Privacy settings in windows 10 you should know.

Privacy is an important thing to all of us, Microsoft has, in turn, made its Privacy policy simpler, the end user still needs to take care in using some privacy settings, Here are the Privacy settings you need to change in Windows 10.

Microsoft Windows 10 comes with a lot of features that enhance the user experience, From its early release in 2015, Windows 10 has come a lot improved in its settings. But Microsoft secretly monitors your usage.  Windows 10 comes with many pre-loaded settings that let you control your privacy and the data you choose to share with Microsoft with the individual app have to your Location, Camera, and microphone.

Microsoft comes with its own Privacy settings, in the Settings panel. You can check these settings from click on the >>Start button and then click on the Settings button top of the Power button. 

Upon clicking the Privacy settings you will see an array of settings you can check, feel free to roam through the settings.

TURN OF LOCATION:

This is a very useful feature of Windows 10. Allowing this software to access your location while using some apps can be convenient. But that does that mean you should keep it on at all times. When your location is switched on. Microsoft stores your location for about 24hrs and lets the app with location permission to access that data.  This is how you can modify the location settings. First, go to 
Settings App and then got to >> Privacy and then click on the location setting. 

You can choose to let the apps use your location. As you scroll down you will see many features available. You should click on Off if you do not use these settings.
Below you will see an option where you can clear your location history. If you want then you can use these settings.

TURN OFF SYNCING 

Though this is a good feature and is very useful, it is not advisable to keep it on at all times. Well, this feature will let you roam settings when you sign with your account on other devices so that you can have the same experience with Windows 10 everywhere. But these can synch your passwords as well and you might not want that.  If you turn off syncing, then your settings and passwords will not be synced across other devices when you sign with your Microsoft account. 

To turn off syncing. Go to Settings>>Accounts>>Sync your settings.
Note: YOU CAN USE THESE SETTINGS WHEN YOU ARE LOGGED IN WITH YOUR MICROSOFT ACCOUNT. OTHERWISE, YOU CANNOT USE SYNCING.

USE A LOCAL ACCOUNT

A local account is that account that does not require you to sign with your e-mail. It prevents Microsoft from collecting information about your device. With a local account, you can create a user name and assign a password to it.
Syncing is disabled with a local account.
To create a Local account. Go to Settings>>Accounts>>Your Info>> Click Sign with a local account instead.
Note: If you use a password to log in to your PC then you already have a local account and you will see an option which says Sign in with a Microsoft Account instead.

TRUN OFF NOTIFICATIONS

Notifications are a good thing, but when someone else sees your device for the first time then the lock screen is the first thing they see so, having personal information on the screen displayed is not going to be of any use. 
You can change these settings by Going to Settings>>System and then to Notifications and actions. 

As you can see that there are some settings that you might want to uncheck if you don't want these settings to be displayed.
 
You can also change settings for Cortana by not letting her access your personal information while your device is locked. You don't have to power her off, but you can limit her functionality to just checking the calendar, email, etc.  You can change these settings by going to Settings>> Cortana.>> let Cortana access my email, messages, my calendar.

TURN OFF YOUR ADVERTISING ID

Each Microsoft Account has its own unique advertising id which lets Microsoft deliver personalized add experience to its users across platforms. If this is on then you might see them on the start screen and when you use apps from Store apps. Those apps that you click on and the Store app open up, they are adds. 
To turn this off click on Settings>>Privacy>>General and click on the toggle button to turn off the settings, Let app use advertising ID to make ads more interesting to you based on app usage.
You will still see ads but they will not be personalized for you.

These are some of the settings you need to take care of, there are other settings feel free to explore them, if you need any help then feel free to mail me at phoenixblogs99@gmail.com

THANK YOU.