With launch of Windows 10, Microsoft battles security, privacy concerns

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Window 10 users’ concerns about confidentiality are overblown, according to experts.

Not that anyone would know that from the Internet, where the response to reported data collection and over-invasive default settings has swayed from a full-on “the sky is falling” to a mumbled acknowledgement of “maybe not.”

For Jeremy Tobin Cherny, it’s more like FUD.

“You know what FUD is, right?” asked Cherny, a tech consultant and owner at Tobin Solutions Inc. in Wauwatosa. “Microsoft used to be famous for something called FUD: fear, uncertainty and doubt. Anytime there was some competitive thing in the landscape, Microsoft would spread little rumors about that competing product. And I think right now, what’s that phrase? Turnabout is fair play? I think there is a lot of FUD around this security concern, and if you could see me I’m doing air quotes with my fingers around concern. So I think this is pretty overblown.”

Paul Hager agreed. “There was a fair amount of misinformation that came out, even from some reputable security people, in regards to a couple of Windows 10 features.”

One of those features was Wi-Fi Sense, Microsoft’s way of connecting users automatically to wireless Internet hotspots or networks that the user’s contacts may have decided to share.

“The concept is you have people who visit your house, friends and family, and they ask for your WiFi password,” explained Hager, CEO and president of Information Technology Professionals, a security and IT consulting firm.

Instead of sharing the password individually, users can let Wi-Fi Sense seek visitors out and grant access to ones who have already been approved. It was all harmless enough, until Windows 10 prompted users to compile their approved-user lists with social media.

“It pops up and says, ‘Share your WiFi passwords via Facebook.’ The reaction was, ‘What! Share my passwords on Facebook?’ People initially reacted in not a super-positive way,” Hager said.

Users also took exception to Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s speech-activated search engine, Siri. With Cortana, users can make the usual Google-esque queries, of course. But, depending on what device they are using, they can also ask the personal assistant to make calls, send texts, even open files. Those actions, in the magic world of WiFi, involve passing along data to Microsoft’s servers.

Despite Microsoft’s insistence that the data aren’t being collected for nefarious purposes, the function raised confidentiality concerns.

The merits of both features are debatable. But if users are uncomfortable with Wi-Fi Sense or Cortana, they can easily disable those functions. In fact, users can selectively disable most any default setting within Windows 10. This is part of the reason why the uproar about Microsoft’s new operating system has been so confusing.

“It would be nice if they erred on the side of, ‘You’re not going to send us anything unless you turn it on.’ They do the opposite. But you can turn it off. It’s definitely not hard,” Cherny said. “Just hit the Windows key, (the letter) I, then go into Settings and Privacy.”

Again, Hager agreed.

“Every device you have shares more information than most people are comfortable with,” Hager said. “It’s up to us to adjust our settings. Its settings, privacy, disable settings/updates, security on advanced and disable Cortana and the search function. Those three things and you can put the tinfoil hat away.”