Cortana: The spy in Windows 10  

John035 said:

So you can disable it by checking or unchecking a box?

It was very easy to enable or disable Cortana on the fly in my Windows 10 Home with the "Search online and include web results" toggle switch in Cortana > Settings, so Microsoft disabled it in the automatic update to Version 1067 OS build 14393.82 I got today to force Cortana on the average users I guess:



I tried Sign out as per https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4...dows-10-a.html
and it did not work but Option #2 using the .reg file worked for Home in https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...dows-10-a.html Option #1 is for "Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions."

Cortana just switches back on that switch "Search online and include web results". How do you force it to stay off?

Steve C said:

Cortana just switches back on that switch "Search online and include web results". How do you force it to stay off?

Correct, it's broken with the current update and switches back on once Cortana Settings is closed but it stays off when applying the Tutorial I linked to in my post above yours.

I wonder why they did not simply remove the switch after disabling it in Win 10 Home, what a waste of time trying to toggle it to no avail!

I have an other laptop with Windows 10 Pro also Version 1067 OS build 14393.82 and there is no "Search online and include web results" toggle switch.

Thanks. I followed Brink's tutorial and signed out of Cortana. It's now 'off' or at least sulking.

Joe Bleau said:

Sign off did not work for me, I still had the Cortana circle in the search box. With the .reg mod I have only "Search Windows" in the search box.

What is your Version & OS Build? Settings > System > About.

Windows 10 Home Version 1607 Build 14393.82.

ARC1020 said:

how a father inadvertently found out his daughter was pregnant when Target starting to send her coupons for baby clothes and cribs. He went into the store to complain about the coupons because in his view they could encourage her to get pregnant. Little did he know she was already pregnant and Targets computers knew before him due to their pregnancy-prediction model created by statistician Andrew Pole.

Urban legend? http://www.kdnuggets.com/2014/05/tar...ide-story.html

If I am typing Software Coding, is Cortana saving it and sending it to MS?
Thank you

Steve C said:

Thanks. I followed Brink's tutorial and signed out of Cortana. It's now 'off' or at least sulking.

From Microsoft Privacy Statement > Cortana:

"Signed out. When you are not signed in, Cortana will collect data about how you chat with Cortana and use Cortana to search, using either your voice, inking or typing. This data includes the following:

• Speech, inking and typing. To help Cortana better understand the way you speak and your voice commands, speech data is sent to Microsoft to build speech models and improve speech recognition and user intent understanding. If you choose to sign in, the speech models will become more personalised.
• Search history. Your Bing search queries - even if Cortana does the searching for you - are treated like any other Bing search queries and are used as described in the Bing section.
• Device Data. Cortana can access data about your device and how you use it. For instance, it can determine if Bluetooth is on, whether your lock screen in on, your alarm settings and which apps you install and use."
  
  
  Night Hawk said:

  Policy or Registry! That is how to get in there and make a change stick...
  Millions of average users won't do it that way. It's ridiculous to have to jump through hoops just to be able to disable Cortana. The "Search online and include web results" toggle switch was working fine before the update.
  
  What is Microsoft's motivation behind the change? Obviously it's to collect data from more users via Cortana & Bing.