Microsoft as a company doesn’t recognize user’s privacy

This is taken from a post that explains your lack of privacy rights well beyond my ability to do so, so I’m posting it here in full. For this reason I do not run Microsoft software.  There are others such as the lack of adequate security and other protections.  All attributions apply.  The post is made in full without any corrections:

IANAL. This answer is just a broad picture based on Microsoft’s own words, as they were at the time of originally writing this (just after the final release of Windows 10).

TL;DR:

  • Microsoft does not explicitly recognize consumers’ privacy rights. The Microsoft Privacy document doesn’t guarantee consumers any privacy rights.
  • Microsoft explicitly reserves rights to share private data. The “Privacy” document lists rights Microsoft reserves to share users’ private data with third parties.
  • Microsoft explicitly disallows legal recourse regarding privacy. The Windows 10 EULA comprehensively denies legal recourse related to privacy (and indeed anything other than IP disputes).

It’s Microsoft as a whole, not (just) Windows 10

The key document to focus on is Microsoft’s Privacy policy document.

This policy applies to many Microsoft products and services, including, but definitely not limited to, Windows 10.

Microsoft reserve the right to share your private data

Quoting the “Privacy” document, Microsoft reserve the right to share users’ private data:

among Microsoft-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries

with vendors or agents working on our behalf

as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of assets

[to] comply with applicable law

respond to valid legal process

protect our customers, for example to prevent spam

operate and maintain the security of our services

protect the rights or property of Microsoft

as necessary to complete any transaction or provide any service you have requested or authorized

Do users have any privacy rights?

One can presumably fight for one’s (perceived) rights even if Microsoft attempts to deny them.

However, from the English Windows 10 EULA:

you and we agree to try for 60 days to resolve [a dispute] informally. If we can’t, you and we agree to binding individual arbitration … and not to sue in court

Additionally, collective action or any other form of representative action is explicitly disallowed.

Windows 10 data collection defaults to “Full” mode

You’ve said that what data is collected is off topic. But I think it’s worth recognizing that, with Windows 10, Microsoft have made the most popular install option collect and send to their cloud all data collected from your local device (“Full” collection) and have effectively made it a breech of contract to reduce it below a minimal level (“Basic” collection) that they get to determine and change as they see fit. And they can pretty much enforce the latter; if you hack a system to stop “Basic” data being sent to MS, they explicitly disable updates for that system.