Windows 10 SHOCK: Fans left fearing Microsoft is watching WITHOUT their permission
WINDOWS 10 fans have been dealt a shock update which left them fearing Microsoft had been watching their PC activity without their permission.
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Windows 10 is close to becoming the most popular operating system in the world.
Ever since Windows 10 was released the flagship Microsoft OS has been trying to play catch up to an older piece of software - Windows 7.
According to NetMarketShare stats, last month Windows 10 was at last approaching the crossover point with Windows 7.
NetMarketShare stats show in November 2018 Windows 10 had a 38.14 per cent chunk of the desktop OS share.
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This is just a whisker behind Windows 7 on 38.89 per cent.
And this is a huge improvement compared to the same time last year, when Windows 7 had a 43.12 per cent market share while Windows 10 was on 31.95 per cent.
It’s surely only a matter of time till Windows 10 officially becomes the most used operating system in the world.
And its huge user base was recently put on alert after shock privacy fears emerged.
A Windows 10 user reported earlier this week that the OS may have been logging Activity History data even when the setting was off.
Even with Activity History turned off on Windows 10 the Redditor said that wasn’t the case for the online Privacy Dashboard.
The Reddit post - which you can read in full by clicking here - received almost 200 upvotes, with users left stunned by the development.
However, Microsoft has come out to reassure fans and say that there’s no reason to fear for their privacy.
The Redmond-based tech giant said Activity History in Windows 10 refers to something different in the Privacy Dashboard.
The latter covers all Microsoft apps and services, while the former relates just to Windows 10.
They said this “naming issue” should be clarified in a future update.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, a Microsoft spokesperson said: “Microsoft is committed to customer privacy, being transparent about the data we collect and use for your benefit, and we give you controls to manage your data.
“In this case, the same term ‘Activity History’ is used in both Windows 10 and the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard.
“Windows 10 Activity History data is only a subset of the data displayed in the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard.
“We are working to address this naming issue in a future update.”
Microsoft also offered advice on how to stop Windows 10 sharing apps and services' Activity History with them.
They said: “If a customer wants to prevent their Windows 10 device from sending apps and service Activity History to Microsoft they need to use the following two Windows Settings configurations.
“Under Settings->Privacy->Activity history: ensure the setting “Let Windows sync my activities from this PC to the cloud” is not checked - learn more here.
“Under Settings->Privacy->Diagnostics & feedback: ensure Diagnostic data is set to Basic - learn more here.”
In other Windows 10 news, Microsoft this week patched out dozens of issues with the software.
Here's what you should do after a Windows 10 upgrade
Almost 40 vulnerabilities in Windows 10 have been discovered including one zero-day security flaw that was being exploited by hackers.
The latter was discovered by Kaspersky and it allowed hackers to carry out a full remote command execution exploit.
Thankfully, Microsoft has now fixed these 39 issues with their latest patch Tuesday release.
