>>>http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/
>>
>>An excerpt from MS privacy statements - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/default.aspx
>>
>>
>>Personal Data - "Name and contact data. We collect your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, and other similar contact data. Credentials. We collect passwords, password hints, and similar security information used for authentication and account access. "
>>
>>Cortana - "To enable Cortana to provide personalized experiences and relevant suggestions, Microsoft collects and uses various types of data, such as your device location, data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on your device."
>>
>>Cortana - "Browsing history. If you choose to send your full browsing history to Microsoft in Microsoft Edge (see the Microsoft Edge description in the Windows section of this statement), Cortana can provide suggestions based on the sites you visit in Microsoft Edge."
>>
>>I suggest one reads the entire page ...
>>
>Wow!
>"Content. We collect content of your files and communications when necessary to provide you with the services you use. This includes: the content of your documents, photos, music or video you upload to a Microsoft service such as OneDrive. It also includes the content of your communications sent or received using Microsoft services, such as the:
>
> subject line and body of an email,
> text or other content of an instant message,
> audio and video recording of a video message, and
> audio recording and transcript of a voice message you receive or a text message you dictate."
>
>Seems that this will apply not only to WinX users, but to all users accessing MS services, even those with earlier or other OS ?
>From today on Craig can only point the finger to Google to first implement such policies - will be interesting if he switches from MS services ;-)

There is much more.

In addition to someone on this forum always saying that MS are not advertising like Google:

Advertising ID - "Windows generates a unique advertising ID for each user on a device. Your advertising ID can be used by app developers and advertising networks to provide more relevant advertising."

How We Use Personal Data - Advertising - "Many of our services are supported by advertising. We use the data we collect to help select the ads Microsoft delivers - whether on our own services or on services offered by third parties. The ads we select may be based on your current location, search query, or the content you are viewing. Other ads are targeted based on your likely interests or other information that we learn about you over time using demographic data, search queries, interests and favorites, usage data, and location data."

The reply from MS will be you can opt-out. The problem with that is twofold (at least);

1) The default is opt-in. 99.99% of Windows users will have no clue iro the above nor know how to opt-out or that it is even an option.

2) Even if I opt-out, how can I be sure it is opted out? Everything is sent encrypted, the technology is in the system, there is no realistic way to verify the opt-out.

There aint no such thing as a free lunch. If you aren't paying for Windows (Facebook, Twitter, whatever, etc.) then you're what's being sold ...

.