Microsoft adds two new privacy options to Windows 10 setup

When you set up Windows 10 on a computer or in a virtual machine, a privacy settings screen is displayed during setup which lets you change some privacy-related settings before the first start of the operating system.

The page lists options to turn privacy-related settings off, as all are enabled by default. You may use it to switch from the collection of data from full to basic, disable tailored experiences (Edge uses less battery than your browser), and turn off location-based experiences or speech recognition.

The listed privacy preferences are just a few that Windows users can control in the Settings application, Group Policy, Windows Registry, or elsewhere.

Windows 10 users and admins may modify these privacy settings manually, for instance by following the advice of my privacy book, or by running one of the many privacy-related programs for Windows 10.

Microsoft announced recently that it plans to extend the privacy page in the next feature release version of Windows 10. While we still don't know whether the company will indeed call it the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update or something else, it seems clear that Microsoft is hard at work to improve the public's perception (and even more so the perception of regulatory authorities, companies and governments) of the operating system in regards to privacy.

We reviewed the option to browse and delete the collected Telemetry data already but it is not the only change in the upcoming version of Windows.

Microsoft will change the setup experience by adding two more privacy related options to setup, and by, what appears to be, A-B testing the privacy setup experience.

Some users will get a single screen listing all privacy related options. This is how things were handled in previous versions of Windows, and the only change in this version is that two new privacy options are available.

Part of the userbase will get individual screens on the other hand; each privacy option, seven of them in total, is shown on its own screen.Yes and no options are provided, each with a description of how the choice impacts functionality.

Privacy-conscious users may notice that the "no" option is worded in a negative way. If you take the "improve inking & typing recognition" option as an example.

• Yes states: "Send inking and typing data to Microsoft to improve the language recognition and suggestion capabilities of apps and services running on Windows".
• No states: "Don't use my data to help improve the language recognition and suggestion capabilities of apps and services running on Windows".

Additionally, it is unclear what data is sent to Microsoft if the option is not turned off as it is not explained on the screen.

The setup of the upcoming version of Windows 10 includes "Find my device" and "Inking & Typing" as two new options.

Find my device may help users locate the device if it is misplaced, lost or stolen. Inking & typing may improve language recognition and suggestion capabilities of apps and services.

Closing Words

Microsoft reveals the data that Windows Telemetry collects, and it adds two new privacy options to the setup experience. The changes won't convince privacy-conscious users to give the operating system a try if they have not already, but it may very well please regulatory authorities who have been breathing down Microsoft's neck ever since the company released the first version of Windows 10.

Now You: How do you feel about the announced changes?