Microsoft has expanded its diagnostic data collection with Windows 10, making mandatory what had been a voluntary telemetry program. 

Windows 10 includes a telemetry and diagnostics service that cannot be fully disabled. In earlier editions of the OS -- including Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 -- Microsoft's data gathering was optional. Users had to agree to join the "Customer Experience Improvement Program," or CEIP, for telemetry to be collected and sent to the Redmond, Wash. company from those operating systems. And if users changed their mind, they could stop it.

CEIP harvests data from both Microsoft's own software, including the operating system, and from "third-party applications that interact with Microsoft products." The broad swath of data collected by CEIP includes everything from how often the USB port on the device was used to where Web browsers were directed. 

In Windows 10, the equivalent of CEIP is compulsory.

Dubbed "Feedback & diagnostics," the feature in Windows 10 and Windows 10 Pro -- the two SKUs (stock-keeping units) bundled with new devices and used by all consumers and many businesses -- is not only on by default but cannot be completely deactivated without a dangerous trip into the Windows Registry.

The other settings collect an increasing amount of data from a Windows 10 PC. Enhanced, for example, logs such things as "how frequently or how long you use certain features or apps and which apps you use most often." Meanwhile, Full switches on other data gleaning, including advanced diagnostics "that collect ... such [things] as system files or memory snapshots, which may unintentionally include parts of a document you were working on when a problem occurred."

In return for the data harvesting, Microsoft promises benefits, including "an enhanced and personalized Windows experience," although it does not define what that is.

Windows Insiders, those who have opted in to Microsoft's preview program, have their devices automatically pegged to the "Full" setting, which they cannot change.

Feedback & diagnostics can be disabled by editing the Windows Registry, the finicky database where the OS stores configuration settings. Because a single mistake can corrupt the Registry enough to make the device unbootable, editing is usually done only by advanced and power users.

But unlike with Windows 7 or 8.1, in Windows 10 a user who chooses custom settings to turn telemetry to "Off" isn't stymying diagnostics data collection. Instead, the choice reduces the amount of information Microsoft harvests from "Full" to the "Enhanced" level.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2968288/microsoft-windows/windows-10-makes-diagnostic-data-collection-compulsory.html

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