A Reddit user has discovered that Windows 10 continues to collect the activity history of the user and sends it to Microsoft, even when it's manually disabled. The user found in Microsoft's Privacy Dashboard that the operating system continues to track and sent data to Microsoft, amongst others, about files he opened and websites he browsed.
In the Privacy Dashboard of Windows 10, users can disable or enable the so-called “Activity History”. With this feature enabled, Microsoft keeps track of the things users do on their device. This includes which apps and services they use, which files they open and which websites they browse. The company uses this information so users can continue with what they were doing after a reboot.
Data is also sent to Microsoft, according to the company because, “Microsoft uses the activity history data to provide you with personalized experiences (such as ordering your activities based on duration of use) and relevant suggestions (such as anticipating what your needs might be based on your activity history).”
Users who don't want all this and think that disabling Activity History in Windows 10 will stop this, are wrong. Besides keeping tracking of the activities, the data is still sent to Microsoft.
Users can check detailed data collected by Microsoft in their online Privacy Dashboard.
To stop saving activity history locally on your device, select Start, then select Settings > Privacy > Activity history. On this page, untick the “Store my activity history on this device” check box. By disabling this setting, some features will no longer work. This includes any feature that relies on activity history, such as your timeline or Cortana’s “Pick up where you left off” feature. The browsing history can still be viewed in Microsoft Edge.
To also stop sending Activity History data to Microsoft, untick the “Send my activity history to Microsoft” check box. Disabling this setting has some complications, it's no longer possible to view the full 30 days in the timeline or get cross-device activity experiences.
On the same screen you can also “Clear activity history”. When cleared it's no longer possible to resume activities.
