Majority of people send full diagnostic data back to Microsoft
Pretty much the bigger part of Windows 10 computers with the Creators Update installed sends full diagnostics data to Microsoft, according to a blog on the Microsoft website. Under pressure of several privacy watchdogs Microsoft decided to add new privacy setting screen to the installation process.
Users now have to confirm several privacy settings during the installation, this includes the diagnostic data that Windows 10 collects and sends to Microsoft reports myce today:
Previous Windows 10 versions used 3 different levels, which has been brought back to 2 levels with the Creators Update. These two are ‘Full’ and ‘Basic’. Microsoft has stated to use the collected diagnostic data to resolve issues and to improve its products.
When the ‘Basic’ level is set, Windows 10 will send device, connectivity and configuration data to Microsoft, and also limited error reports. When the full level is selected, the basic data is sent and also additional information about the device, connectivity and configuration, but also app and browser usage, fragments of hand typed text and more extensive error reports.
During the installation of the Creators Update users have to confirm which level they want to use on the privacy setting screen. The installation uses the previously chosen privacy settings but allows the user to change them.
Microsoft today announced that 71% of all Windows 10 computers with the Creators Update sends full diagnostic data to the company.
It’s not unlikely that this number is so high because the full level is enabled by default in case users never changed the privacy settings after the initial installation of Windows 10.
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Senior Member
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I'm not saying they do this but if they wanted to do this they'd run voice recog and log all the data as text, not audio files. It would still be a lot of space but no where near as much as all audio would + it would be easier to search.
Also, idk about Cortana but with Google I can go back and listen to every audio recording into google search I've ever done. So Google definitely stores all that. Granted it's not all audio coming into the mic, just my searches, but yeah. If the FBI wanted they could subpoena google for that information and get recordings of all my search history, including those audio searches, including the random times my google home thinks it hears "ok google" and turns on - which happens to me at least once a week.
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https://big.exchange/ ?
Jokes aside, I guess it's not a grey market or area, it's completely legal. Like Extraordinary said above, that's how they make their money in the first place.
Look at upcoming apps like whatsapp for instance:
Back in the day when whatsapp was starting, the app was for free. Later it was free for those that joined before a certain date, and later they acted like they'd charge you for your whatsapp "license" at some point. Of course they never did, because it would have crippled their growth in terms of numbers of data / users in their database. When the database was big enough, fb bought whatsapp to gain access to that data, which they could resell or filter for what they needed themselves. That's how it works.
So I am fairly sure that yes, you could buy data of users from m$, the question only is what data they will give you (which not necessarily means that's all the data they have), of if m$ doesn't sell it to you, google might (chrome browsing anybody? using google search which is IP fixed for your "personal and improved search experience"?).
This is not tin foil hatting, it's a business.
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They sell the data but all the personalized information is stripped. The ad companies can see like "30,000 people viewed x website" but they can't look and see "Denial viewed bighotitties.com 30,000 times".
Honestly they don't even want that information - to the point where even Google is no longer scanning Gmail mail anymore, because they said the extra level of information is useless. The trends are all they need to make ad decisions effective.
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I clicked just to read the comments sections from the tin-foil hat brigade. I wasn't disappointed.
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I wonder if MS has some official user data pricelist?, or its grey market, where government for our money buying our secrets ot use them agains us..