windows 10 contains other privacy-eroding features that target you with adverts; log what buttons you press on your keyboard (your ‘keystrokes’); and consume your internet bandwidth.
Microsoft provides ways to disable most of these, but they’re scattered throughout the OS, making them difficult to find. And you will need to find them because most of Microsoft’s snooping options are enabled by default. You’ll need to opt out if you want to protect your privacy. We’ll be showing you where to look and what to do below.
Why is this so controversial?
While some of us now grudgingly accept that online services (Google, for example), and our mobile devices, collect our data, never before have we been in a situation where our own computers routinely spy on us and gather personal information on such a massive scale. It has made lots of people feel very uncomfortable.
To give Microsoft credit, it has been transparent about its data collection. But the company has made it unreasonably difficult for users to do anything about it. Not only that, but Microsoft also recently admitted that Windows continues to track PC activity, even when users have disabled the buried tracking options - more on this later.
What information is Microsoft collecting?
Prepared to be shocked. Microsoft can gather your name, demographic info (age, gender, language), interests, relationships and PC usage. But what’s most unsettling is that Microsoft gathers something it ambiguously calls “content”. This can refer to almost anything, including private files and emails.
By default, Windows 10 gathers data as you browse the web and use Desktop apps. It uses this to build a profile of you that is then used by Microsoft and other third-party companies to target you with advertising. It also tracks your location, keeping a record of where you’ve been and gathering information about the networks you connect to. And, unless you tell it not to, it even shares your private home Wi-Fi password.
The OS gathers other info to make certain tools work. For example, Cortana records your keystrokes and spoken commands. It can also access your calendar and contacts as well as find out what you buy online. All this is stored online - or “in the cloud”, as Microsoft puts it.
Windows 10 and Windows 8 automatically synchronise your settings and data with the cloud. This may not sound terrifying, but it does mean that you need to opt out if you don’t want information about you stored online.
Should I be worried about it?
Some of Microsoft’s data-collection actions obviously pose more of a risk to your privacy than others, which is why we’ve given each of our tips (see below) their own urgency rating. In general, however, your level of concern is likely to fall roughly in line with the level of trust you have in Microsoft as a company.
In a lengthy Privacy Statement (www.snipca.com/19521), Microsoft states that it will “access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content” – such as your emails or private files and folders – “when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary”. This effectively gives Microsoft the right to access and share your private files and data with anyone it likes, should it wish to.
To help reassure users, Microsoft gives some examples, such as when it may need to access or share your data in order to “comply with law enforcement or other government agencies” or “maintain the security of our services”. It’s somewhat perturbing to consider that “good faith” is the only thing standing between you and a situation where the contents of your personal files are being viewed, copied and handed over to unknown third parties.
There’s also the growing risk of hacking to consider. Even if Microsoft itself isn’t going to abuse your data, what’s to stop it being stolen from the company’s servers via a cyber-attack?
Why is Microsoft doing this?
In its Privacy Statement, Microsoft says that it collects data “to operate effectively and provide you the best experiences with our services”, as well as “to send communications, including promotional communications” and, finally, “to display advertising”. It admits that it uses some data to make adverts “more relevant” to you. One way this could work is by tracking which apps you use, then ‘recommending’ others that are similar.
It’s true that some aspects of the OS simply won’t work unless you’re prepared to put up with a certain amount of tracking. For example, you won’t be able to check your current whereabouts in the Maps app if you’ve turned off location tracking. And you won’t be able to get suggestions from Cortana if you block it from monitoring your activity.
What’s Microsoft really up to?
We’re not going to suggest that there’s anything profoundly sinister lurking behind Microsoft’s motivations. But for all its talk about how “your privacy is important to us”, we’re convinced that its real motivation boils down to one thing: money.
By giving away Windows 10 for free, Microsoft has lost a very valuable source of revenue. It’s only natural that the company should look for alternative ways to make money. Google, which recently reported record profits, has proved that companies can generate vast amounts of revenue from advertising while providing free services to its users. Microsoft wants some of that action. That’s why every Windows 10 user is allotted a unique advertising profile and why there’s so much advertising embedded within the OS and its related services. It would also explain why the company is being so pushy about getting everyone to upgrade to the new OS.
Collecting and using people’s data is something that mobile operating systems – such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android – have been doing for years, so Microsoft is just catching up with other tech companies. But that doesn’t make it any more palatable.
Microsoft has come under fire from all sides, with the campaign group European Digital Rights (EDRi) neatly summarising criticism of the company’s privacy policies in a recent blog post: “Microsoft basically grants itself very broad rights to collect everything you do, say and write with and on your devices in order to sell more targeted advertising or to sell your data to third parties. The company appears to be granting itself the right to share your data either with your consent or ‘as necessary’.” Read the full post at www.snipca.com/19522.
Can I completely stop Microsoft snooping?
The tips we’re about to provide will block most of Microsoft’s data-collecting tricks. However, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore revealed in an interview last October that some data-collecting tools in Windows can’t be disabled (read the full interview at www.snipca.com/19519).
Microsoft records something it calls ‘telemetry’ – diagnostic data about how you use your PC - though it’s unclear what this data actually is. Belfiore claims it is only “to do with the health of the system” and doesn’t contain personal information. But in an unrelated announcement in January trumpeting Windows 10’s success (www.snipca.com/19520), Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group Yusuf Mehdi revealed just how much the company knows about what its users have been doing with their PCs, including the number of photos viewed using the Windows 10 Photo app (82 billion) and how many hours of Xbox One games were streamed to Windows 10 PCs (6.6 million). This suggests that Microsoft may be collecting much more than merely how often your PC crashes.
Thanks to a backlash from its business customers, Microsoft recently provided a way for users of the Enterprise Edition of Windows 10 to disable telemetry collection but, sadly, the company has no plans to introduce a similar option for Windows 10 Home or Pro users.
Windows 7 and 8 include similar telemetry tracking abilities, but thankfully you can disable these. See below to find out how.
PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY IN WINDOWS 10
Here’s how to disable all of the snooping features Microsoft has built into its latest operating system.
1 Don’t use Express settings
Urgency level: Very high
During the Windows 10 upgrade process, Microsoft sneakily glosses over a very important part in the procedure. It uses misleading wording to trick you into agreeing to a load of default settings – many of which potentially compromise your privacy. By choosing this ‘Use Express setup’ option when prompted, you’ll shave a few minutes off your setup time. But you’ll also be allowing Microsoft to collect personal data from your contacts and calendar.
If you’ve already upgraded to Windows 10, it’s too late to change this. Instead, you’ll need to switch off each tracking tool individually – follow our tips below. But if you’ve not upgraded, when you do so just click the tiny ‘Customise settings’ link on the ‘Get going fast’ screen to disable most of Windows 10’s snooping features.
2 Disable targeted advertising
Urgency level: High
Advertising has become an unavoidable part of modern computing, but Windows 10 goes much further than previous versions. You’ll not only see adverts on web pages, but also within apps and even in your Start menu.
You can’t turn off advertising completely, but you can stop advertisers from using information about you to target you with personalised ads. To do so, click Start, Settings, then Privacy. Click General on the left, then switch off ‘Let apps use my advertising ID for experiences across apps’. While you’re there, also switch off ‘Let websites provide locally relevant content by accessing my language list’. You’ll need to change settings elsewhere too. Click ‘Manage my Microsoft advertising and other personalisation info’ to be taken to Microsoft’s About Our Ads web page (www.snipca.com/19455). Sign in with your Microsoft account, then switch both ‘Personalised ads in this browser’ and ‘Personalised ads whenever I use my Microsoft account’ to Off.
To block Start menu adverts, click Start, Settings, Personalisation, then Start and switch off ‘Occasionally show suggestions in Start’. Finally, open the Windows Store app, click on your account and choose Settings. Here, switch off ‘Show products on tile’ if you’d rather not see adverts in the Store’s Start menu Live tile.
3 Block location tracking
Urgency level: Medium
If you don’t like the idea of people knowing where you are and where you’ve been, click Start, Settings, Privacy, then Location. The settings you need to change here depend on what type of device you’re using and the services you want to use. If you’re using a standard desktop PC, for instance, there’s no real benefit to having Location switched on at all, as the PC is fixed in one place. To plan journeys in the Maps app, you can always just use your postcode instead.
To disable Location altogether for anyone who uses the PC, click Change, then turn it off. To turn it off for individual user accounts, click the switch under Location to Off. To erase location data, click Clear under ‘Clear history on this device’. If you’re using a laptop - or a Windows phone or tablet - Location can be pretty useful for navigating, so you may wish to leave it on. But if you do, scroll down on the Location settings page and disable any apps you don’t want tracking you under ‘Choose apps that can use your location’. Almost all can be safely switched off.
4 Stop apps watching and listening
Urgency level: High
Giving apps permission to use your device’s camera or microphone means that they could spy on you. They could even record your voice and take video footage of you. By default, Windows 10 lets apps use your camera and microphone, so to change this, click Start, Settings, Privacy, then either Camera or Microphone. The setting at the top of both pages turns off the camera and microphone for all apps, but you may not wish to do this – Skype, for example, won’t work if it can’t access the microphone or camera. Instead, turn off individual apps listed under ‘Choose apps that can use your camera/microphone’.
5 Disable Windows 10’s keylogger
Urgency level: Very high
We’ve been warning readers about the dangers of keyloggers – tools that record what you type on your keyboard – for years. So it’s astonishing that Windows 10 should come with one built-in. Microsoft claims it’s there to help improve services and provide you with a more personalised experience, but we think it’s just plain creepy. First, click Start, Settings, Privacy, General, then switch off ‘Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future’.
Once you’ve done that, click ‘Speech, inking and typing’ on the left, then click ‘Stop getting to know me’ on the right. This will stop Windows (and Cortana) collecting data from spoken commands and handwriting (on devices that support this), as well as from what you type. It’ll also disable Cortana, and stop the voicedictation tool from working. Click ‘Turn off’ in the warning message if you’re happy with this.
6 Stop Cortana storing your data online
Urgency level: High
For all of Microsoft’s fanfare about Cortana, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Windows 10’s digital assistant is a privacy nightmare. Even if you disable it using the previous tip, Cortana will continue to store detailed personal information about you on Microsoft’s servers unless you opt to delete it. To do so, click Start, Settings, Privacy, then click ‘Speech, inking and typing’. Under ‘Manage cloud info’, click ‘Go to Bing and manage personal info for all your devices’. This will open a web page – sign in with your Microsoft account, then scroll down to ‘Other Cortana Data and Personalised Speech, Inking and Typing’ and click Clear.
7 Block apps from accessing your private info
Urgency level: Medium
Windows 10 allows apps to access a wide variety of different personal data – from your calendar and contacts to emails and text messages. To stop this, click Start, Settings, Privacy, then click ‘Account info’, Contacts, Calendar, ‘Call history’, Email and Messaging in turn. In each case (apart from Contacts) you’ll see a main switch at the top of the page allowing you to turn off access completely.
However, as with Camera and Microphone, you may find that doing this prevents certain apps and tools from working properly. The Mail app, for example, needs to have access to your calendar, contacts and, of course, email. So, instead of disabling app access altogether, it’s better to leave the top switch on in each case, then choose which apps to allow or disable from those listed below.
8 Limit Microsoft’s telemetry tracking
Urgency level: Medium
It’s not possible to turn off all of Microsoft telemetry tracking in Windows 10. But you can customise it to limit the amount of data you share, and to stop Windows nagging you for feedback. Click Start, Settings, Privacy, then click ‘Feedback & diagnostics’ on the left (you may need to scroll down if you can’t see it). On the right, select Never from the ‘Windows should ask for my feedback’ dropdown menu, then select Basic from the dropdown menu under ‘Send your device data to Microsoft’.
9 Stop Windows 10 sharing your Wi-Fi password
Urgency level: High
Windows 10 comes with a new feature called WiFi Sense, designed to let friends and colleagues quickly connect to each other’s wireless networks without having to physically enter a password. In practice, what happens is that Windows shares an encrypted version of your private Wi-Fi security key with anyone in your contacts list. Others can’t see your key, but the system does mean that contacts you don’t really know or trust could end up with the ability to access your Wi-Fi when they’re in the vicinity. Not only that, but your encrypted Wi-Fi key is stored on Microsoft’s servers, leaving it vulnerable to hackers. To switch WiFi Sense off, click Start, Settings, ‘Network & internet’, then WiFi. Scroll down and click ‘Manage WiFi settings’. Under WiFi Sense, make sure both options are set to Off.
10 Configure Edge’s privacy options
Urgency level: Medium
Microsoft’s new web browser has its own set of privacy settings that need addressing. Click the menu (three dots) button in the top right and choose Settings, then ‘View advanced settings’. Scroll to ‘Privacy and services’. Leave ‘Offer to save passwords’ and ‘Save form entries’ enabled only if you are comfortable with the browser storing this information. We recommend enabling ‘Send Do Not Track requests’ to limit the amount your online activity is tracked, and disabling ‘Get Cortana to assist me in Microsoft Edge’ (though this may already be disabled if you’ve switched Cortana off).
It’s convenient to leave enabled ‘Show search and site suggestions as I type’ and ‘Use page prediction to speed up browsing’. But it will mean data about your searches and browsing being sent to Microsoft. Under the Cookies section, we’d suggest selecting ‘Block only third-party cookies’, but bear in mind that this will stop some sites working properly.
PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY IN WINDOWS 7 AND 8
Stop CEIP from snooping
Windows 7 and 8 also snoop on you. Microsoft collects info on how you use your PC for its Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). Microsoft claims that the data doesn’t contain any identifying information, such as your name, address or phone number - you can read more about CEIP at www.snipca.com/19537.
The big difference in Windows 7 and 8, compared with Windows 10, is that you can opt out of this data collection at any time. To check whether it’s enabled on your PC, click Start, type action and click Action Center. Now click ‘Change Action Center settings’, followed by ‘Customer Experience Improvement Program settings’. In the Window that opens, make sure the ‘No, I don’t want to participate in the program’ option is selected and click Save Changes, if necessary.
Disable Microsoft’s new tracking updates in 7 and 8
Microsoft recently introduced further snooping abilities into both Windows 7 and 8 via a slew of Windows updates. Looking through the update codes on Microsoft’s Knowledge Base (www.snipca.com/19543) reveals that they are related to “customer experience and diagnostic telemetry”. If your PC is set to update automatically, then these may already have been installed on your system and be reporting back to Microsoft. The good news is that disabling CEIP will effectively block these. However, to be certain, you may want to follow the steps below to check whether any of the offending updates have been added to your system, then remove and block them if desired.
Disable CEIP in other programs
Microsoft includes CEIP and similar tracking tools in other products, so you may want to turn these off too. In Microsoft Office, for example, click File, Options, Trust Center, ‘Trust Center settings’, then Privacy Options and untick any options that refer to Customer Experience or sharing data with Microsoft - the precise wording depends on your version of Office.
If you use Windows Media Player, click Organise, Options, Privacy, then untick ‘I want to make Microsoft software and services even better…’ and click OK. And if you use Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows 7) or Windows Defender (Windows 8), you may also want to disable the Microsoft Active Protection Service (MAPS), a similar system to CEIP, which reports information about your PC usage – including browsing history – to Microsoft. Open Security Essentials or Defender and click Settings, MAPS, select ‘I don’t want to join MAPS’, then click ‘Save changes’.
Uninstall and block Microsoft’s tracking updates
1 Click (or right-click in Windows 8.1) Start and select Control Panel, then click ‘Uninstall a program’. On the left, click ‘View installed updates’.
2 Look for the following updates (you can use the Search box): KB3022345, KB3068708, KB3075249 and KB3080149. Right-click each, select Uninstall, then click Yes. Restart your PC.
3 Open Windows Update and click ‘Check for updates’. Click the ‘important updates’ link, then right-click the KB numbers from Step 2 and select ‘Hide update’ for each.
CAN YOU BE ANONYMOUS IN EDGE?
Like most browsers Edge has a private mode. Called InPrivate (instructions at www.snipca.com/19559), it lets you browse the web anonymously, so you don’t leave a trail containing your browsing history, image cache or cookies. This prevents other users of your PC from seeing what you’ve done online. However, evidence recently uncovered by researchers at website Forensic Focus (www.forensicfocus.com) suggests that anyone with the right know-how and access to your computer could easily reconstruct your InPrivate browsing history via data stored in your user account’s WebCache folder. Microsoft has since admitted it is aware of the flaw and is “committed to resolving this as quickly as possible”.
USE FREE PRIVACY TOOLS
As well as following our advice in this feature, you should try one of the many third-party privacy tools that have sprung up since Windows 10 launched. Though these rarely offer anything more than is already built into Windows 10, they do display all the major privacy options in one place, making your life easier. The problem is that some of the tools install unwanted software, which is actually worse for your privacy. However, Ashampoo’s free AntiSpy for Windows 10 (www.snipca.com/19534) is safe to use. In fact, it’s a portable program, which means you don’t even need to install it. Just run the tool and choose which privacy options to disable or enable, based on our advice in this article.