- Sep 1, 2002
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A lot of people are concerned about this, so I think we need to have a thread about what we all are doing to make sure Windows 10 isn't mining our data (or at least too much of it).
Here is what I have done so far:
1. On the initial Settings screen during setup, choose Customize, select No for everything, create a new account with a standard user name.
2. Once you are in Windows, click on Cortana, click on the Gear icon on the left, turn both off.
3. From here, you can click on 'other privacy settings', and from this menu just go down the list on the left and turn everything off. There is one thing, on the Feedback and Diagnostics section, that can't be switched off, but Diagnostic and usage data can be switched to basic here.
4. From here, you can select the back arrow on the top LH corner of the screen. Then select Update and security. On this page, you want to select Advanced Options at the bottom of the Windows Update section. Select Choose how updates are delivered and turn this option off. The bottom area should now be grayed out.
5. If you are worried about Defender, you can select Windows Defender and turn off Cloud-based Protection and Sample submission. I don't believe the default setting are any different from Windows Defender in the past, or any other AV.
6. Live tiles. You have two options here. You can simply turn off "Live," or you can just remove them. If you turned off receiving info for the app on the Privacy page, it won't matter what you select, because your selection on the Start menu won't overrule your Privacy selection.
7. Task Scheduler. Here are some tasks that should be disabled, as their only purpose is feedback to Microsoft. From Task Scheduler, go to Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows. Right click tasks in these categories and select off.
a. Application Experience
b. Autochk
c. Customer Experience Improvement Program
8. Turn off Telemetry.
a. For all versions but Home:
i. Pull up your search window and type gpedit.msc
ii. Go to: Computer Configuration >Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection
iii. Open Allow Telemetry and Select Off.
b. For Home:
i. Go to regedit
ii. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Policies/Microsoft/Windows/DataCollection DWORD AllowTelemetry
iii. Create a new a 32-bit DWORD value named AllowTelemetry and set it to 0
9. Here are some articles with other ideas and apps to try. I have not tested everything on these pages.
http://www.slate.com/articles/techn...bad_they_are_and_how_to_plug_them.single.html
https://bgr.com/2015/08/14/windows-10-spying-prevention-privacy-tools/
I am sure I am missing some things, so let's see what else the community has to offer.
Note - Almost all of these areas have links to information on what and how the data is used, so you can make an informed decision about what to turn off/leave on.
Here is what I have done so far:
1. On the initial Settings screen during setup, choose Customize, select No for everything, create a new account with a standard user name.
2. Once you are in Windows, click on Cortana, click on the Gear icon on the left, turn both off.
3. From here, you can click on 'other privacy settings', and from this menu just go down the list on the left and turn everything off. There is one thing, on the Feedback and Diagnostics section, that can't be switched off, but Diagnostic and usage data can be switched to basic here.
4. From here, you can select the back arrow on the top LH corner of the screen. Then select Update and security. On this page, you want to select Advanced Options at the bottom of the Windows Update section. Select Choose how updates are delivered and turn this option off. The bottom area should now be grayed out.
5. If you are worried about Defender, you can select Windows Defender and turn off Cloud-based Protection and Sample submission. I don't believe the default setting are any different from Windows Defender in the past, or any other AV.
6. Live tiles. You have two options here. You can simply turn off "Live," or you can just remove them. If you turned off receiving info for the app on the Privacy page, it won't matter what you select, because your selection on the Start menu won't overrule your Privacy selection.
7. Task Scheduler. Here are some tasks that should be disabled, as their only purpose is feedback to Microsoft. From Task Scheduler, go to Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows. Right click tasks in these categories and select off.
a. Application Experience
b. Autochk
c. Customer Experience Improvement Program
8. Turn off Telemetry.
a. For all versions but Home:
i. Pull up your search window and type gpedit.msc
ii. Go to: Computer Configuration >Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection
iii. Open Allow Telemetry and Select Off.
b. For Home:
i. Go to regedit
ii. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Policies/Microsoft/Windows/DataCollection DWORD AllowTelemetry
iii. Create a new a 32-bit DWORD value named AllowTelemetry and set it to 0
9. Here are some articles with other ideas and apps to try. I have not tested everything on these pages.
http://www.slate.com/articles/techn...bad_they_are_and_how_to_plug_them.single.html
https://bgr.com/2015/08/14/windows-10-spying-prevention-privacy-tools/
I am sure I am missing some things, so let's see what else the community has to offer.
Note - Almost all of these areas have links to information on what and how the data is used, so you can make an informed decision about what to turn off/leave on.
Last edited:
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