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Please go to https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/activity-history https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/activity-history and see for yourself. You can delete

Please go to https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/activity-history https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/activity-history and see for yourself. You can delete your activity history (including your search history) but you cannot disable the data collection as you can in your Google account. >MS makes money by selling you the products. Google gives you everything for free. Not raising any flags? Microsoft makes money in all sorts of ways, among them free and ad funded services like Bing, Skype or LinkedIn. But yes it does raise flags. That's why - as a paying Office 365 (for Mac) subscriber - I was expecting to have more control over data collection than as a user of ad funded services, not less.

close04 8y ago
I think you really want to miss the point: The problem isn't that Google is collecting performance data and other such stuff. They collect very private data that can be directly tied to you - fauigerzigerk personally. And they make it very hard or impossible for you to really disable it. First, MS doesn't exist on the mobile side. This might sound irrelevant until you realize that a phone has the potential to be a much more powerful data pump. Second, most Windows installations aren't tied to a MS account. As such no data can be linked to it and to you in person. Third, you see this screen (a few settings are off-screen)? [1] It actually disables most data collection, like location. It doesn't just hide it from the dashboard and have you disable it "again" in 3 more places like Google was shown to do these days. Just by disabling Cortana you get rid of most data collection that can be tied to you. This is the first thing I do on any Windows machine. Between this and the fact that I don't have to log in with a MS account means that my MS activity dashboard only includes my explicit browser logins and this: We don’t have any data associated with this Microsoft account at the moment. Or this: There’s nothing to see here yet. To add some interests in this category, open Cortana’s Notebook on your device. [1] https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/companies/m/microsoft/windows-10/privacy-settings-preview/privacy-screen.jpg https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/companies/m/microsof...
- fauigerzigerk 8y ago
  >I think you really want to miss the point: The problem isn't that Google is collecting performance data and other such stuff. They collect very private data that can be directly tied to you - fauigerzigerk personally And here's the point you are in fact missing or rather denying: Microsoft does collect tons of very personal data as well, not just performance data. You are acknowledging as much when you say that disabling it is the first thing you do on any Windows machine. Most people will never change the defaults, and Microsoft is pushing extremely hard to make all users of their software log in to a Microsoft account. A lot of Office 365 functionality makes no sense without being logged in. So it is important what privacy settings there are, what the defaults are and what you can or cannot disable. But I think the reason why we are talking past each other is that I don't use Windows. I don't have the settings in your screenshot. I was comparing the settings in my online Microsoft account to the settings in my Google account. If your main point is that Google is far more dependent on collecting as much personal data as they possibly can than Microsoft, then I fully agree with that. But that makes it all the more baffling why Microsoft behaves so much like Google when it comes to data collection.

close04 8y ago

I think you really want to miss the point: The problem isn't that Google is collecting performance data and other such stuff. They collect very private data that can be directly tied to you - fauigerzigerk personally. And they make it very hard or impossible for you to really disable it. First, MS doesn't exist on the mobile side. This might sound irrelevant until you realize that a phone has the potential to be a much more powerful data pump. Second, most Windows installations aren't tied to a MS account. As such no data can be linked to it and to you in person. Third, you see this screen (a few settings are off-screen)? [1] It actually disables most data collection, like location. It doesn't just hide it from the dashboard and have you disable it "again" in 3 more places like Google was shown to do these days. Just by disabling Cortana you get rid of most data collection that can be tied to you. This is the first thing I do on any Windows machine. Between this and the fact that I don't have to log in with a MS account means that my MS activity dashboard only includes my explicit browser logins and this: We don’t have any data associated with this Microsoft account at the moment. Or this: There’s nothing to see here yet. To add some interests in this category, open Cortana’s Notebook on your device. [1] https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/companies/m/microsoft/windows-10/privacy-settings-preview/privacy-screen.jpg https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/companies/m/microsof...

fauigerzigerk 8y ago
>I think you really want to miss the point: The problem isn't that Google is collecting performance data and other such stuff. They collect very private data that can be directly tied to you - fauigerzigerk personally And here's the point you are in fact missing or rather denying: Microsoft does collect tons of very personal data as well, not just performance data. You are acknowledging as much when you say that disabling it is the first thing you do on any Windows machine. Most people will never change the defaults, and Microsoft is pushing extremely hard to make all users of their software log in to a Microsoft account. A lot of Office 365 functionality makes no sense without being logged in. So it is important what privacy settings there are, what the defaults are and what you can or cannot disable. But I think the reason why we are talking past each other is that I don't use Windows. I don't have the settings in your screenshot. I was comparing the settings in my online Microsoft account to the settings in my Google account. If your main point is that Google is far more dependent on collecting as much personal data as they possibly can than Microsoft, then I fully agree with that. But that makes it all the more baffling why Microsoft behaves so much like Google when it comes to data collection.