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'Even With Privacy Protection Enabled, Windows 10 Continues to Spill User Information'

'Even With Privacy Protection Enabled, Windows 10 Continues to Spill User Information'

By Manish Singh | Updated: 17 August 2015 11:17 IST

Windows 10, Microsoft's new desktop operating system that was released in 190 countries on July 29, isn't sitting well with some privacy advocates. Several features in the new operating system such as Wi-Fi Sense, among others, have already raised privacy concerns, and now we are learning of many more potential privacy breaches.

Microsoft's Windows 10 exchanges information with the firm despite a user disabling Cortana and Bing search that offer personalised features, and turning on privacy protection settings. What's even more worrisome is that some of these information can be tied to disclose a user's identity.

Ars Technica, which tested a system with OneDrive, Live Tile, Cortana, and other features enabled, reports that the information associated with the company's cloud storage service OneDrive is sent to Microsoft with a user identification number attached to it.

But even when it disabled the Live Tile feature, Windows 10 continued to download information from its MSN news and information service. The publication reports that the information wasn't identifiable, though it was also not encrypted.

"No query or search usage data is sent to Microsoft, in accordance with the customer's chosen privacy settings. This also applies to searching offline for items such as apps, files and settings on the device," said Microsoft in a statement to Ars.

The revelation comes in the wake of a growing privacy concerns from users over their network password credentials getting shared by default in Windows 10 by a feature called Wi-Fi Sense, and Microsoft using customers' bandwidth to deliver updates to others.

The company also replaced the traditional Solitaire with an ad-riddled version. It has assigned a unique advertising ID to every registered email address in a move that seems to push its targeted ads efforts.

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