It’s estimated that more than 14 million devices are running Windows 10 after Microsoft rolled out its new operating system last week.
But an updated privacy statement released shortly afterwards says Microsoft can collect users’ information from private emails, address books and other files.
The move has angered watchdogs which say it is ‘bad news for privacy,’ but Microsoft says it does not collect data without users’ consent.
Within 45 pages of terms and conditions, the privacy information suggests Microsoft begins watching from when an account is created, saving customer’s basic information, passwords and credit card details, Newsweek reported.
The tech giant is also said to save Bing search queries and conversations with Cortana, as well as lists of which websites and apps users visit and the contents of private emails and files, as well as their handwriting
The privacy statement says: ‘your typed and handwritten words are collected.’
The policy adds that Microsoft collects information about a user’s speech and handwriting to ‘help improve and personalise our ability to correctly recognise your input,’ while information from their contacts book is used, such as names and calendar events ‘to better recognise people and events when you dictate messages or documents’.
Cortana, for example, makes use of information about who a user calls on their phone, plus data from their emails and texts, calendar and contacts, as well as their web history and location.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3184827/Is-Microsoft-reading-emails-Windows-10-threaten-privacy-watchdogs-warn.html