Is Microsoft really spying on you with Windows telemetry?

"When Windows 10 was released in 2015, it was immediately controversial, with critics zeroing in on one feature in particular: telemetry. I spent many months in those early days reading one article after another on the subject that read, in retrospect, like entries from the diary of a mad conspiracy theorist."

"What was most obvious about those early critiques was the complete lack of any grounding in data. When I got back home from that vacation, I installed network monitoring tools to collect and analyze that telemetry data for myself."

"Over the past 10 years, privacy agencies for governments, especially in the European Union, have scrutinized Microsoft's behavior closely. Back in 2017, the Dutch Data Protection Authority found that Microsoft's telemetry settings were in breach of local privacy laws because they failed to obtain informed consent."

Windows 10's telemetry collection sparked controversy since its 2015 release, with critics making unfounded claims comparing it to surveillance apparatus. Early critiques lacked data-based evidence, relying instead on conspiracy-like theories. The author conducted network monitoring analysis to examine actual telemetry data, finding no evidence of spying. Over a decade, government privacy agencies, particularly in the European Union, have scrutinized Microsoft's telemetry practices. Regulatory bodies identified compliance issues with privacy laws regarding informed consent, prompting ongoing examination of Microsoft's data collection practices and transparency standards.

Read at ZDNET