Microsoft Cortana: Surveillance Profile
A detailed look at how Microsoft Cortana collects, stores, and uses your personal data.
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Privacy Score
Poor
Microsoft Cortana's privacy score of 25/100 reflects their data collection practices, transparency, incident history, and user control options. This score indicates significant privacy concerns that users should be aware of.
Data Collected
Known Incidents
In 2019, Vice revealed that Microsoft contractors listened to private Cortana voice recordings, including people searching for intimate content and discussing personal matters, without adequate user notification.
Cortana was discovered in 2018 to be accessible from the Windows lock screen, allowing anyone to use voice commands to browse websites and access files on locked computers, a significant security flaw.
Microsoft's integration of Cortana data with other Microsoft services in 2020 meant that voice search data flowed into the broader Microsoft advertising and profiling ecosystem without separate consent.
In 2017, a security researcher demonstrated that Cortana's lock-screen access could be exploited to run arbitrary code on a locked Windows 10 machine, enabling physical access attacks.
Cortana's forced integration into Windows 10 at launch in 2015 drew criticism from privacy advocates, as disabling Cortana required registry editing rather than a simple settings toggle.
How to Opt Out
Microsoft has significantly reduced Cortana's role since 2023, discontinuing it as a standalone assistant in Windows 11, but remnants and data from past usage still require attention. If you previously used Cortana, start by visiting account.microsoft.com/privacy and review your activity data. Under 'Activity History,' find and delete all Cortana voice recordings, search queries, and browsing history. Click 'Voice activity' and clear all stored recordings. Clear 'Search history' and 'Browsing history' as well. Under 'Cortana's Notebook,' clear all personal information Cortana collected about your interests, preferences, and routines. In Windows 11, Cortana is no longer active by default, but verify by searching for Cortana in the Start menu and ensuring it is not running. If you are still on Windows 10, disable Cortana by going to Settings > Privacy > Voice Activation and disabling 'Let Cortana respond to the Cortana keyword.' Under Settings > Privacy > Speech, turn off online speech recognition. Go to Settings > Privacy > Inking & Typing Personalization and disable it to prevent keystroke analysis. Remove Cortana from the taskbar by right-clicking the taskbar and unchecking 'Show Cortana button.' For a more thorough removal on Windows 10, use the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) to navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search and enable 'Allow Cortana' set to Disabled. Alternatively, use the Registry Editor to set 'AllowCortana' to 0 under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search. Disable 'Activity History' under Settings > Privacy > Activity History and clear all stored history. Review and disable Windows Timeline. For maximum privacy, switch to Linux, which includes no corporate voice assistant or telemetry. If you remain on Windows, use tools like O&O ShutUp10++ to comprehensively manage all Microsoft data collection settings.
Private Alternative
Looking for a privacy-respecting alternative to Microsoft Cortana? We recommend:
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