14 DAY TRIAL // The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is one of the privacy watchdogs which criticized Microsoft for the amount of data it collected from Windows 10 computers, and even asked the company last year to make changes that would provide users with more control over their information.
Earlier this week, Microsoft did just that and announced that the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update would provide users with a new setup experience including more options for their privacy settings.
Furthermore, the company said it would reduce the amount of data collected as part of the Basic telemetry channel, pointing out that it would only retrieve information regarding crashes and operating system issues that it needs to resolve.
As a result, the EFF applauds Microsoft’s efforts to improve the privacy of Windows 10 users, and said in a statement for CW that the organization and the Redmond-based software giant worked together on addressing these privacy concerns for many months.
“The changes were very welcome from our perspective,” Maul Kalia, legal intake coordinator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), was quoted as saying. “They were definitely needed.”
Microsoft working with privacy watchdogs behind closed doors
While Kalia hasn’t specifically revealed what Microsoft and the EFF focused on when trying to improve privacy controls in Windows 10, the privacy watchdog’s official pointed out that the organization still expects the software giant to improve on this approach and provide users with even more settings that would help them maintain their privacy.
“These are solid and welcome steps. But we do still want the company to be more forthcoming,” the EFF representative also added.
Microsoft’s Windows 10 privacy updates have also been praised by Swiss privacy bodies, who were even considering a lawsuit against the company following the original implementation in the operating system.
Microsoft, however, has worked together with all these privacy organizations ever since, and the Windows 10 Creators Update due in April will finally address all concerns and improve privacy controls offered to users.