Worried About Windows 10 Phoning Home With Personal Data? Shut Down What You Share

With Microsoft's recent announcement that over 75 million installs are now out in the wild for Windows 10, it's obvious the company's plan is beginning to work. Microsoft has been on a mission with Windows 10, in an effort get as many users as possible migrated to their new OS and achieve such critical mass that the developer and ecosystem partner community comes running to build apps and products in support of the platform. In addition to significantly expanding the Windows 10 footprint, some have argued that Windows 10 is a massive data collection tool for Microsoft as well, cleverly disguised as experiential and usage model feedback, being transmitted to Redmond to help improve the product. Some users have even gone so far as to claim Windows 10 keylogs what you type and sends it back to Microsoft servers, with your machine ID in tow, every 30 minutes. Further still, it has been claimed that torrent users and tracker sites are being targeted by Microsoft (for pirated software) as well, and at least one of these sites have banned Windows 10 users altogether as a result.

While Microsoft likely won't lose any sleep over torrent users banning their product, there seems to be an over-reaction in some areas of the market over the company's privacy policy as it relates to their new flagship OS. Part of what has some user's hackles up is language like this in the EULA for the Xbox and Windows Phone platform (not Windows 10 proper):

Sometimes you'll need software updates to keep using the Services. We may automatically check your version of the software and download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.

Though again, this doesn't apply to Windows 10 desktop and notebook installations, some folks are not that comfortable with the language in general. Microsoft's position is very similar to the position Apple has taken over the years with respect to its operating system and app market place; the intent is to ensure a stable, high quality experience with their product as well as safeguard the security of their software and user base.

Regardless of whether you're uncomfortable with Microsoft's data gathering in Windows 10, there are a number of steps you can take to lock down what is sent from your machine back to Microsoft. If you're reading this, have already upgraded machines and didn't pay attention to the privacy options during installation, then you missed an opportunity to turn on key privacy settings and turn off key data sharing.

Fear not, however, just hit the Start menu and then go to Settings and click the Privacy control panel icon. From here you can shut down a number of data sharing options, to limit what you send back to Microsoft...

Here you'll find lots of options to turn off things like sharing your machine ID, what you type and even location data. You can also turn off functionality for cameras and microphones here. Some of the data that Windows 10 gathers is intended to help Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant, with her tasks of searching and finding things for you one the web and otherwise. As a result, turning off some of these options may obviously disable key functionality within applications and in general, especially with respect to Cortana. Regardless, if you want to keep Microsoft out of your personal digital goods, the options to do that are there and are fairly obvious and straight-forward, built into the OS.

Now of course many will argue that shutting off these data sharing options will do little to keep Microsoft from snooping on you if they really want to. After all, it is the operating system we're talking about here and when you own the source code, you have the keys to the kingdom.

In reality, if you want to remain completely secure and free of any privacy concerns, you're just going to have to stay off any connected device whatsoever. Period. Google , Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, you name it - they're all interested in knowing more about their customers and in this digital age there's really no getting around that. However, with a few cautious steps, you can at least have some control over what you share with these connected, big corporate entities. The government you ask? Good luck on that one.