Privacy Settings with more Transparency

Starting April 11, Microsoft will begin with the worldwide delivery of the Windows 10 Creators Update. It is the third major update of Windows 10 and brings a variety of new features and improvements concerning security.

One remarkable innovation are the modified privacy settings. With the changes in the Creators Update, Microsoft has responded to the criticism of privacy groups that had asked for significantly more transparency and control for personal privacy. Already during a fresh installation of Windows 10, the user is getting a significantly larger overview and new configuration options for data protection. Short descriptions of the respective points, as well as the opportunity to get information that is even more detailed, will support the user in the configuration of the settings. This new view replaces the "Express Settings" and "Advanced Settings" of the previous version.

Users with running Windows 10 systems will be notified that a revised privacy setup is available and that the defaults will be configured according to the existing data protection Settings.

In addition, the settings of “Diagnostic and usage data” section have been revised. Where there had been three levels under the previous version, after the update only “Standard” and “Full” will be selectable. According to the manufacturer, the amount of collected data at the “Standard” level has decreased by half. For the first time, Microsoft has published a list of collected diagnostic and usage data of the security level "Standard" and a list of collected diagnostic information of the level “Full”. Also with the Creators Update, the diagnostic level "Security only" will remain reserved to the Windows 10 Enterprise edition for corporate customers. At this level, only data will be collected that are required for the deployment of Windows security updates.

As already the previous large update, the Creators Update will take place in several waves, which will certainly take several weeks and months. Since April 5, it is possible to trigger the Creators Update manually by the use of Microsoft’s Update Wizard. In addition, for MSDN subscribers Windows 10 version 1703 is already available for download.

Sources: Microsoft , TechTarget