Windows 10 Full and Basic Telemetry Data collection information

[Batu69]

One of the complaints about Windows 10 ever since the operating system's introduction was that it was not really clear what date Microsoft's Telemetry and data collection services collected, and transferred to the company.

 

Linked to that was the missing option to turn the collecting off for good -- this is reserved to LTSB Enterprise versions. The only built-in option that users had until now was to set the collecting to basic.

 

Several privacy tools for Windows 10 come with options to block Microsoft Telemetry servers so that communication won't take place anymore.

Microsoft announced in early 2017 that it would change privacy options in the Windows 10 Creators Update version. One of those changes was a reduction of Telemetry levels from three, to just Basic and Full.

 

You can switch between the two diagnostic levels by opening the Settings application (Windows-I), navigating to Privacy > Feedback & Diagnostics, and selecting the other option -- Full or Basic -- on the page.

Windows 10 Full and Basic Telemetry

 

The Feedback & Diagnostics page of the Settings application reveals little information on what is being collected.

Microsoft did publish two articles recently that offer information in great detail on what it collects in basic and full Telemetry modes.

 

The listings are a hard read, and the basic listing is especially difficult to go through as it is highly technical in nature. The full listing is a bit better, as it is less technical.

Basic Telemetry on Windows 10

If you go through the basic telemetry listing on the Technet site -- linked above -- you will find listed the following information among many, many other entries:

1. Operating system name and version, locale.
2. Date and time.
3. Locally defined, unique ID for device, and device class (e.g. Server or Desktop).
4. Various unique user, machine and application identifiers.
5. Various information about the system, both in hash form and strings, e.g. OEM manufacturer information, device name, TMP version, active microphones, firmware, networking information, license state, license key, processor, speech settings, storage, display,  and more. (see Census listings there).

Full Telemetry on Windows 10

The full Telemetry listing includes information on the basic level, as it is included, and information on data that is only collected if full is enabled. The format is better, as it is less technical in nature.

• Header information: OS name, version, build and locale, User ID, Xbox UserID, Environment (e.g. application ID), diagnostic event name, HTTP header information, device ID (unique), device class, event collection time, diagnostic level.
• Device, Connectivity, and configuration data:
  • Device properties: OS, installation type, processor, memory, storage, firmware and battery information, OEM details, hardware chassis type, color and form factor, virtual machine.
  • Device capabilities: information about camera, touch and process capabilities, TPM, virtualization hardware, voice, number of displays, DPI and resolution, wireless capabilities, OEM information, advanced camera capture mode.
  • Device preferences: User settings, user-provided decice name, domain or cloud joined, domain name hash, MDM settings, Bitlocker, Secure Boot and encryption settings, Windows Update, default app and browser choices, default language settings, app store update settings, Enterprise and commercial ID.
  • Device peripherals: information on connected peripherals including names, models, manufacturers, drivers.
  • Device network info: Networking information including available SSIDs and BSSIDs, connectivity status, proxy, DHCP and other details, IP address type, hashed IP address, data transfer rates, IMEI or MCCO, and more.
• Product and Service usage:
  • App usage: Usage statistics, content searches within app, reading activity, user navigation and interaction with app and Windows features, time of and count of app and compoinent launches, duration, user interaction methods and duration.
  • App or product state: Start menu and taskbar pins, app launch state, personalization impressions delivered, user interaction with UI controls or hotspots, User feedback, caret location or position within documents and media files.
  • Login properties: Login success, failure, sessions and state.
• Product and Service data:
  • Device health and crash data: information about device and software health including crash and hang dumps, system settings, error codes and messages, user generated files, details about abnormal shutdowns, hangs or crashes, crash failure data.
  • Device performance and reliability data: performance information, including user interface interaction duration, on/off performance, user input responsiveness, disk footprint, power and battery live, service responsiveness.
• Software Setup and Inventory data:
  • Installed applications and install history: Names, IDs, package family names, publisher, type of software, install date, method, install directory, installation type, more.
  • Device update information: Update readiness analysis, number of applicable updates, downlad size and source, Windows Update machine ID, Update Server and service URL, and more.
• Content Consumption data:
  • Movies: Technical video information, e.g. height or width, encoding, stream instructions, if there is an error, URL for a specific two second chunk of content.
  • Music & TV: Service URL for song being downloaded, content type, local media library collection statistics, region mismatch.
  • Reading: App accessing content and status, and options used to open a Windows Store Book, language of book, time spent reading, content type and size.
  • Photos App: File source data, image & video resolution.
• Browsing, Search and Query data:
  • Microsoft browser data: Text typed in address bar and search box, selected for Ask Cortana Search, browser ID, URLs, page title, auto-completed text, service response time.
  • On-device file query: kind of query, number of items requested and retrieved, file extension of search result user interacted with, launched item kind, name of process, hash of search scope, state of indices.
• Inking Typing and Speech Utterance data:
  • Voice, inking and typing: Type of pen used, pen gestures, palm touch coordinates, input latency, ink strokes written, text of speech recognition results, APP ID, language information.
• Licensing and Purchase data:
  • Purchase history: Product and Edition ID, product URI, offer details, date and time, purchase quantity and price, payment type.
  • DRM and license rights details, license type, usage session.

Article source

 

Other source: This Is the Data Microsoft Collects from Your Windows 10 PC

[payday]

Microsoft Reveals Truth About Windows 10 Data Collection

 

Will transparency on Windows 10 finally put privacy concerns to bed, or will it open Microsoft up to further criticism?

 

Every since the halcyon days of 2015 when Microsoft first released Windows 10, the company has come under fire about its somewhat invasive data collection policy. By far the biggest complaint is that you can’t turn it off. And even if with the new ‘Creator’s Update’ due to be rolled out next week for some users, you still won’t be able to.

 

Next Windows 10 update will finally give users some control on data collection.

 

Microsoft have always said that it uses the information it gathers to determine how well systems are running and get a heads up on problems that users are facing. But many privacy advocacy groups have expressed their concerns over the last two years or so, that while that may be true, the licensing agreement anyone who installs Windows 10 has to agree too, is ambiguous at best, and damn right worrying at worst. Even the European Union has got involved, telling Microsoft it has issues with its privacy settings.  

 

As a result, Microsoft has decided in its infinite wisdom, to give users a little more control over what it does and doesn’t collect. Crucially, however, users won’t be able to turn it off completely. There are ways to do this, but you’ll have to look them up yourself.

 

But the new controls in the next update to Windows 10, do allow some control, and for that, we should at least give them a grumbling approval that it’s a step in the right direction. If nothing else they’ve published a long, long document about what data they do collect and what they use it for.

 

“For the first time, we have published a complete list of the diagnostic data collected at the Basic level,” says Windows chief Terry Myerson in a company blog post. “We are also providing a detailed summary of the data we collect from users at both Basic and Full levels of diagnostics.”

(Source ...)

 

[Batu69]

Topic moved from software news forum & merged.