Windows 10 Privacy Tools Offer Veneer of Transparency

• Microsoft will introduce a Diagnostic Data Viewer and update other privacy tools and programs for the next version of Windows 10.
• Although the tool may help organizations determine the best data collection level, it is still difficult to understand whether Windows 10 telemetry data exposes an organization to privacy regulation violations.

A Diagnostic Data Viewer that allows a user to see the raw Windows 10 telemetry data collected by Microsoft is available in the Windows Store. The tool provides a look at the vast amount of data sent to Microsoft as a user interacts with the OS and its built-in applications. Although the tool provides a view of the data, analysis to gain insights into the data still requires reviewing overly complex and per-version documentation, and the tool does not help an organization understand how such data is aggregated and analyzed by Microsoft and third parties.

This report focuses on Windows 10 telemetry data. (For more information on telemetry, see the sidebar “Windows 10 Telemetry“.)