Privacy in Windows 10
11/13/2016, 07:33:17
The general problem with privacy in Windows 10 is that applications get lots of privileges that permit the “theft” of personal information. My goal would be to turn off these as much as possible. Here is what I’ve tried:
Go to Settings, then Privacy, AND turn off all privacy options in the General tab. [Couldn’t change some app notifications. Had to uninstall one uncooperative app.]
Go to Settings → Privacy → Background Apps, toggle off each app. [Had to search for Privacy, then all ok. Turned off most.]
Go to Settings → Accounts → Sync your settings. Turn off all settings syncing. [I used the “Sync Settings” switch to turn them all off. The individual settings were grayed out.]
Turn off sharing ID/profile with third party apps. Go to Settings → Privacy → General → Let my apps use my advertising ID. (this will reset your ID). [Had to search for “Advertising”, then could turn it off.]
Go to Location, turn off “Location for this device” (via Change button). [Found under “Personalization”]
Go to Camera, turn off “Lets apps use my camera”. You can enable the camera when you need it. You can also enable the camera for specific apps. [done]
To to Speech, Inking and Typing”. Click on “Turn off” and “Stop getting to know me”. [Click “Get to know me” and you ‘ll get the option to turn it on or off. I use “off”]
Go to Feedback and Diagnostics” and choose Never for feedback, and “Basic” for diagnostic and data usage. [Done after I reconsidered my earlier settings.]
In Settings, go to Windows Update → Advanced Options and “Choose how updates are delivered”, select “turn off”.
Go to “Network and Internet” → WiFi, turn off WiFi Sense. [done]
Disable Cortana: Use Notebook menu item and select Permissions. Turn off all switches. Then select Settings, click on “Change what Cortana knows about me in the cloud” and tap “Clear”
Disable your Microsoft account: Go to Settings → Accounts, “your info” tab, Choose sign in with a local account instead (and set up a local account).
Disable Telemetry (automated data collection and communications): On the web, there is a lot of advice on disabling telemetry in Windows 10. Here is one from TechLog360 (link below): Open Command Prompt (Administrator) and type:
sc delete DiagTrack [response: [SC]DeleteService SUCCESS] sc delete dmwappushservice [SC] DeleteService SUCCESS] echo “” > C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger\AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl reg add “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection” /v AllowTelemetry /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f [response: The operation completed successfully]
I actually like Windows 10’s visual effects, but to turn one or more off, Go To System → Advanced system settings → Advanced to uncheck whatever you don’t want.
http://superuser.com/questions/949569/can-i-completely-disable-cortana-on-windows-10
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