>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 th

>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.