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A detailed look at how Microsoft collects, stores, and uses your personal data.
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Poor
Microsoft's privacy score of 22/100 reflects their data collection practices, transparency, incident history, and user control options. This score indicates significant privacy concerns that users should be aware of.
In 2023, Chinese state-backed hackers (Storm-0558) breached Microsoft's cloud infrastructure and accessed email accounts of senior US government officials, exploiting a stolen signing key that Microsoft failed to secure.
The 2020 SolarWinds hack (Solorigate) compromised Microsoft's systems, with Russian hackers accessing source code repositories and internal communications, affecting thousands of organizations using Microsoft products.
In 2024, Microsoft admitted that Russian hacking group Midnight Blizzard accessed senior leadership email accounts for months, and the breach was more extensive than initially disclosed.
A 2019 investigation revealed Microsoft contractors listened to Skype voice translations and Cortana commands, including recordings of people in their homes, without adequate user notification.
Windows 10 was found in 2015 to send extensive telemetry data to Microsoft even when users selected the lowest data collection setting, prompting formal complaints from European data protection authorities.
Reducing Microsoft's data collection in Windows requires navigating several layers of settings. Begin at Settings > Privacy & Security > General and disable all options including advertising ID, language list sharing, and suggested content tracking. Under Privacy & Security > Diagnostics & Feedback, set diagnostic data to 'Required' only (you cannot fully disable it without registry edits), turn off 'Improve inking and typing,' and delete diagnostic data. Disable Tailored Experiences and Feedback frequency. Go to Privacy & Security > Activity History and turn off activity history, then clear it. Under Privacy & Security > Search Permissions, disable cloud content search, search history, and SafeSearch suggestions. Review every category under Privacy & Security (Camera, Microphone, Location, Contacts, etc.) and disable access for apps that do not need them. In Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options, consider using a local account instead of a Microsoft account to reduce cloud syncing. For Microsoft Edge, switch to Firefox or Brave, but if you must use Edge, go to Settings > Privacy, Search and Services, set tracking prevention to 'Strict,' disable all personalization options, and change the search engine from Bing to DuckDuckGo. In Office 365, go to File > Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings and disable all optional connected experiences and content analysis. For OneDrive, unlink your account if you do not need cloud storage or switch to Proton Drive. Use the O&O ShutUp10++ tool to manage Windows privacy settings in bulk. At the network level, use a hosts file or DNS blocker to block Microsoft telemetry domains. For the most private experience, switch to a Linux distribution like Ubuntu, Fedora, or Linux Mint, which do not include telemetry by default and give you complete control over your system.
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