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Friday 27 November 2015

Microsoft's stealthy tracking process is still watching Windows 10 users

Source: www.techradar.com --- Thursday, November 26, 2015
If Microsoft wants to carve out a more positive reputation for itself in terms of privacy, the company is going to have to work hard to overcome some of its recent missteps – the latest of which is the sneaky renaming of a data hoovering and tracking service built into Windows 10 . Earlier this year Redmond fired up a new tracking service (by the name of DiagTrack) that ran in the background on Windows 10 beta versions, later introducing it to Windows 8.1 (and the full release of Windows 10, when it emerged). DiagTrack collected information on the user, devices and applications, and relayed that data – including data on browsing, search and file history, and indeed actual typed characters (apparently to be used improving features such as auto-complete; Redmond says all this data is simply used to better the OS) – back to Microsoft. It was pushed live as an optional update, but made difficult to spot if installed, as the only way a user could find it running was literally to comb through masses of processes in the Task Manager. As a result, it caused something of an outcry. Now, this background service seemingly disappeared from Windows 10 with the recent major update – but the truth of the matter, it turns out, is that Microsoft simply renamed the process in a sneaky move which is unlikely to promote trust within the operating system's user base. Less threatening moniker As TweakHound spotted, it's now called 'Connected User Expe ...



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