Windows 10 Settings menu: The Privacy tab

The new Windows 10 Settings menu is a bit of a mash-up between Windows 8’s PC settings and the Control Panel. The Privacy tab, however, has a bunch of privacy settings you won’t find in the traditional Control Panel, because a lot of these settings are more for tablets and phones than they are for laptops and desktops. Windows 8.1 users will recognize the Privacy tab from PC settings, but Windows 10’s version has a couple of extra features, including a new section where you can configure privacy settings for Cortana.

The General section is where you’ll be able to quickly change basic privacy settings – for example, you can choose whether to let apps access your name, photo, and other account info; you can let Windows track your typing and give you word suggestions based on what you write; and you can allow websites to access your language list and use that information to give you “locally relevant content.” All of these general privacy settings are turned on by default, so you’ll want to go in here and turn them off if you’re not a fan of, well, hyper-relevant advertising. Some of the settings are useful, however, such as “Turn on SmartScreen Filter to check Web contents (URLs) that Windows Store apps use,” especially if you’re in the habit of clicking before you think.

At the bottom of the screen, there’s a link to Microsoft’s personalized ads page, where you can tweak your ad settings and read the Microsoft privacy statement.

Location is more of a concern for laptop and tablet users — this is where you’ll be able to turn your location settings on and off, and choose to let apps access that data. You can also clear your location history (apparently, Windows stores up to 24 hours’ worth of location data on your device, which can be accessed by any apps you’ve given location permissions to). A link at the bottom of this page takes you to Microsoft’s Location awareness page for Windows Phone users.

In the Webcam section, you can turn your webcam on and off, and choose which apps have permission to access your webcam. While most apps that want to use your webcam will prompt you for permission, they usually won’t discard those permissions once you’re done using the app (sort of like when a photo app on your phone asks to access your camera). This is where you can revoke unnecessary webcam permissions — for example, why does Search, aka Cortana, need to access my webcam in the first place?

Microphone is just like the webcam section, but for your mic. Here, you can turn your mic on and off, and revoke (or grant) individual app permissions.

Other is like the webcam and microphone sections, but for other peripherals that allow you to control app access. I don’t have any plugged in, but this might include input devices, other types of cameras, fingerprint scanners and so forth.

In Feedback, you can choose how frequently you want Microsoft to ask for feedback: “Automatically” (default), “Always,” “Once a day,” “Once a week,” and “Never.”

Speech, inking, & typing is a completely new section (most of the other sections can be found in the Windows 8 PC settings menu, albeit with a slightly different setup) that relates to Windows’ digital assistant Cortana. Here, you can get rid of Cortana by clicking Stop getting to know me. Do this, and Windows will stop collecting “info like contacts, speech and handwriting patterns, and typing history.” You’ll also turn off Cortana’s speech feature, so you’ll no longer be able to say “Hey Cortana” if you want to search for something (though you’ll still be able to input search terms by typing or handwriting).

Simply clicking Stop getting to know me doesn’t get rid of all the data Cortana has already logged. If you want to do that, click Clear under Clear info from this device to completely wipe the personal info Cortana has collected on you from the device.