European Union data protection authorities have expressed fresh concerns about the privacy of Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system, despite tweaks being made to the OS after questions were raised about its treatment of personal data last year.
In a letter,
the Article 29 Working Group said it still has "significant concerns"
about how Microsoft collects and processes users' personal data, and
whether it obtains fully informed consent from users to do so.
"There is an apparent lack of control for users
to prevent collection or further processing of such data. As a result,
the Working Party specifically requests further explanatory information
from Microsoft, as to how the opt-outs, default settings and other
available control mechanisms presented during the installation
of Windows 10 operating system provide a valid legal basis for the
processing of personal data under the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.
This is especially of concern where Microsoft would rely on consent
as a legal basis for the processing of personal data," the statement
said.
Windows 10 launched in July 2015, and almost immediately garnered
criticism for the use of default settings to harvest voluminous amounts
of user data, such as web browsing history, WIFI network names and
passwords, in order to display personalized adverts as users browse the
web or play games. User data is also fed in to train Microsoft's Cortana
digital assistant. Sputnik
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