Windows 10 is reaching the end of mainstream support, and while there are options to extend that phase by paying up for it or signing up for Microsoft"s cloud backups of your PC"s settings, hundreds of millions of users now have a choice to make. This revolves around whether they should stick with their current operating system, upgrade to Windows 11, or migrate to a non-Microsoft OS entirely. Since we are now at a crossroads, it"s perhaps time to revisit an important topic: the telemetry data that Windows collects about you.
The good news is that if you"re confused between Windows 10 and Windows 11 in terms of which OS collects more data about you, you can rest easy knowing that both options are exactly the same. Both Windows 10 version 1903 and onward, and Windows 11 have the same policies when it comes to telemetry.
Microsoft categorizes personal data collection in two ways: Required and Optional. We"ll start with required data, which the Redmond tech firm says is necessary to keep its services and products secure and updated, while also providing seamless connectivity to cloud services, where required.
Required data
There are some cases in which required data is only collected when a customer leverages an associated service, and is referred to as Required service data. An example of such a "connected experience" in Windows is Find My Device, which utilizes location data if a person decides to use it. The full list of cloud-powered connected experiences in Windows includes:
- Activity History
- Cloud Clipboard
- Custom Dictionary
- Date and time (for Windows Time service)
- Delivery Optimization (for delivery of Windows updates)
- Device Encryption
- Emoji
- Eye Control
- Family Safety
- Find My Device
- Get Started
- Location services
- Microsoft Defender SmartScreen
- Phone Link
- Smart App Control
- Troubleshooting service
- Voice typing
- Windows backup
- Windows Insider Program
- Windows Security
- Windows Search
- Windows Spotlight
- Widgets
If you use any of the aforementioned connected experiences, Microsoft will collect additional data about your device and categorize it as a Required Essential Service. This information may include authentication details, certificates, configuration details, device setup, licensing data, and networking telemetry. The idea is that if a customer leverages a connected service, they will have to consent to these data collection details, which Microsoft says is "crucial" to provide the required services. It is also important to note that while enterprise customers have granular control over what data is sent to Microsoft while utilizing some essential services, consumers don"t.
Apart from this, Windows also collects some data that is classified as Required diagnostic data. Microsoft claims that this is the minimum information required to keep the OS and its associated services stable. These are broadly divided into three categories as follows:
- Device connectivity and configuration data: Details about the device, its configuration, and connectivity capabilities. Examples include information about OEM, processor type, memory configurations, along with networking and peripherals data.
- Product and service performance data: Details about the device or service"s health. Examples include basic error reporting and reliability data about the OS and its services.
- Software setup and inventory data: Details about software installation and updates. Examples include OS version, installed updates, configurations, and the list of installed apps and drivers.
Optional data
Windows 10 and 11 customers do have the option to send more data to Microsoft, if they want. Redmond believes that it is good if customers send this additional data to them, since it can be useful for troubleshooting and for creating better experiences, but it is not mandatory. Microsoft has a dedicated guide for optional diagnostic data broken down by services and connected experiences, but they can broadly be divided into six categories:
- Browsing history data: Browser activity, search history, and browser configuration changes in Microsoft browsers
- Device connectivity and configuration data: More granular details apart from those mentioned in the Required section
- Inking, typing, and speech utterance data: Samples of dictation, typing, and writing, along with details about transcription of input to text
- Product and service performance data: More granular details apart from those mentioned in the Required section
- Product and service usage data: App activity, including app launches, and usage statistics for the OS and its services
- Software setup and inventory data: More granular details apart from those mentioned in the Required section
Know your choices
As mentioned previously, enterprise customers and IT admins have more control over the data that they send to Microsoft; consumers don"t. While tech-savvy consumers may be able to find fancy workarounds using networking tricks, the average user doesn"t really have the knowledge or the motivation to do the same.
As such, it"s important to understand what your choices are. In both Windows 10 and Windows 11, you can navigate to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics and feedback to select how much data you want to send to Microsoft. There are two main options for diagnostic data: required and optional, as discussed in significant detail above. If you are privacy-conscious, perhaps it"s better to choose the former. You don"t have a toggle to completely restrict the transfer of telemetry data.
If you scroll down a bit, you"ll see options for inking, typing, and tailored experiences (ads, personalization, etc.) too. You can toggle them on or off, based on your preference.
Finally, you have a very important tool called Diagnostic Data Viewer. Within the same settings page, you"ll come across a section called View diagnostic data. If you toggle it on, any required or optional telemetry data that is sent to Microsoft will be visible in the Diagnostic Data Viewer. This takes up to 1GB of space on your hard drive if you do enable it, but it will definitely allow you to make more informed choices about your privacy, if you"re tech-savvy enough.
At the end of the day, all of this depends upon how privacy-conscious you are and how much you trust Microsoft. The average user may not know or care about the data that their PC sends to the Redmond tech firm, but it is good that the company does have extensive public documentation on the topic for those of us who do care.