Finally, we will access, transfer, disclose, and preserve personal data, including your content such as the content of your emails in Outlook. The Windows 10 default privacy settings leave a lot to be desired when it comes to protecting you and your private information. Whenever I set up a new computer or update a current setup for my family or job, I always carefully go through the privacy settings for each install, making sure to lock it down to make it as private as possible.
In some cases, you will have to make a decision about whether to err on the side of privacy or lean toward letting Microsoft monitor some of your actions in favor of a more convenient computing experience. Selecting Custom Settings during setup of Windows 10 will allow you to adjust the settings that control how your private information is accessed by Microsoft. As of the Fall Creators Update, Windows 10 users can now get direct access to the full privacy statement during installation.
The sections include such information as to how Windows 10 handles speech recognitions, location services, diagnostics and more. In addition to performing searches, Cortana can also store and access personal information such as reminders, contacts, calendar dates and more. A major drawback of the Cortana assistant is that it indexes and stores your information, both on the local computer and in the cloud. This allows Cortana to synchronize information across all of your Microsoft devices. Privacy advocates have long been concerned about the way Cortana gathers and stores personal user information.
This has led Microsoft to allow users to somewhat control what Cortana accesses and stores. As of the latest version of Windows 10 the Creators Update is the latest as of this writing , the company has taken away the ability to toggle Cortana on and off. Luckily, there is still a way to turn Cortana off, but it requires editing the registry and rebooting your computer. For those not comfortable with dallying around in the Windows Registry, there are still ways to get Cortana to back off a bit from accessing everything you say or do on your PC.
You can prevent it from collecting information about your speech and handwriting patterns, as well as your text entry history.
Account Options
In addition, you can stop the assistant from sharing your usage history across all of your Windows devices. To begin, click on the Cortana search field, found in the lower left-hand corner of your Windows 10 desktop. Once the Cortana display appears, click the Settings icon, as shown below. The Cortana Settings will appear in the Settings app. The Windows 10 Fall Creator Update puts the Cortana settings in the Settings app, so it can also be accessed by loading the Settings app and clicking the Cortana icon, as seen below.
If you decide to let Cortana hang around, this might be the way to go. If you so desire, Cortana can access your calendar, email, messages and other content data, even when your device is locked. When this is turned on, Cortana will include your content saved in the cloud, such as on your OneDrive storage, when providing search results.
By default, Cortana saves the searches you perform in apps, settings and other histories from any devices that you sign in on with your Microsoft account.
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You can disable the device history in this area and clear the history on your device. This includes low battery warnings, phone calls, texts and more. It uses this information to offer location-based reminders, provide directions and offer information about nearby attractions. While this can offer a more convenient and richer experience, it also means Cortana and Microsoft can access your current location and your previous locations. The assistant uses this information to remind you about meetings, track packages and airline flights, and more.
If you rely heavily on Cortana to remind you of upcoming events, you might leave this one turned on. When this permission is enabled, Cortana can collect and use your browsing history. It uses this to offer personalized suggestions and help you pick up where you left off on Microsoft Edge websites. This also means it tracks everything you browse on the web.
Click your mouse pointer in the Cortana search field, found in the lower left-hand corner of your Windows 10 desktop. Once the Cortana display appears, click the Notebook icon, as shown below. When you sign out of Cortana on your computer, the data collected by Cortana associated with that PC is automatically cleared. Data collected by Cortana on other devices remains intact until you sign out of Cortana on those devices.
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With the release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the operating system now supports dedicated Cortana speakers, which can be set up from your PC and used around the house. The first available speaker to make use of Cortana is the Harman Kardon Invoke. The privacy risks of these new speakers are comparable to those presented by the Alexa and Google Home speakers, and should be considered before purchasing and using the speakers.
This includes supplying information to its advertising partners, who then use that info to show ads targeted at you, online and within Windows itself. I should note that such tracking is nothing new, as Google and other search providers have been doing the same thing with cookies and information they collect from your web searches.
Which is why those foot fungus ointment ads are following you around wherever you go on the internet. You really should consult with your doctor about that. A note from Microsoft about this option : Turning the advertising ID off will not reduce the number of ads you see, but it may mean that ads are less interesting and relevant to you. Turning it back on will reset the advertising ID. When Location Tracking is turned on, Windows and its apps are allowed to detect the current location of your computer or device. This can be used to pinpoint your exact location.
This is especially handy for mobile devices, such as Windows tablets or Surface devices, due to location-based apps such as restaurant finders and navigation apps. I generally keep Location Tracking turned off on my desktop and even laptop devices. By leaving both turned on for my iPhone, my wife and children know where I am at all times in case of emergency.
And I, of course, know their whereabouts for the same reasons. Windows will open a browser window where you can then erase your cloud location info. Users can also specify which apps can access and make use of your location information. Any installed app that can take advantage of that information will be displayed in a list. Geofencing uses GPS information, or local radio frequency information such as Wi-Fi networks or Bluetooth beacons, to create a virtual boundary around a location.
An app can use geofencing if Location Services are turned on for that app.
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So, adjust permissions accordingly. My mother-in-law actually puts tape over the built-in camera on both her laptop and her tablet. Camera access in Windows 10 can be easily controlled.
You can also set camera access on an app-by-app basis. When turning camera access off for an app, it should be noted that this only prevents the app from directly accessing the camera hardware. It can still request to open the built-in Windows Camera app, which can only capture images or video when you explicitly allow it to do so. Heck, maybe Zuckerberg has it right - just put a sticker or a piece of tape over the camera.
That same Wired report provides some links to a good number of fashionable ways to cover the camera. Yes, Hello Kitty stickers too. For this setting, I would say allow or block on an app-level basis. This section of the Privacy settings controls how you can use your voice to talk to Cortana, or applications you download from the Windows Store. So, yep. It sends your voice samples to the cloud. It also controls if Windows uses your typing history and handwriting patterns on Surface devices and other tablets to create a local user dictionary, which is supposed to make better text-entry suggestions for you.
Enterprise Collaboration
When this is toggled off, you can no longer speak to Cortana, and your typing and inking user dictionary will be cleared of data. Some speech services, those that do not rely on the cloud, will still work. To allow or block desktop apps, use the settings in those applications.
How can you tell if an app is a desktop app? EXE or. DLL file, and they typically run on your device unlike web-based apps which run in the cloud. You can also find desktop apps in the Windows Store. Basically, what this means is that any app you install yourself, be it downloaded from the internet or installed from a CD - or yes, even a floppy - is not beholden to respect your Windows data access settings.
As always, be damned careful about installing apps from unknown sources. With the release of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, users have greater control over which apps can access their information, camera, microphones and other privacy-sensitive objects. Apps installed via the Windows Store will now require explicit permission to an app before it can have access.
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The new rules only apply to apps installed from the Windows Store after the installation of the Fall Creators update. This setting controls whether or not to allow apps to access your user information. Microsoft claims turning off Account Info access for an app may not allow it to work as intended.
You can turn that access on or off on an individual basis. I suggest contacting the developer of any app you might have questions about and query them as to what type of Account Info the app uses. This switch decides whether Windows apps will have access to your Address Book. Uncle Al rolls old-school. As with the Account Info toggle, if you turn this off completely, or on an app-by-app basis, it may cause some apps not to operate as intended. This is another subject you should contact the developer on for any app you might have questions about.
This should be getting somewhat familiar by now. This switch controls app access to your Calendars.