No question that it gathers a lot of personal information. Some people think the features are benign. Others believe that big brother is truly watching. Certainly the language in the license agreement is frightening. Here is the relevant excerpt:
"Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: 1.comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies; 2.protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone; 3.operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks; or 4.protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services – however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement."
We know that the new voice assistant Cortana (similar to Siri) is always listening in case you ask it a question. You may not be aware that it automatically keeps a 10-second rolling recording of anything within range. This is nice if you are in a meeting and had wished you had already begun recording something you had missed. If you are concerned about security this could be and additional way information could be gathered.
Whichever way you believe, you may want a chance to pick what they can monitor. Not everything is accessible but here is a good FREE program that will help you look at, and change, many of the privacy settings you want. https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pde/1004/security-software/Antispy-for-Windows-10 After a quick installation you will have check boxes to turn on or off whatever you wish.
"Finally, we will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to: 1.comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies; 2.protect our customers, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of the services, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone; 3.operate and maintain the security of our services, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks; or 4.protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services – however, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement."
We know that the new voice assistant Cortana (similar to Siri) is always listening in case you ask it a question. You may not be aware that it automatically keeps a 10-second rolling recording of anything within range. This is nice if you are in a meeting and had wished you had already begun recording something you had missed. If you are concerned about security this could be and additional way information could be gathered.
Whichever way you believe, you may want a chance to pick what they can monitor. Not everything is accessible but here is a good FREE program that will help you look at, and change, many of the privacy settings you want. https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pde/1004/security-software/Antispy-for-Windows-10 After a quick installation you will have check boxes to turn on or off whatever you wish.
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