We all know Windows 10 sucks all of our data and sends it to the Illuminati, but now Microsoft is facing a growing threat from the Netherlands' Data Protection Authority, where Windows 10 violates the country's data protection law.
This is even after the changes Microsoft made to Windows 10 with the Creators Update, but Microsoft doesn't "clearly inform" users of the type of data that they're collecting, and the reason why they need it. Officials think that Windows' default settings stop users from truly consenting to the data collection, which is a really big problem.
The DPA has said that during the installation process, Windows 10 defaults to full data sharing, encouraging you to accept those terms. Accepting these terms doesn't mean you gave permission, says the Data Protection Authority. The regulator has also said that the Creators Update didn't honor some users' previous privacy settings, and that Microsoft doesn't make it clear that their Edge browser is continuously sucking down all of your app and browsing data when you've got the default privacy settings enabled.
Microsoft has hit back, with a point-by-point list of "concerns" with the Dutch DPA, saying that Windows 10 lets users know it is collecting data and how that data is used, but it acknowledged that you will have to look into the privacy agreement or "learn more" sections" in order to understand 100%.
The company also argued that it needs some device data in order to understand any compatibility problems from its hundreds of millions of users, and to look for repeated app crashes so that it can solve them, on top of security holes. Microsoft doesn't agree that its use of software defaults preventing people from giving true consent is a concern, but this is Microsoft we're talking about here.
