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Windows 10 & Office 365 - PRIVACY (rumors and facts - updated)

UPDATE 2019-05-16 - Office 365 at the end of the page!


Windows 10 - Privacy

Windows 10 privacy is often a discussion that I have with MS customers especially in Europe and there especially in Germany. Therefore I developed a workshop to discuss all the different settings which finally ends up in a 60 slides deck. But as it get outdated with every version I just use anymore the "online" version of information in the TechNet Blog.



In the last years the technology evolves and with this we have much more possibilities we can use these technologies.

E.g. lets think about Cortana. Cortana is a brilliant assistant. She can do amazing things. And each newer version can even more.

But to let Cortana doing these things you need to share informations so she can use them to serve you better.

Lets assume you want to get a reminder when you are on your way home to buy milk. In this case Cortana need to know when you are driving home (GPS data and also your typical way from your working place to your home address). Without these data she is not able to serve you the right information right in time.

That finally means an assistant can only be as usefull as possible when you share the needed amount of data so she can do their job.

This is not different to a physical assistent. Lets say her name is Mary. She can also only be as supportive as possible when I let her know the things she need to know to be able to do her job.

Microsoft changed their way now how they communicate these privacy settings. They are much more transparent as they were in the past.

Please checkout this TechNet article from time to time as it gets updated over time with new features as well: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/manage-connections-from-windows-operating-system-components-to-microsoft-services

There are also telemetry stages discussed. You find more Informations about them here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/configure-windows-telemetry-in-your-organization

If you want to know what Microsoft knows about you then you will find the answer on the Privacy website on your live account. Also the ability to delete data you do not want to share with MS (e.g. browser history, location data (to find your devices again), Cortana notebook)Therefore go here: https://account.microsoft.com/privacy#/


When you are through these articles you are very familiar which data is when shared for what purpose and how you can control it.

During my time working for MS labs I get in contact with the way how MS is dealing internally with customers privacy data. And believe me they take this very seriously. From this experience on I trust MS fully in the way how they handle privacy.

------------------------ UPDATE 2019-05-16 ------------------

OFFICE365 - Privacy

If you want to know more about the privacy controls, deep dive infos and facts whats now visible in the Diagnostic Data Viewer onwards with Office 365 (1904) you need to checkout this: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/privacy/overview-privacy-controls?toc=/deployoffice/toc.json