Microsoft Testing Improved Privacy Controls in Windows 10

Microsoft is bringing some interesting changes to how privacy settings are managed in Windows 10. The company’s operating system faced a lot of privacy-related concerns ever since it launched, but Microsoft has also been making significant changes to the OS in order to address customers’ concerns.

The company’s latest efforts to improved Windows 10 users’ privacy includes a new design for how your data is managed when you first set up a new Windows 10 computer. With the release of Windows 10 build 17115, Microsoft is testing a new design for privacy settings within the onboarding experience where all the different privacy settings have their own dedicated screen. The improved design not only give users more info on how Microsoft may use the data, but it also makes things a lot more readable. This new design is only available to some Insiders, and it’s not yet finalized for the public from the looks of things.

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In addition to the improved design, Microsoft is also letting users now disable collection of inking and typing data. This will help users concerned about Microsoft collecting their input in Windows 10 by letting them prevent Microsoft from using your data.

Microsoft will ship these new privacy features as part of the upcoming Windows 10 Redstone 4 update, possibly called the Spring Creators Update. If you are an Insider in the Fast ring, you can get it with build 17115 right away.

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Conversation 8 comments

  • longhorn

    06 March, 2018 - 1:56 pm

    <p>It isn't good enough.</p><p><br></p><p>"Don't use my data to help improve the language recognition and suggestion capabilities of apps and services running on Windows"</p><p><br></p><p>Should be:</p><p><br></p><p>"Don't send inking and typing data to Microsoft"</p><p><br></p><p>The devil is in the details. The sentence that MS provides lets them collect everything you type, they just won't use the data for improvements to the platform.</p><p><br></p><p>I'm glad this was brought up, because this is the most important question regarding Windows 10 privacy. Will the keylogger be allowed to send data to Microsoft? Right now the answer is yes no matter what choice you make.</p><p><br></p><p>Why not limit the keylogger to Cortana, Edge and other MS apps?</p>

  • davidblouin

    06 March, 2018 - 5:38 pm

    <p>and tinfoil will still continue to sell by the millions</p>

  • spacein_vader

    Premium Member
    07 March, 2018 - 2:50 am

    <p>Do the privacy settings all still revert to their defaults every time you do an update?</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    07 March, 2018 - 3:21 am

    <p>Easy solution, everything turned off by default. Only turned on when you select a new "feature", like Cortana, which needs additional permissions or data.</p>

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