Windows 10 and data protection: How to protect your privacy with just a few mouse clicks

Should Windows 10 make regular calls to Microsoft? Or completely do without the collection of personal data? Users of the new operating system have a free choice, because unlike Apple, Google and Facebook, the data protection settings can be fine-tuned. Read here how it works - and why there is still so much criticism in the media.

Criticism of the default privacy settings in Windows 10

Hello Windows 10, goodbye privacy. A few days ago, this was the headline of a major German daily newspaper. Countless other media outlets are currently blowing the same horn and issuing public warnings about data protection under Windows 10. The reason: the new operating system actually collects extensive data about user behavior by default.

And yet this level of criticism is completely out of place - in fact, Microsoft even deserves praise! Why?

Windows 10: Establish privacy with just a few mouse clicks

The criticism is not based on the revelation of backdoors in Windows 10 through which user data is secretly smuggled out. Nor is data being collected in the background without the user being able to influence it.

On the contrary: Windows 10 users can access their system's extensive data protection settings with just two clicks of the mouse. There they can deactivate all activated data collection options.

This is how easy it is to ensure maximum data protection under Windows 10:

1. Open the start menu first,
2. click on "Settings" there,
3. then select "Data protection",
4. Now you can change all the controls at the click of a mouse - and Windows 10 will no longer phone home.

Microsoft does point out that by deactivating some data protection options, many new functions will no longer work or will only work to a limited extent (such as the intelligent assistant Cortana, which can only pass on automated traffic or weather reports to the user if it is allowed to access their location data, for example).

But the important thing is that the user is free to decide what should and should not be collected.

Google & Co. lack comparable data protection options

This is why the massive criticism of Windows 10 data protection currently being bandied about in the media is questionable in terms of content. Especially as Google, Apple and Facebook users are not even allowed to have a say in data protection.

The operating systems and services of the competition comprehensively examine the privacy of their users without being able to limit or even completely prevent the collection frenzy through appropriate options.

Less would probably have been written about Windows 10 without privacy options

So what on earth has Microsoft done wrong? Why are there such negative reports about the data protection of Windows 10?

How Dr. Windows the Redmond-based software giant has simply been felled by the fact that it has made everything so freely configurable. This led to a kind of bite reflex in the editorial offices. His sarcastic comment on this actually commendable, user-friendly Microsoft decision: "They should have handled it like their competitors, who simply don't ask the customer about many of these points."

Sounds paradoxical, but also logical. Without the data protection menu, there might not have been any data protection hype at all.

Article image above: Windows 10 / Screenshot