Excerpt from
the Windows end user license agreement which is part of the 45 pages of the
terms and conditions:
“We
will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such
as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private
folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to:
- comply with applicable law or
respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other
government agencies;
- protect our customers, for
example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or
to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone;
- operate and maintain the
security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our
computer systems or networks; or
- protect the rights or property
of (our company) , including enforcing the terms governing the use of the
services – however, if we receive information indicating that someone is
using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property
of (our company), we will not inspect a customer’s private content
ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement.”
Windows 10 brings with it some irritating privacy invading
features
To
install Windows 10 you must agree to the above and if you are part of the
millions of people who have already updated their system, chances are that you
have not read the full agreement.
According
to the European Digital Rights Organization (EDRi): “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.”
Selecting
the “Express install” option, while you are updating to Windows 10, will
automatically selects the default settings that allow Windows to gather
information about you from your files, location, browsing history, contacts and
calendar etc.
These are the most important new features that you may want
to switch off:
1) Your unique advertising ID - Windows will collect and use data in order to show you
ads in your apps, which will be tailored specifically to your “needs”. Even
classic games such as solitaire will be showing you unavoidable ads. To turn
off the advertising ID go to Settings/Privacy/ General.
2) WUDO – It
is short for Windows Update Delivery Optimization and it is a new way of giving
users access to Windows updates. Traditionally users would download updates
from the company’s servers. However, now other Windows users can download them directly
from your computer in a process quite similar to torrents. Ideally you would
not like other to have access to your computer and possibly your personal
information and data. You may turn this off by following the steps below:
- Launch Settings (Windows Key+I) and click
on the ‘Windows Update settings’ option.
- Then click on ‘Advanced options’.
- Select the ‘Choose how updates are
delivered’ option.
- Now turn the toggle to ‘Off’.
3) WI-Fi Sense - This
is a service that automatically opens up your Wi-Fi connection to all your contacts
on Facebook, Outlook or Skype that are within your surrounding area. The idea
behind this is that it eliminates the need to look for the Wi-Fi password every
time a friend visiting. However, this raises the issue that you cannot select who
is granted this convenience. You risk unintentionally letting people into your network.
You may turn this off in Network settings > Manage Wi-Fi settings >
Toggle to OFF.
4) Cortana - She
is your new personal assistant but for her to do her job; she will need to gather
information including your name, contacts, calendar events and more. You may
can turn Cortana off here: Settings > Privacy > Speech, inking, &
typing > Stop getting to know me.
In
total there are 13 different subsections in the Privacy menu under settings
offers. We recommend going through them all, to decide what and how much information
you would like to share.
