How to Turn Off Microsoft Spying and Protect Your Privacy

Title: How to Turn Off Microsoft Spying and Protect Your Privacy

With the rise of technology, privacy has become a major concern for many people. Microsoft has faced criticism for collecting user data through its products and services, but don't worry, you can take control of your privacy and turn off Microsoft's data collection with just a few simple steps.

The first step to turning off Microsoft spying is to review your privacy settings in Windows 10. To do this, go to the Windows Start menu and click on Settings. Then, click on Privacy. In this section, you'll see different categories, such as General, Speech, Typing, and Inking & typing personalization, each with their own privacy settings. Make sure to go through each category and adjust the settings to your liking.

One of the main ways Microsoft collects data is through location services. To turn this off, go to the Location section in the Privacy settings and toggle the switch to off. You can also choose to turn off location for specific apps by going to the App permissions section and adjusting the settings for each app.

Another way Microsoft collects data is through the advertising ID, which is used to personalize ads. To turn this off, go to the General section in the Privacy settings and toggle the switch for "Let apps use advertising ID" to off.

Microsoft also collects data through telemetry, which is used to improve their products and services. If you'd like to turn this off, you'll need to do so through the Registry Editor. To access the Registry Editor, press Windows key + R and type in "regedit" and hit enter. Then, navigate to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection. Right-click on DataCollection and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new value "AllowTelemetry" and set its value to 0.

Cortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant, is also known to collect user data. If you'd like to turn this off, go to the Cortana section in the Windows 10 settings and toggle the switch to off. You can also choose to delete the data that Cortana has collected by going to the Permissions & History section.

With these simple steps, you can turn off Microsoft spying and take control of your privacy. Protecting your privacy is important, and it's good to know that you can easily do it with just a few adjustments to your settings.

By following these steps, you can take control of your privacy and protect your data from being collected by Microsoft. These adjustments may seem small, but they can make a big difference in protecting your privacy. Stay safe and happy browsing!