Microsoft tracking us?

I noticed something strange the other day when I did a fresh install of Win8. Let me start by saying I Cleaned, Aligned and Quick Formatted my SSD before the install. Once I did it and the system did the final boot, to my surprise the Picture of my son that I had previously used for logging in was there again. I hadn't set up my picture password again. And now I open up IE11, enable the favorites bar and all my favorites are there. . I never gave Microsoft permission to store these preferences off site. I specifically did not enable cloud storage at setup. .

 

Maybe the photos, or the location of those photos, were stored in a cookie on your computer? But you sure would think a fresh install of any OS would delete those cookies but maybe you need to format first?

 

Sounds to me like you created a Microsoft account and are syncing settings (including profile picture, bookmarks, login method) for all devices where that Microsoft account is being used, even though you did not set it to back up all your documents to SkyDrive. Those are two separate issues, and saying no to the latter won't prevent the former.

If you don't want any of that, the easiest and most thorough option is to use a local account instead of a Microsoft account to login. Charms-->settings-->change PC settings-->Accounts-->Your Account-->disconnect. Note: this may prevent you from buying apps from the Windows store or buying media through Xbox Music or Xbox Video.

But what you look at on the internet isn't really private whether Chrome/IE/whatever is syncing your bookmarks or not. Just an FYI.

 

Yup, synced microsoft account settings, I actually like that feature of Windows 8. I haven't set it to sync everything, but some stuff, yup.

 

Pretty much what HTWingNut explained.

You're still being spied on for sure. Just not by Microsoft. But that's a whole other issue.

 

They sure help a lot.

 

All major tech companies do; Microsoft is not any different than the rest of the industry on this one.

 

I didn't say MS was the only one.

 

When you say "They [Microsoft] sure help a lot" about "spying" in a thread "Microsoft tracking us," it sounds like you're saying that they do it more than others. I'm glad that wasn't your intent, but that's how it had came off to me, at least.

Just for the record, Yahoo, Facebook, and Google all receive a higher number of requests than Microsoft and turn over information on a higher proportion of requests. I'm not saying Microsoft is the Swiss Bank of tech companies, mind you, but there are bigger fish to fry for people concerned about the NSA.



Thanks, Snowden! Now All The Major Tech Companies Reveal How Often They Give Data To Government - Forbes