Microsoft’s new operating system collects all sorts of personal data about you, including what you type and say. Wayne Williams reveals exactly what info Windows 10 is gathering and how to stop it snooping
Ask anyone what their biggest concern is about Windows 10 – whether they’ve upgraded yet or not – and it’s likely to be privacy. Most of the negative press the new OS has received has been about Microsoft’s increasingly intrusive methods of collecting, storing and sharing information about you, and recent stories suggest the company’s tracking tools may go even deeper than at first thought. Indeed, the Ars Technica blog (bit.ly/ars380) recently found that Windows 10 continues to report back to Microsoft even when you tell it not to.
In this feature, we expose the privacy scandal at the heart of Windows 10, and explain how you can prevent Microsoft from spying on you. Over the following six pages, we suggest 12 things you must and mustn’t do to dramatically reduce the amount of information Microsoft collects about you, from using free tools to tighten your privacy settings, to disabling features that watch and listen to you. Sadly, it’s not just Windows 10 that spies on you, either – Microsoft recently pushed snooping updates to Windows 7 and 8+, so we explain how to remove those as well.
THE 12 THINGS YOU MUST AND MUSTN’T DO TO STAY PRIVATE IN WINDOWS 10
DON’T use Express Settings when you install Windows 10
During the slow and – in several cases – problematic upgrade to Windows 10, it can be tempting to choose the Express Settings option so you can get up and running as quickly as possible. However, by accepting these default settings, you’re allowing Windows 10 to send speech, typing, contacts, calendar and location data, as well as advertising ID information, directly to Microsoft. Rather sneakily, the screen neglects to mention that with one click you’re essentially handing over your personal info for as long as you use the operating system, for the company to do what it wants with, but instead suggests that it wants the data to help “personalize your experience”.
To protect your privacy, make sure you select the Custom install option instead and then choose which features to allow. Don’t worry if you already chose Express Settings, though, because most of the sharing features can be turned off by going to Settings, Privacy, General.
DO use free programs to tighten your privacy
There are lots of privacy settings scattered throughout Windows 10, almost as if Microsoft deliberately wants to confuse users and prevent them from taking total control of their data. Although the most important settings can be found in the logical location of Settings, Privacy, there are plenty of others tucked away elsewhere. Trying to find them all isn’t easy, especially if you’re not even sure what you’re looking for. Fortunately, several third-party developers have created their own free privacy-tightening tools for Windows 10, which put all of the settings on one or two screens. This allows you to make whatever changes you deem necessary with the minimum of effort, and is much less perplexing than trying to dig out all the privacy settings yourself.
Some of the better tools to consider include Ashampoo AntiSpy for Windows 10 (bit.ly/antispy380), O&O ShutUp10 (bit.ly/shutup380), Windows 10 Privacy Fixer (bit.ly/privfix380) and Spybot Anti-Beacon for Windows 10 (bit.ly/antibeacon380). DoNotSpy 10 (bit.ly/donotspy380) is also worth a look, and has been recommended by many tech websites, but it comes bundled with unwanted extras, so you should take extra care when installing the program.
It’s worth pointing out that disabling certain settings in Windows 10 may reduce or remove certain functionality from the operating system, so make sure you know what something does before deactivating it.
DON’T let Windows 10 and Cortana get to know you
In order to make better, more personalised suggestions, Windows 10 and Cortana collect all sorts of usage information about your activities and personality, including your contacts, calendar events, speech- and handwriting patterns and even your typing history. By doing this, Cortana should get better at understanding you and your needs, so ‘she’ can respond more quickly and accurately to commands. Although it’s easy to see why Cortana collects all of this data, it’s still a very creepy feature – like having someone sat behind you on the bus noting down everything you say and do.
If you’d rather reduce this level of personalisation in Windows 10, go to Start, Settings, Privacy, click the option ‘Speech, inking and typing’, then click the ‘Stop getting to know me’ button. This will clear what Cortana and Windows know about you, and also turn off the personal assistant and dictation functions. You can also clear data from Cortana, as well as info about your speech, inking and typing, on the web through Bing (bit.ly/bing380). Sign in with your Microsoft account and click the Clear button under the ‘Other Cortana data...’ option.
DO stop Windows 10 tracking your location
Location settings in Windows 10 allow apps such as Maps (which is actually rather good) to correctly pinpoint your current position. While that’s definitely handy, especially if you’re using the operating system on a laptop while travelling, you might not want or need Windows 10 to record all your location details. Indeed, if you only use the OS on a desktop system that never goes anywhere, the feature is slightly redundant anyway, and simply a means for Microsoft to know exactly where you are – more precisely than by using your IP address.
To change what Windows 10 is recording about your whereabouts, go to Settings, Privacy, Location. You can turn off location services here, and also clear your location history. Scroll down and you’ll be able to set which installed apps have permission to see your location, which is useful if you don’t mind Maps knowing where you are, but don’t see the reason for any other apps to access that information.
DON’T share your account info with apps
Windows 10 shares your account information with third-party apps that you’ve installed from the Windows Store. By default, these apps will be able to access your name, picture and other account details, presumably as a means of personalisation so they can greet you and show your photo when you’re interacting with other users, such as when challenging them to games. This info-sharing might be harmless enough, but if you’re not comfortable with the idea, you should turn off this needless intrusion of your privacy. Go to Settings, Privacy, ‘Account info’ and slide the ‘Account info’ switch to Off. However, some apps might require account access to work properly. If this is the case, you can choose to allow just these ones.
DO disable features that watch and listen to you
Certain apps – including those installed by default and third-party ones from the Windows Store – can access your camera and microphone, which potentially allows them to spy on you. Most apps have a good reason for needing camera or microphone access – for example, the Windows Voice Recorder wouldn’t be able to record your voice without you granting it permission to use the microphone. However, other apps don’t need this access and could even be exploited by hackers (although there haven’t been any reported cases yet).
You can choose which apps to grant camera access to under Settings, Privacy. Click Camera and choose which apps can access your webcam (if you have one). You can disable the feature entirely if you want to stay in total control. Click Microphone and repeat the process there.
DON’T send Microsoft personally identifiable data
Windows 10 collects performance and usage information that helps Microsoft identify and troubleshoot problems. If Windows 10 crashes, it can be helpful for the software giant to know about it. This way, Microsoft may be able to isolate the problem and fix it for you and other users. However, by default, Windows 10 sends back quite a lot of information to Microsoft, and that could potentially include personally identifiable data, including parts of a document you were working on when a crash occurred. You can’t stop diagnostic and usage data being collected entirely, but you can limit what information is sent to Microsoft. Go to Settings, Privacy and click ‘Feedback & diagnostics’. Change ‘Diagnostic and usage data’ from Full (Recommended) to Basic.
Note that making this change will trigger a strange message in Privacy Settings that says ‘Some settings are managed by your organisation’ – presumably, this is for work PCs because it makes no sense on a home computer. Going back to ‘Full (Recommended)’ will remove this notice.
DO opt out of personalised ads
Advertisers like to know as much about you as possible so that they can better target you with their messages. The theory is that if you see something that appeals to your interests, you’ll be more likely to click it than something that has zero relevance to you. If you’d rather advertisers didn’t build up a personalised profile like this (and really, who does want that?), you can turn the behaviour off in Windows 10. Go to Settings, Privacy, General, and flick the slider next to ‘Let apps use my advertising ID for experiences across apps (turning this off will reset your ID)’ to Off.
Next, open your web browser and go to bit.ly/optout380. Set both ‘Personalised ads in this browser’ and ‘Personalised ads wherever I use my Microsoft account’ to Off.
DON’T feel obliged to use Microsoft tools
If you want to reduce the amount of information Microsoft collects about you in Windows 10, you’ll probably want to limit which of the built-in apps you use. Microsoft Edge has the potential to be a great browser, but for now it’s rather limited, so switch to an alternative such as Firefox or Chrome. If you decide to stay with Edge, make sure you change the default search engine from Microsoft’s Bing to Google, or something else. To do this, go to the search site you want to use, such as www.google.co.uk, and click the three-dots icon in the top-right corner of Edge. Select Settings and click ‘View advanced settings’. Scroll down to ‘Search in the address bar with’, click ‘Bing’ (www.bing.com) and select ‘Add new’. Google, or any other choice of search engine, should appear in the list. Select it and click ‘Add as default’.
Cortana is powered by Bing, but if you set Chrome as your default web browser and install the free Chrometana extension (bit.ly/chrometana380), you can have her use Google, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo instead (all your Bing searches will be redirected, not just Cortana ones).
Finally, if you prefer to use a different cloud-storage service, you can remove OneDrive from Windows 10. The process is a little complicated, but it only takes a few minutes to do. Right-click the Start button and select ‘Command Prompt (Admin)’. Terminate any running OneDrive processes by typing: taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe. Press Enter. If you’re using the 32-bit version of Windows 10, type: %SystemRoot%System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall. If you’re using the 64-bit edition, type: %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall. You won’t see a confirmation message, but the app should be removed. If you want OneDrive back, you can reinstall it by going to %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\ in File Explorer and running the OneDriveSetup.exe.
DO manage your privacy settings in Edge
We’ve shown you above how to change the search engine in Microsoft Edge, but there are plenty of other privacy-related features to change in the new browser. You only need to adjust these if you intend to use Edge – don’t worry about them if you plan to use Firefox or Chrome as your default browser. To make the changes, click the three-dots icon in the top-right corner and go to Settings, View Advanced Settings. From here, you can choose whether the browser should save passwords and form entries (you’ll probably want to allow this).
Other options you can disable include ‘Get Cortana to assist me in Microsoft Edge’, ‘Show search suggestions as I type’ and ‘Use page prediction to speed up browsing, improve reading and make my overall experience better’. The last two options send browsing-history data to Microsoft, so you may wish to set those to Off.
DON’T feel locked into your Windows 10 account
Windows 10 has lots of ties to the cloud, but if you don’t want to be forced into using OneDrive because you have privacy concerns, and would prefer the new operating system to work in much the same that Windows 7 does, you can switch to using a local account. It’s easy to do, and you can always switch back should you change your mind. You will, naturally, lose access to features that require a Microsoft account, including the Windows Store, but if you don’t use apps, you probably won’t miss it.
To switch to a local account, click Start and open Settings. Click Accounts and go to ‘Your Account’. Click the ‘Sign in with a local account instead’ link and follow the steps to uncouple the PC from your Microsoft account.
DO remove snooping updates from Windows 7 and 8
You might think that if you’re not using Windows 10, and have stuck with an older version of the operating system, that you don’t have to worry about the privacy concerns we’ve highlighted in this feature, but sadly it’s no longer only the new operating system that spies on you. Microsoft recently issued some sneaky updates for Windows 7 and 8+ that report back on your activities online and on your PC. While some of the spying updates are marked as optional, others are listed as recommended, so they will have been automatically installed if Windows Update is set to do so.
If you have already installed the updates on your system, you can remove and block them easily enough. Go to Start, Control Panel, Programs, ‘Uninstall [or change] a program’. Click ‘View installed updates’ on the left. Use the search box to locate the following updates: KB3068708, KB3022345, KB3075249 and KB3080149. Right-click each one and select Uninstall.
When that’s done, go to ‘System and security’ in the Control Panel and select ‘Windows Update’, ‘Check for updates’. Click the ‘Recommended updates link’ and find the KB3068708 and KB3022345 updates. Right-click each one in turn and select ‘Hide update’. Next, open ‘Optional updates’ and hide KB3075249 and KB3080149.
You can find out more about what these worrying updates actually do at bit.ly/ghacks380.