Windows 10 and privacy and performance concerns

Bellzemos said:

Another question: what exaclty does Windows 10 send out, what kind of info? Personal data? Site passwords, like for Gmail? Where can I read about that?

For a full description visit this official Microsoft site.
Basically there are four levels:

• Security. Information that’s required to help keep Windows, Windows Server, and System Center secure, including data about the Connected User Experience and Telemetry component settings, the Malicious Software Removal Tool, and Windows Defender.
• Basic. Basic device info, including: quality-related data, app compatibility, app usage data, and data from the Security level.
• Enhanced. Additional insights, including: how Windows, Windows Server, System Center, and apps are used, how they perform, advanced reliability data, and data from both the Basic and the Security levels.
• Full. All data necessary to identify and help to fix problems, plus data from the Security, Basic, and Enhanced levels.

As a home user (even if you've got Pro) the lowest level is Basic - you cannot set the Security level. Providing you use basic you won't send the contents of any of your file, site passwords etc.

At basic this is what is sent. See the linked site for more information:

• Basic device data. Helps provide an understanding about the types of Windows devices and the configurations and types of native and virtualized Windows Server 2016 in the ecosystem. Examples include:
  
  • Device attributes, such as camera resolution and display type
  • Internet Explorer version
  • Battery attributes, such as capacity and type
  • Networking attributes, such as number of network adapters, speed of network adapters, mobile operator network, and IMEI number
  • Processor and memory attributes, such as number of cores, architecture, speed, memory size, and firmware
  • Virtualization attribute, such as Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) support and guest operating system
  • Operating system attributes, such as Windows edition and virtualization state
  • Storage attributes, such as number of drives, type, and size
  
  
• Connected User Experience and Telemetry component quality metrics. Helps provide an understanding about how the Connected User Experience and Telemetry component is functioning, including % of uploaded events, dropped events, and the last upload time.
• Quality-related information. Helps Microsoft develop a basic understanding of how a device and its operating system are performing. Some examples are the device characteristics of a Connected Standby device, the number of crashes or hangs, and application state change details, such as how much processor time and memory were used, and the total uptime for an app.
• Compatibility data. Helps provide an understanding about which apps are installed on a device or virtual machine and identifies potential compatibility problems.
  
  • General app data and app data for Internet Explorer add-ons. Includes a list of apps that are installed on a native or virtualized instance of the OS and whether these apps function correctly after an upgrade. This app data includes the app name, publisher, version, and basic details about which files have been blocked from usage.
  • App usage data. Includes how an app is used, including how long an app is used, when the app has focus, and when the app is started
  • Internet Explorer add-ons. Includes a list of Internet Explorer add-ons that are installed on a device and whether these apps will work after an upgrade.
  • System data. Helps provide an understanding about whether a device meets the minimum requirements to upgrade to the next version of the operating system. System information includes the amount of memory, as well as information about the processor and BIOS.
  • Accessory device data. Includes a list of accessory devices, such as printers or external storage devices, that are connected to Windows PCs and whether these devices will function after upgrading to a new version of the operating system.
  • Driver data. Includes specific driver usage that’s meant to help figure out whether apps and devices will function after upgrading to a new version of the operating system. This can help to determine blocking issues and then help Microsoft and our partners apply fixes and improvements.
  
  
• Windows Store. Provides information about how the Windows Store performs, including app downloads, installations, and updates. It also includes Windows Store launches, page views, suspend and resumes, and obtaining licenses.

What about ShutUp updates, I guess it won't update automatically so I have to do it manually, check after every Windows update for the ShutUp update? Tedious...

Yes that's correct. After every update check for ShutUp updates.

dalchina said:

If you use these tools, make sure you don't suddenly see 'Some settings are managed by your organisation' in e.g. Settings, Privacy. A very long time ago when I tried these, there were some side-effects. Maybe these have been overcome now.

The simple answer is: no, they haven't been overcome because of the way they work. They change registry settings and/or group policy settings which trick the OS into thinking there's an organisational administrator.

But if you want to get rid of the "Some settings are managed..." message (conspicuously printed in red text) you can use the software to 'Undo' or 'Remove' the changes and the message will disappear and the options will become editable directly in Windows again. It's no big deal, you're using third party software to manage your privacy settings.



For example if I want to change the "Send Microsoft info" setting I'd have to deactivate that option in ShutUp10 and the red message would disappear.

@ ahr10 - Thank you for the reply and the link to MS, it helped me a lot to understand (hopefully) what this is all about. Much appreciated!

I've decided to ditch the idea of using any 3rd party tools like ShutUp10 or Anti-Beacon, instead I'll just turn everything off under Privacy settings, set "MS spying" to Basic level and disable Cortana and Automatic Updated in the Group policy editor.

That should suffice, I think (I hope).

I have an additional question: people who set the telemetry to "Full" - are their Gmail and other passwords and personal data like documents, photos etc. sent to Microsoft? Like, for real?

And another question regarding the Ten Forums - how do I unsubscribe from a thread? I'm getting notifications (e-mails) when somebody replies to this thread even though I've unsubscribed. Please help.

Most of what Microsoft gathers information about you is for statistics and information on how they can improve their products and fix bugs in Windows 10. It isn't going to send this information so that your passwords can be hacked or something like that. They'd only probably target you specifically if you were doing illegal things on the Internet, for example.

However, if you do want to kill the spying (as well as do some other tweaks) try out WinAero Tweaker (search 'WinAero' in Bing and it is the first result).

To answer the question about unsubscribing from threads, I think you can do it via the User CP.

I have unsuscribed again, we'll see what happens. Thanx for the suggestion but I don't need WinAero Tweaker.

Bellzemos said:

I've decided to ditch the idea of using any 3rd party tools like ShutUp10 or Anti-Beacon, instead I'll just turn everything off under Privacy settings, set "MS spying" to Basic level and disable Cortana and Automatic Updated in the Group policy editor.
I have an additional question: people who set the telemetry to "Full" - are their Gmail and other passwords and personal data like documents, photos etc. sent to Microsoft? Like, for real?

ShutUp10 and Anti-Beacon are excellent programs: they simplify things and they don't damage your system in any way. They also enable some privacy features which can't be set via the Settings menu.
On 'Full' telemetry personal data such as documents and photos may be sent if your system crashes because of the document or photo, or if the document/photo was in the background when the system crashed or if the document/photo is included in one of the crash dumps or in some other scenarios.

In terms of your passwords for things like Gmail then the answer is: they may be sent to Microsoft if you've got keystroke logging enabled (to "improve services" Microsoft tell us ) but, again, if you've set your level to 'Basic' then you're okay. As an additional protection I recommend you set-up 2SV so that even if your password falls into the wrong hands it's useless without your unique one-time password.

Even though Microsoft say they anonymise telemetry data I don't believe it's true anonymity so I'd very strongly recommend against setting your telemetry to 'Full'.

Thank you, again.

Everything under Privacy set to OFF, Cortana and Automatic Windows updates disabled and Diagnostics set to BASIC. That's it for me, no additional tools or whatever.

I found clarity and am happy with your answer, considering me, this thread is "solved". :)