Windows 10 Collects Activity Data Even If Tracking Is Disabled, but You Can Block It [updated]
Another time, another tech company is being disingenuous about its privacy policy. This time it’s Microsoft after it was discovered that Windows 10 continues to track user activity even after they turned off the activity tracking option in their Windows 10 settings.
You can try it yourself. Open Windows 10 settings, go to the “Privacy” section and turn off everything in the activity history. Wait a few days. Visit the Windows Online Privacy Dashboard and you will find that some apps, media, and even browsing history are still displayed.
Of course, this data can be deleted manually, but the fact that it is tracked at all is not a good sign for Microsoft, and many users have expressed their frustration online since the misstep was discovered. Luckily, Reddit user a_potato_is_missing found a workaround that blocks Windows and Windows Store tracking of your PC’s activity, which is taken from a tutorial originally posted by Tenforums user Sean Brink .
We tried Brink’s strategy and found it to be an effective workaround that is worth sharing with anyone looking to permanently restrict tracking of Microsoft activity. It’s a simple process that only requires downloading and opening some files, but we’ll walk you through the steps as there are a few caveats you’ll want to know.
How to disable activity tracker in Windows 10
The Brink method works by editing the values in your windows registry to block the Activity Tracker (via a .REG file). For transparency, here are the changes the file makes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ System
PublishUserActivities DWORD 0 = Disable 1 = Enable
These changes apply only to activity tracking and should not affect your operating system in any other way. However, if something goes wrong, you can undo this process, which is explained in step 7. To get started with Brink’s changes:
- Download the ” Disable_Activity_history.reg ” file from the Brink manual to any folder you want.
- Double-click the .REG file to open it, and then click Run to start applying the changes to the registry.
- You will receive the usual Window UAC notification allowing the file to make changes to your computer. Click Yes.
- A pop-up window will appear warning that making changes to the registry may cause applications and functions to not work, or cause system errors – all true, but we did not encounter any issues while applying this hotfix. If you’re happy with that, click Yes to apply the changes. The process should happen immediately, after which you will see a final dialog box informing you of the information added to the registry. Click OK to close the file and finish modifying the registry.
- After you finish editing the registry, you need to log out of Windows (press Windows Key + X, then Shut Down or Log Out> Log Out ), then log back in to apply the registry changes.
- When you log back in, your activity will no longer be tracked by Windows, even what was slipping before.
- To reverse the registry changes and re-enable Activity Tracking, download the ” Enable_Activity_history.reg ” file, which can also be found in the Tenforums tutorial , then follow the same steps above.
Update 12/13/2018 12:30 PM PT: Microsoft has released a statement to Neowin about the aforementioned “activity history”. Here’s a statement from Marisa Rogers, Windows and Device Privacy Officer:
“Microsoft is committed to maintaining customer privacy, transparency in the data we collect and use to your advantage, and we provide you with controls to manage your data. In this case, the same term “Activity History” is used in both Windows 10 and Microsoft’s Privacy Dashboard. Windows 10 Activity Log data is only a subset of the data displayed in the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard. We are working to resolve this naming issue in a future update. “
As Neowin points out, Microsoft says there are two settings you should look at if you want your computer to not download your activity data:
“One of them is to go to Settings -> Privacy -> Activity History and make sure the checkbox“ Allow Windows to sync my activities from this PC to the cloud ”is unchecked. Alternatively, you can go to Settings -> Privacy -> Diagnostics & Feedback and make sure it’s set to baseline. “