Backlash grows over privacy in 'freemium' Windows 10

Microsoft to Hoover up user data linked to unique user IDs and sell information to advertisers, warn privacy campaigners

A backlash is growing over claims that Microsoft Windows 10 will effectively enable the company to scoop up a wide range of user information - and sell the information, tied to unique IDs, to advertisers and other organisations.

The new Microsoft privacy policies will come into effect on 1 August, and will grant Microsoft a surprisingly broad range of rights over the personal data of users running Windows on their PCs.

By default, for example, settings and data will be synchonised every time a user logs in to Windows 10 - that data will include browsing history, bookmarks (or "favourites", in Microsoft's idiosyncratic language), websites you have open - and passwords for a wide range of facilities, including Wi-Fi networks, saved apps and even websites.

Microsoft's "virtual assistant" Cortana - the company's equivalent of Siri - will also scoop up a wide range of personal information, include "data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on your device", according to Microsoft's new privacy policy.

Microsoft claims that this is all part of the technology's bid to "learn" more about the user so that it can become more and more personalised the longer someone uses it. However, again, this includes uploading information about people's web-browsing habits, among other things, to Microsoft's servers.

"Cortana also learns about you by collecting data about how you use your device and other Microsoft services, such as your music, alarm settings, whether the lock screen is on, what you view and purchase, your browse and Bing search history, and more." [Our italics]

Furthermore, the unique user-IDs that are used to log-in to Windows 10 will enable advertisers to identify people personally and profile precisely their web usage, online shopping browsing and other habits. This will also be connected to people's OneDrive accounts, which will automatically be set-up for them if they don't already have one.

People using BitLocker to encrypt their hard-disc drives will have the decryption key automatically backed up on their OneDrive account - meaning that the contents of their hard-disk drive can easily be decrypted by any agency that is able to access the Microsoft cloud, such as the US National Security Agency.

Worst of all, perhaps, Microsoft has given itself the right to disclose all this data that it is collecting to whomsoever it likes, whenever it likes. "We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services," continues the privacy policy.

"Summing up these 45 pages, one can say that Microsoft basically grants itself very broad rights to collect everything you do, say and write with and on your devices in order to sell more targeted advertising or to sell your data to third parties. The company appears to be granting itself the right to share your data either with your consent "or as necessary"," claims online privacy group EDRi.

Online comment as the details about Microsoft's proposed data-scooping and sharing activities have circulated have been scathing.

"Don't you just love knowing that when you access your company website all the advertisers (and your boss too if she cares) will know about the porno site you visited last Wednesday? Don't you just love the idea of the 'personalised' ads that might pop up during a demo of a new web app, when everybody in the conference room can see your screen?" said Ray Dillinger, on an internet forum.

"Wow. So it turns out Windows 10 is basically just a platform for Microsoft to learn about you so that they can sell you to advertisers. Nice," commented games developer Charlotte Gore on Twitter. She continued: "The world's first freemium operating system. Sigh. This sort of crap makes Apple look like they have integrity."

While some of the settings can be turned off - they are switched on by default - Microsoft claims that it will affect the quality of some of the services it is seeking to provide in Windows 10.

Computing is seeking comment from both Microsoft and the Information Commissioner's Office and will update the story shortly.