Telemetry has been a hot topic ever since Microsoft released the first version of the company's Windows 10 operating system. Microsoft decided to integrate the collecting of data deeply into the operating system; so deep that the consumer editions Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro did not include options to turn off Telemetry completely. Even Enterprise and Education editions required Telemetry, but these came with a specific Telemetry setting just for these editions.
Home and Pro users can select between Full and Basic Telemetry levels; Basic limits the information that is transferred to Microsoft but it does not block the sending entirely. Enterprise and Education editions support a Security Telemetry setting that limits data collection and transferring significantly.
click to enlargeThird-party tools and scripts to
tame Windows 10's hunger for data are available and can be used.
The Bayerischen Landesamts für Datenschutzaufsicht -- Bavarian agency for data protection -- published its activity report for 2019 recently. The report includes information about an analysis of data collecting of Windows 10 Enterprise version 1909.
The report, which you can
access here (German PDF) suggests that organizations who may buy Enterprise or Education editions of Windows 10 may disable the sending of Telemetry data entirely in Windows 10 version 1909.
The test setup was identical to other tests conducted to find out about the data sending of Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system. A Windows 10 version 1909 Enterprise system was set up in a lab; all traffic, incoming and outgoing, of the system, was recorded and analyzed.
The telemetry level of the Windows 10 device was set to Security and tools/settings provided by Microsoft were used to eliminate telemetry activities.
The agency discovered that it is possible to deactivate the sending of Telemetry data on Windows 10 version 1909 Enterprise (and Education) machines completely in the lab environment.
The test results need to be verified in real-world scenarios according to the agency. Telemetry would not be an obstacle in regards to data protection on Enterprise or Education systems running Windows 10 if real-world tests confirm the finding.
The agency notes that the situation is different for Windows 10 Pro (and Home) systems as data collecting cannot be disabled completely in those editions of Windows 10.
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