In the past year, regulators and privacy advocates have taken potshots at Microsoft over its data collection policies. Today, Microsoft announced some new privacy-related initiatives, including a significant change to the way Windows 10 collects telemetry data.
To address criticism from regulators and public policy groups, Microsoft is making some changes in its privacy practices.
Of all the body blows Microsoft has absorbed in the past 18 months over Windows 10, the criticisms of its privacy policies have to sting the most.
Last summer, the French National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) issued a formal notice against Microsoft, ordering that the company "stop collecting excessive data and tracking browsing by users without their consent."
The CNIL found Microsoft's collection of diagnostic information (so-called telemetry) acceptable but said that the default settings for Windows 10 go too far. The complaint singled out Microsoft's practice of collecting information about app usage as "excessive."
A month later, the Electronic Freedom Foundation took aim at Windows 10 with a signed editorial criticizing the company for "disregarding user choice" and sending "an unprecedented amount of usage data back to Microsoft...." As I noted at the time, EFF was especially critical of Microsoft's telemetry collection policies.
After months of explaining and defending its policies, publicly and in meetings with regulators, the company today announced that it's making a series of privacy-related moves. Terry Myerson, who runs the Windows and Devices Group, made the announcement in a blog post:
Many of you have asked for more control over your data, a greater understanding of how data is collected, and the benefits this brings for a more personalized experience. Based on your feedback, we are launching two new experiences to help ensure you are in control of your privacy.
First, today we're launching a new web-based privacy dashboard so you can see and control your activity data from Microsoft including location, search, browsing and Cortana Notebook data across multiple Microsoft services. Second, we're introducing in Windows 10 a new privacy set up experience, simplifying Diagnostic data levels and further reducing the data collected at the Basic level.
The changes to Windows 10 will roll out initially in an upcoming Windows Insider preview build, perhaps as soon as this week, and will reach the general public with the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update this spring.
I haven't seen these features in operation yet. The descriptions in the remainder of this post are based on what Microsoft says it plans to deliver. The broad outlines shouldn't change, but you can expect the user experience to evolve before the final release, based on feedback from Windows Insider Program participants and third parties.
Unlike its predecessors, the Creators Update will not arrive silently in the background. Instead, Microsoft plans to notify Windows 10 users that the update is available and allow them to schedule its installation. As part of the process of scheduling that upgrade, users will have the opportunity to make "explicit choices" about privacy settings in five categories.
This is the new privacy settings setup experience that will arrive soon in a Windows Insider preview build, according to Myerson:
via Microsoft
This setup screen replaces the Express Settings in current Windows 10 public releases, which requires multiple extra steps to adjust default settings in a clean installation and offers no control over privacy options during upgrades. (To make matters worse, some users have reported that Windows 10 upgrades occasionally reset custom privacy options to their default settings after an upgrade.)
The new interface for setting privacy options also includes an explanation of what happens if you turn any of those settings off or, in the case of the Diagnostics setting, adjust it from Full to Basic.
via Microsoft
All of those settings, along with more granular controls (such as setting location permissions on a per-app basis) will also be available after installation, under the Privacy heading in Settings.
The changes to telemetry settings start with the renaming of the category itself, from Diagnostic and Usage Data to just Diagnostics.
In all public releases of Windows 10 so far, non-Enterprise editions allow users and administrators to choose one of three levels to control telemetry collection: Full, Enhanced, and Basic. The changes in the Creators Update will eliminate the Enhanced level and also reduce the amount of information collected when you slide that switch to Basic.
(In Enterprise settings, administrators will continue to have an additional Security option, which eliminates virtually all telemetry collection but requires the deployment of an alternative update mechanism.)
In an interview, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Michael Fortin told me that the Enhanced level was "confusing," and "only a relatively modest number of Windows 10 users were choosing it." Most people either leave the default setting at Full or signal their preference for privacy by switching to the lowest available telemetry option, Basic, he noted.
Effective with this spring's Windows 10 feature update, telemetry information collected at the Basic level will no longer include information about app installation or usage. Instead, Myerson says, information collected at that level will focus strictly on security and reliability, with basic error reporting. That change should assuage some of the concerns of the CNIL and other regulators as well as privacy critics like the EFF.
The new Windows 10 settings are available in all installations, regardless of what type os account the user has signed in with.
The privacy dashboard is a separate feature, designed to give users of Microsoft services the opportunity to see and edit information that is collected and stored in the cloud when they are signed in with a Microsoft account.
According to Myerson, the new privacy dashboard (which will be available at https://account.microsoft.com/privacy will allow Microsoft customers, regardless of hardware platform or operating system, to review and clear data such as browsing history, search history, location activity, and Cortana's Notebook. (Note that this data is associated with a Microsoft account and is not saved in the cloud when the user browses without signing in.)
via MicrosoftBecause this dashboard is web-based, it's likely to evolve significantly over time. In an interview, Myerson told me he expects his team to iterate on that user experience in response to feedback. "What we're learning," he said, "is that people don't always understand why something is being collected and what are the implications of clearing it out. We will continuously be improving."
On paper, Redmond can make a strong case that it has an economic incentive to protect its users' privacy. As I noted last summer, privacy should be a competitive advantage for Microsoft, especially when comparing its policies and practices to those of Google, whose entire business is built on collecting data from its users and turning it into advertising profiles.
Most of Microsoft's revenue comes from selling software licenses, cloud services, and hardware. A significant share of that business is with enterprise customers and government agencies that have a profound interest in privacy and security. Indeed, Microsoft has earned generally high marks for its handling of security and privacy issues in cloud services such as Office 365 and Microsoft Azure.
Where things get somewhat murkier is with products and services aimed at consumers and small businesses. Without transparency over exactly what information is collected and how it's used, the company remains vulnerable to accusations that it's spying on customers.
As Google and Facebook have proven, the most effective way to monetize personal information is through online advertising. Microsoft once had dreams of being an advertising powerhouse, which occasionally led to struggles between product designers and ad sellers.
But the company abandoned that strategic goal five years ago when it wrote off the acquisition of aQuantive and scaled back its advertising ambitions after five years of struggling. Today, the company's advertising business is healthy but relatively small and mostly intended to monetize strategic assets such as its Bing and Cortana search tools.
In Microsoft's most recent quarter, search advertising and other forms of online ads accounted for only about 5 percent of total revenue. Contrast that with Google, which earns roughly 90 percent of its revenue from advertising and depends on collecting massive amounts of data to power the ads that pay for Google Search, Gmail, and other free products
Without Microsoft's investments in those technologies, Google's dominance in search would arguably be a monopoly.
Still, even that small-by-Redmond-standards online search advertising business brought in about $1.4 billion in revenue in its recent quarter, up 40 percent over the previous year. Microsoft's ad business might be tiny compared to its rivals, but it's big enough for regulators and privacy advocates to worry about whether the company's data collection is being driven by its ad business.
Myerson tells me that they've shared details about its data collection practices with large enterprise customers and regulators. "That dialog is taking place in every country where we do business," he said. "We believe users have a right to privacy and users should have control over their data."
For consumers and small businesses, the new privacy dashboard offers more control over online data, but you'll have to take Microsoft assurances on faith when it comes to telemetry.
I asked Myerson whether Microsoft would consider contracting with an outside group, such as the EFF, to audit its data collection policies and offer an independent report.
"That's an interesting idea," he replied. "But various countries are going farther than hiring an audit firm. They're passing laws. We're making sure we're fully compliant with laws that affect Windows users."
2016 was a largely successful year for Microsoft. Can 2017 be the same? With another new – more impressive – Xbox on the way, momentum in cloud and a great line-up of devices, it’s surely time for Microsoft to take the fight to its great rivals.
One thing seems clear; Microsoft has never looked to the future quite so much. Satya Nadella’s Microsoft isn’t such a long way from Gates’ devices-based idealism and still has some apps and services that just don’t fit. But it seems unthinkable that today’s company would make the same mistakes as Microsoft did under Ballmer.
As our columnist Gary Marshall put it in late 2016: “Now, Microsoft appears to be in a very Apple-y position. It didn’t invent 3D scanning, or Minecraft, or “mixed reality”. But it’s found a way to weave those disparate technologies into Windows and Xbox in a way that really makes sense. Not only that, but it made them exciting. Maybe even sexy. Sexy? From the same firm that tried to sell us a brown Zune?”
Yep, we’re a million miles away from Zune. Let’s check out what we reckon we’ll get from Microsoft in 2017.
Project Scorpio is coming!
The most exciting thing coming from Microsoft in 2017? Why Project Scorpio of course! The PS4 Pro may support 4K gaming, but it doesn’t have a 4K Blu-ray slot – expect Scorpio to have both. The console was announced at Microsoft's E3 2016 press conference, and it claims it's going to be the most powerful console ever built.
Expect VR support, six teraflops of 60Hz graphics performance, plus a price around the level of the PS4 Pro. We reckon it’ll be with us around October. Drawing on its extensive console heritage, AMD will also power the Scorpio: "We are proud that Microsoft has chosen to expand their Xbox One family of devices with two new consoles featuring AMD's high-performance semi-custom SoCs that support revolutionary new technologies like HDR, 4K and high fidelity VR to enable the next generation of immersive gaming experiences."
For the creators
Coming in the Spring, the next update to Windows 10 is called the Creators Update. As the name suggests, this is all about the desktop OS making it easier for you to make stuff, pushing forward with 3D content creation.
Paint 3D is, of course, part of this creative drive, and the revamped app aims to be a dead easy to use 3D art studio, allowing you to do things like snap a photo with your phone camera and pull out an object from it, capturing it in 3D and then sharing it directly. What Microsoft is doing with the Windows 10 Creators Update isn’t just about the creators of today – it’s also thinking about the creators of tomorrow.
Will we finally see Surface Phone?
Microsoft has been chastened by its experience of producing mobile hardware over the last few years. The acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone division was nothing short of disastrous. So could it really be the case that it’ll launch a new phone in 2017?
We think so, yes. Microsoft’s Surface gear is a strong suite of devices so why not a true, flagship phone? And with Windows 10 Mobile finally showing some of the polish that should have been a hallmark of Windows Phone for over half a decade, perhaps it’s time for Microsoft to do phones properly.
Recent reports suggest a 5.5-inch display size for one or possibly two Surface Phone devices, while ‘laptop accessories’ (think keyboards and a stylus) have also been mooted. Rumours also point to the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and as much as 6GB of memory so it can run desktop apps and act like a PC (using Windows 10 Continuum) when hooked up to a keyboard, mouse and monitor.
Windows, devices and Cortana
Microsoft’s Build conference is in early May – expect more detail on what the next step is for Windows – will we see another update or two or will Microsoft start to talk about Windows 11? We know that Windows won’t have a major new version in the way it has before, but surely Microsoft can’t stick with Windows 10 forever.
Also expect a LOT more around Cortana as it moves into other devices – can it really take the fight to Siri and Alexa? Not to mention Google Assistant...
Console cycles meaning nothing
It’s clear that consoles are now on a more regular update cycle. Microsoft's Albert Pinello: "I hear people use the mobile phone analogy to sort of describe it and I think that I can understand why that makes sense. People use the PC analogy and I think that makes sense. The challenge of course is whenever you say that you always go into the negatives, or you go into how that market - the mobile phone market - is different from consoles.
"Usage models are different, financing is different ... I don't think we want to get the expectation of, like, 'every year there's these very minor changes and we just inundate the market.' We've gotta figure out how this makes sense for console gamers, and respect what makes console gaming great as we go through this transition."
A new Surface Pro
We didn’t get a new Surface Pro in 2016 but surely we will in 2017 – Surface Pro 5, presumably. Also expect a major upgrade to the Surface Book. If we don’t get that, Microsoft’s ‘ultimate laptop’ will start to look passรฉ. And for such a great device that would be a crying shame.
A mixed reality future
It’s clear that Microsoft has a vision for the future beyond the PC, and it’s pretty exciting. Microsoft broadened availability for HoloLens late in 2016, but the developer edition of the device will set you back an even more eye-watering £2,719 in the UK, while it’s AU$4,369 in Australia. It’s too expensive for mainstream use, but Microsoft has teamed up with OEMs to make VR versions of HoloLens at a price point that lands somewhere in between the budget options of Google’s Daydream View and Samsung Gear VR and – at the other end of the scale – PS VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Microsoft is aiming to be on the front foot for both augmented reality and virtual reality, plus 'connected mixed reality experiences' as Microsoft put it (naturally including HoloLens).
At the October 2016 Windows event, Microsoft’s Taj Reid wore a VR headset running Windows 10, enabling him to watch a football match on a giant screen right up close, or engage in a ‘holotour’ in which he wandered about amongst some old Roman buildings.
Paint 3D opens up new possibilities
At the same event Microsoft showed how it’s possible to scan things in the real world using a 3D capture app your phone and make them into 3D models. Reid showed off a demo with HoloLens, showing him browsing in Edge, and taking an object – in this case a stool – and pulling it out from the online shop, to place it in the real-world room to see how it looks next to a table. Pretty nifty, and a feature that should make online shopping decisions a whole lot easier, as you can 'virtually' see what you're buying.
Paint 3D is part of this creative drive, and the revamped app aims to be a dead easy to use 3D art studio, allowing you to do things like snap a photo with your phone camera and pull out an object from it, capturing it in 3D and then sharing it directly.
Meanwhile in 2027…
Microsoft reckons that the search box could disappear at the of the next decade – and that VR will be so immersive we can completely escape reality as we know it.
Mar Gonzalez Franco, researcher with Microsoft Research's New Experiences and Technologies group said: "By 2027 we will have ubiquitous virtual reality systems that will provide such rich multisensorial experiences that will be capable of producing hallucinations which blend or alter perceived reality," she said.
Search engine usage will change, too. Susan Dumais, deputy managing director of Microsoft Research Lab, envisions the search box's complete disappearance by 2027. Instead, "It will be replaced by search functionality that is more ubiquitous, embedded and contextually sensitive. We are seeing the beginnings of this transformation with spoken queries, especially in mobile and smart home settings." Now that’s pretty cool, eh?
Facebook has teamed up with Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to fight the proliferation of terrorist content on the Web. The tech giants will create a shared industry database of hashes for violent terrorist imagery, terrorist recruitment videos, or images they have removed from their services.
They may use these shared hashes to help identify potential terrorist content on their platforms. Hashes to be shared will apply to content that's most likely to violate all the companies' content policies.
"Each one of the companies that is part of this agreement has its own specific definitions, practices and processes in place for governments to make requests to them for user data and to remove content," YouTube explained in policy notes provided to TechNewsWorld by company rep Stephanie Shih. "Any such requests for information will be routed through each company to handle as they normally do per its individual policies and procedures."
No personally identifiable information will be shared. There will be no automated takedowns of terrorism-related content. Each company will retain its own process for dealing with appeals against its removal of content.
The four will apply their own transparency and review practices when responding to any government requests.
Magnitude of the Problem
ISIS, or ISIL, has used the Web to great effect for the purpose of broadcasting its ideology and recruiting fighters, the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee said last year, noting that it then had 30,000 fighters, drawn from more than 100 countries.
All four of the tech participants that teamed in the latest initiative already have launched separate efforts to counter terrorist activities online, in some cases through other partnerships.
"Our existing efforts to counter extremism and terrorist content will continue," Facebook said in comments provided to TechNewsWorld by spokesperson Alec Gerlach. "This agreement means that there will be more operational efficiency as we try and stop terrorist content from easily migrating between platforms."
Each Player's Battle
Twitter earlier this year outlined its policy, which includes deactivating accounts linked to terrorism groups, cooperating with law enforcement entities when appropriate, and partnering with organizations working to counter extremist content online.
Facebook earlier this year began offering advertising credits to some users combating terrorism online, and it began collaborating with the U.S. State Department to develop antiterrorist messaging from college students.
YouTube's content policies strictly prohibit terrorist recruitment and content intending to incite violence, the company said. YouTube terminates any account if it has reason to believe that the account holder is an agent of a foreign terrorist organization.
Google parent company Alphabet this summer partnered with Facebook and Twitter to sponsor three experiments using videos to combat the spread of terrorist propaganda on their sites.
Google think tank Jigsaw this summer launched Redirect, a pilot project that aims to redirect people searching for jihadist information online toward counterterrorism content. Project Redirect is not involved in YouTube's partnership with Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter.
Microsoft this spring outlined its two-pronged approach to the online terrorism problem: addressing the appearance of related content on its services; and partnering with others to tackle the issue more broadly.
