Ahead of the Windows 10 Creators update, Microsoft is trying to address an issue that has long plagued its users – privacy – by making changes to the privacy controls on the platform. These changes involve launching a web-based privacy dashboard that lets the user see and control the data that Microsoft collects including location, search, browsing, and Cortana Notebook data across multiple Microsoft services. Alongside that, the privacy setup experience is promised to be more streamlined.
To begin with, after this Windows update, during the setup of Windows 10 the user will be able to see simple yet important settings that they need to configure before proceeding further.
Secondly, Microsoft will simplify the diagnostic data collection levels with this update. Currently, there are three levels – Basic, Enhanced and Full, which would be confusing to any average user who doesn’t really want to read the fine print. With the update, there will be only two levels – ‘Basic’ and ‘Full’. The data being collected at the basic level has also been further reduced to an amount that is essential for Windows to function properly.
The dashboard has been introduced to improve the visibility of data being collected by Microsoft. If you are signed in with your Microsoft account, you need to go to account.microsoft.com/privacy to review and clear, if you wish to, any data that Microsoft has tracked from your devices.
Many of us don’t really care about the data being tracked by tech giants like Google and Microsoft. But it is really important to know that the free services that these companies provide are at the cost of our private data. While that may be fine for most of us, the least we can expect is for the transaction to be transparent. With Windows 10, the privacy debate has been on since its arrival and it is good to see that Microsoft is taking steps towards ensuring the simplified transparency that Google has provided for a while now and Apple is yet to come close to.