Among the upgrades in the Windows 10 Creators Update are changes to how you manage and control your privacy.
When you fire up the Creators Update, Windows presents a screen where you can enable or disable various privacy settings, which you can change or manage at any time. Here's how.
First, let's assume you're updating Windows 10 to the Creators Update. At one point during the setup process, you'll see a screen that presents privacy options for the following features: Location, Diagnostics, Relevant Ads, Speech Recognition, and Tailored experiences with diagnostic data.
By default, each setting is enabled, though you can disable any of them. To learn more about each setting and how to configure it, click on the "Learn more" button. After you've configured each setting, click on the Accept button to continue and finish the setup of the Creators Update.
After the Creators Update has been installed, you'll find some changes in the Privacy settings screen. Click on the Start button > Settings > Privacy. Make sure the General category is selected.
Here, Microsoft pared down the number of settings, moving some into other areas. The three settings are: 1) Let apps use advertising ID to make ads more interesting to you based on your app usage; 2) Let websites provide locally relevant content by accessing my language list; and 3) Let Windows track app launches to improve Start and search results.
Also, make sure you click on the link to "Manage my info that's stored in the cloud" to control the advertising served up by Microsoft websites and apps.
As with most of the privacy settings, enabling or disabling each one is a matter of creating a more personal or customized experience in Windows at the expense of sharing your actions and activities with Microsoft. You'll want to strike a balance between personalization and privacy. The link for "Privacy Statement" takes you to a webpage that describes how Microsoft handles your privacy and can help you determine how to configure each setting.
Next, click on the category for "Location History." For some reason, Microsoft removed the setting for "General location," which offered apps a way to use your city, state, ZIP code, or another general location if they couldn't detect a more precise location. Naturally, you had the option to turn this setting on or off.
But one addition here is a link to "Manage my location info that's stored in the cloud." That link takes you to your Microsoft Account page, where you can view and clear location details collected by Windows apps, like mapping apps that offer driving directions based on your current location.
Click on the category for "Speech, inking & typing." The settings here are virtually the same as before the Creators Update; they're just renamed. Clicking on the button to "Turn off speech services and typing suggestions" prevents Windows from analyzing the words you speak and type as part of Microsoft's effort to create a more customized dictionary for you.
You can also click on the link to "Manage my voice data that's stored in the cloud with my Microsoft account." That link displays a page at your Microsoft Account where you can manage the voice data stored about you online.
Click on the category for "Background apps." Now you can enable or disable all apps that run in the background in one shot, rather than individually.
And finally, there's a new category called "App diagnostics." Here, you can enable or disable the ability of certain apps to collect diagnostic information about other apps. You can learn about this setting by clicking on the link for "Learn more about app diagnostics privacy settings."
Knowing which privacy settings to enable or disable is challenging. But reading Microsoft's Privacy Statement and going through each category in the Privacy Settings screen are important and helpful tasks if you want to make sure you're getting the best experience in Windows without sacrificing your personal privacy.
For more, check out:
- How to Customize and Enhance Your Windows 10 Display
- How to Log Into Windows 10 With a Picture Password
- How to Back Up and Restore an Image File of Windows 10
- How to Control Updates in Windows 10
- How to Share More (or Less) Personal Data With Cortana