How to Adjust Windows 10 Privacy Settings
Maybe you just want to limit the amount of personal data your Windows 10 PC sends out, or maybe you just don’t want much data gathered about your computing activities to begin with. Regardless of why, if you want to adjust how Windows 10 gathers your data and sends it out, you need to how to change your Windows 10 privacy settings. Here’s how to access and adjust each of the five main Windows 10 privacy settings: General, Speech, Inking & Typing Personalization, Diagnostics & Feedback, and Active History.
Turn General Settings On and Off
The General privacy settings category is a series of four toggle options. Each toggle option can be turned off or on by selecting the toggle once.
The first option (at the top) asks if you’d like your apps to use advertising ID to deliver more interesting ads “based on your app activity.” The second option asks if you want to let websites access your language list in order to provide “locally relevant content.” The third option asks if you want to allow Windows 10 to track you when you launch an app so that Windows can improve your Start and search results. The fourth option asks if you want to see suggested content in the Settings app.
Here’s how to adjust the General Privacy settings:
Use Speech Recognition and Cortana
The Speech category also has an on/off toggle, but this section only has one setting to adjust. This section asks if you would like to turn on a feature known as Online speech recognition. This feature lets you speak to Cortana (Microsoft’s virtual assistant), take dictation with your voice, and access other services that use Windows cloud-based services. If you turn this feature on, you can do all of the above. If you turn it off, you lose access to Cortana and the dictation feature but you can still use the Windows Speech Recognition app and other services that aren’t reliant on Windows cloud-based services. Here’s how to access the Speech Privacy settings:
Access the Inking & Typing Personalization Settings
Like the Speech settings category, the Inking & Typing Personalization category only has one option to adjust, and it can be adjusted by tapping the on/off toggle provided. This option asks if you would like to let Windows gather your typing history and handwriting pattern data to develop a “local user dictionary” for you. If you decide to turn this option off, the personal dictionary Windows made for you is deleted, but Windows still provides other services such as handwriting recognition and typing suggestions based on the system dictionary. Here’s how to access the Inking & Typing Personalization Privacy settings:
Perform Diagnostics and Get Feedback
The Diagnostics & Feedback settings category has six different settings options you can adjust.
The first option allows you to choose how much diagnostic data about your computer you’d like to send to Microsoft. You can choose between either the Basic or Full options. The Basic option only sends information about your device, while the Full option sends information about your device and some of your personal data as it relates to how you use your device (like web browsing history).The second option is only adjustable if you chose the Full option from the first section. This option allows Windows 10 to send your inking and typing data to Microsoft. If you chose Full earlier, you can still turn the inking and typing data option off.The third option is called Tailored Experiences and this allows you to choose whether or not Microsoft provides tailored tips or ads based on your diagnostic data settings. The fourth option asks if you want to view your diagnostic data in the Diagnostic Data Viewer. If you toggle this option on, Windows will use up to 1GB of hard drive space on your device to devote to this data.The fifth option allows you to delete whatever diagnostic data Microsoft has already gathered about your device. Lastly, the sixth option is called Feedback Frequency, and this option allows you to choose how often Windows asks for your feedback.
Here’s how to access the Diagnostics & Feedback Privacy settings:
Protect Your Activity History
The Activity History privacy settings category has four options you can adjust as they relate to the gathering and sending of your activity history with your Windows 10 device. In this context, your activity history is personal data gathered about how you use apps and services and information about the websites you visit.
The first option in this category lets you choose whether or not you want to store this history on your device. The second option asks if you want to send your history to Microsoft. The stated benefit of allowing your device to keep your history and allowing Windows to send your history to Microsoft is that it presumably allows you to quickly resume your activities even if you do something like switch devices (this feature is known as Timeline).If you linked your various Microsoft accounts with your Windows 10 device, you’ll be able to adjust the third option, which lets you hide the activity history of these accounts from your Timeline feature. The fourth and final option allows you to clear your activity history.
Here’s how to access the Activity History Privacy settings:
