The Dutch Data Protection Agency states that Windows 10 still violates privacy
The Dutch Data Protection Agency (DDA) today announced that Windows 10 is still in violation of EU privacy law. And it asks for further changes in the way Windows 10 collects data.
Despite meeting previous requests for lush data collection in Windows 10, a recent "check" showed that Microsoft was collecting other data from users remotely, "notes a DDA statement. "As a result, Microsoft is still potentially in violation of the Privacy Policy."
DDA forwarded the findings to its Irish counterpart, the Irish Data Protection Committee (DPC).
"DPC has had a preliminary commitment with Microsoft and with the assistance of the Dutch authority, we will soon continue to work with Microsoft to seek substantial answers to the concerns raised," a statement from DPC adds.
Microsoft continues to say that it is committed to user privacy and that it has improved the privacy of Windows 10 in recent years.
"We want the opportunity to improve even more the tools and choices we provide for these users," a Microsoft statement said in response to the charges. [19659002] Ah well. Here we go again: More tools and choices.
Microsoft's response to EU privacy concerns has always been consistent: the company is constantly adding new privacy interfaces to the system that does not actually change what Windows 10 collects, but simply better document it. I call this behavior "privacy theater" as it is the technological equivalent of renouncing one's hands in order to redirect the viewer's attention.
Of course, Windows 10's data collection is most benign and designed to provide Microsoft with the data it needs to improve its platform. But the software giant can make all these problems go away by simply giving users a way to turn off data collection. It has steadfastly refused to do so, regardless of the number of Windows 10 users – now over 830 million – and that most users will obviously just leave data collection on, unaware of the problem.
Instead, we get privacy theater. So we can look forward to more “tools and choices” – further complicating the user experience – instead of meaningful change.
