Microsoft Collecting More Data of Windows 10 Users than Initially Thought

After several controversial data mining and privacy invasion features within Microsoft's newest operating system, Microsoft continued convincing its users that Windows 10 is not spying on anyone and that the company is not collecting more data than it needs.

In addition, Microsoft also updated its privacy policy in order to clear how and when Windows 10 utilizes users' data.

But wait, before you convinced yourself by this statement, just have a look on the milestones (listed below) that Microsoft recently announced, revealing that Windows 10 is now actively running on 200 Million devices.

Microsoft Tracks Your Every Move

Here's the list of milestones that Microsoft just achieved:

• People spent over 11 Billion hours on Windows 10 in December 2015.
• More than 44.5 Billion minutes were spent in Microsoft Edge across Windows 10 devices in December alone.
• Windows 10 users asked Cortana over 2.5 Billion questions since launch.
• About 30 percent more Bing search queries per Windows 10 device compared to prior versions of Windows.
• Over 82 Billion photographs were viewed in the Windows 10 Photo application.
• Gamers spent more than 4 Billion hours playing PC games on Windows 10 OS.
• Gamers streamed more than 6.6 Million hours of Xbox One games to Windows 10 PCs.

Maybe Microsoft listed these statistics in order to illustrate just how popular its newest operating system has become, but what the company missed is:

Microsoft itself admitted that how deeply it is tracking Windows 10 users.

First noticed by Martin Brinkmann of gHacks, these statistics clearly indicate that Microsoft is not only keeping itself updated about the Windows 10 installation on different devices but is also tracking every single activity of its users by collecting more data than initially thought.

Playing a game? Microsoft tracks it. 

Asking Cortana a question? Microsoft tracks it. 

Opening Edge browser? Microsoft tracks it, too.

"While it is unclear what data is exactly collected," Brinkmann says, "it is clear that the company is collecting information about the use of individual applications and programs on Windows at the very least."

This is the actual dirty side of the free Windows 10 upgrade that we many times talk about, and with time, it will be more shocking to you because the most worrisome part of Windows 10 is that there's no easy way to turn this data collection off.

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Bad Santa! Microsoft Offers — 'Upgrade now' or 'Upgrade tonight' to Push Windows 10

Many Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users don't want to upgrade their machines to Microsoft’s newest Windows 10 operating system now or anytime soon. Isn't it?

But what if you wake up in the morning and found yourself a Windows 10 user?

That's exactly what Microsoft is doing to Windows 7 and 8.1 users.

Windows 10 Upgrade Becomes More Aggressive

Ever since Microsoft launched its new operating system over the summer, Windows 7 and 8.1 users have been forced several number of times to upgrade their machines to Windows 10.

It was relatively inoffensive at first, but as days have passed, Microsoft has become increasingly aggressive to push Windows users to upgrade to Windows 10.

Microsoft has left very little choice over whether to upgrade their systems to Windows 10 or not. At last, the users end up upgrading their machines to the latest Windows operating system.

Users now see a pop up on their computers, as InfoWorld reports, that displays only two choices for you:

Upgrade Now 'OR' Upgrade Tonight

But, What's the Catch?

Yes, there is a catch to get rid of Windows 10 upgrade, temporarily, anyways.

What users will see is the above two options but what they'll not see is the third option hiding in plain sight: The 'X' button in the top-right corner of the upgrade window.

While you can click the 'X' button to make the upgrade go away, the less knowledgeable users would end up upgrading to Windows 10 either then and there or at that night.

Moreover, since the dialog box warns that "Upgrading to Windows 10 is Free for a Limited Time", some users could interpret that if they close the pop-up window, they may not be able to upgrade their machines Free at a later date.

Microsoft silently started pushing Windows 10 installation files on PCs running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 over a month after its launch, even if users have not opted into the upgrade.

Almost two months ago, some Windows 7 and 8.1 users also claimed that Windows 10 had begun to install itself automatically on their PCs, which Microsoft later called it a mistake.

Although there is nothing we could predict what tweaks Microsoft has planned for future upgrades, the next time you may get a pop-up window with a single button that says "Upgrade Now."

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