IIRC this only affects Cyanogen OS and not CyanogenMod. http://www.androidcentral.com/difference-between-cyanogen-os-and-cyanogenmod http://www.androidcentral.

IIRC this only affects Cyanogen OS and not CyanogenMod. http://www.androidcentral.com/difference-between-cyanogen-os-and-cyanogenmod http://www.androidcentral.com/difference-between-cyanogen-os... So, you should be able to avoid Cortana by using CyanogenMod instead.