AntiSpy: Control what Windows 10 knows about you

[javajolt]

Windows 10 is one of the most intelligent operating systems ever made, but this intelligence comes only with the huge amounts of data collected from your computer. This collected data makes services like ‘Cortana’ work efficiently on your computer and provide you suggestions and solutions based upon your computer usage. But in any scenario no user would like to allow Windows 10 to collect some personal and private data, this is usually the personal preference. But by default Windows 10 is supposed to collect data that some users may not want to share – even though it gets used in an aggregated form. Undoubtedly, you can manually disable them but most users are not aware of these settings.

AntiSpy for Windows 10

Ashampoo AntiSpy that brings all such settings in one place and lets you configure them on a click of a button. Using this tool you can configure some privacy settings and also prevent Windows 10 from collecting and sending diagnostics as well as other data. AntiSpy is exclusively designed for Windows 10 and will not work with any older versions of Windows.



Here is the list and overview of settings that can be disabled/enabled using AntiSpy:

General

• Let apps use my advertising ID for experience across apps

• Turn on SmartScreen Filter to check web content (URLs)

• Let websites provide locally relevant content by accessing my language list

• Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future

• Wifi Sense

• Enabled Notifications

• Automatic driver update

• Biometrics

Location

• Location for this device

• Global location features are enabled

Camera

• Let apps use my camera

• App Connector is allowed to use your camera

• Microsoft Edge is allowed to use your camera

• One Note is allowed to use your camera

Microphone

• Let apps use my microphone

• Microsoft Edge is allowed to use the microphone

• Windows Voice Recorder is allowed to use the microphone

• Xbox apps are allowed to use the microphone

Windows and Cortana

• Speech, inking and typing (Windows and Cortana)

• Cortana

• Microsoft Application Telemetry

• Microsoft Inventory Service

Account Info

• Let apps access my name, picture and other account info

Contacts

• The App Connector is allowed to access your contacts

• The Mail and Calendar app is allowed to access your contacts

• Windows Shell Experience is allowed to access your contacts

Calendar

• Let apps access my calendar

• App Connector can access my calendar

• Mail and Calendar app can access my calendar

Message

• Let apps read or send message (text or MMS)

Radios

• Let apps use radio (i.e. Bluetooth) to send and receive data

Others

• Let your apps automatically share and sync info with wireless devices

• Let apps use Cruzer Force

• Cruzer Force apps – Microsoft Phone Companion

• Lock Screen Camera

• Handwriting data sharing

• Microsoft One Drive

• Sensors

• Microsoft steps recorder for error reporting

• Windows Customer Experience Improvement program logging

• Windows Update sharing

• “Do Nor Track” in Microsoft Edge

The list is pretty long and these all features/settings are covered under this tool. AntiSpy is straightforward to use, you just need to click the toggle button corresponding to the setting to enable/disable it. Overall the tool is good and worth downloading – but we do hope they will clear up the typo’s soonest – For instance, ‘writing’ has been misspelled as ‘wrinting‘.

Click here to download Ashampoo Antispy.

twc