Microsoft announces privacy improvements coming with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Microsoft today announced the privacy improvements they will be delivering as part of the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. These new enhancements will give consumers and commercial customers more control over their data.

For consumers, Microsoft is making changes two changes to setup process. First, Microsoft is now displaying Privacy Statement within the setup process allowing consumers to go through it before completing the process. Second, the Learn More page on the privacy settings screen will allow users to go to specific settings for location, speech recognition, diagnostics, tailored experiences, and ads while they choose your privacy settings. With this change, users need not sift through the privacy statement if they only want to read about a specific feature.

Whenever a Windows Store app tries to access location of a user, Windows 10 already displays a prompt to the user to grant or deny permission. With Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft is expanding this experience to other device capabilities such as your camera, microphone, contacts, and calendar for apps you install through the Windows Store. This change will keep users informed about which apps use their information.

For enterprise customers, Microsoft is introducing a new setting that limits diagnostic data to the minimum required for Windows Analytics.

You can provide your feedback to Microsoft regarding their privacy features here.