You open your browser and noticed that all the banner ads have something to do with your favorite hobby. You search for a restaurant, looking for a nice place to celebrate your mom’s birthday and surprisingly, Bing already knows your location. What is going on?
If you are currently using Windows 10 and have chosen to keep the default settings, Microsoft now has access to your purchase history, browsing history, your location and a lot more. These features can be convenient, but it can also raise privacy concerns.
This week, we’ll teach you how to manage your privacy settings to prevent Windows 10 from collecting some of your personal information.
Disable target ads
In order to serve you with more targeted ads, Windows 10 has issued a unique advertising ID for you. While there is no option to get rid of the ID permanently, you can prevent 3rd party apps from accessing your data.
Open the Start menu, choose Settings and then Privacy. From here, disable “Let apps use my advertising ID for experiences across apps”.
Exercise Cortana caution
Cortana is the all-knowing digital personal assistant built into Windows 10. But she’ll need to know all sorts of information about you in order to function properly. This information includes anything from contacts, location, data from your text messages, emails, calendars etc.
To take back a bit of privacy, open your Start menu and launch the Settings app. From here, select “Privacy” and then “Speech, inking and typing”. Then, click the “Stop Getting to Know Me” button.
Disable Wifi sense
The wifi sense is one of the most notorious sharing issues with Windows 10. This allows users to connect to protected wifi networks even without a password. The passwords are encrypted and those passwords are stored on a Microsoft server somewhere. This allows you to connect to a wireless network when you visit a friend’s house without the hassle of asking for their password.
If you’d like to turn that off, just open your Start menu and launch the Settings app. Then, choose “Network and Internet” and click “Manage wifi settings”.
