Proof that Windows 10 May Update is spying on users
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The majority of Windows 10 users had been waiting for a big update from Microsoft for quite some time.
As a quick reminder, Windows 10 v1903 finally arrived in May 2019 after having being cancelled in April due to major glitches.
Is Microsoft spying on us?
Naturally, the update added some new features and improvements to the OS, but it also retained a few issues from the old versions. One of them is about the existence of telemetry in the Task Scheduler.
Can we really call it spying if it only grabs hardware data? Some people seem to think so:
I just noticed there is a spyware entries in Task Scheduler […] which sends my personal/hardware info to third parties and to Microsoft, problem is I was able to delete them in 1803 and they were NOT coming back, now I upgraded to 1809/1903 they are always come back everytime I boot up my computer or in 2-3 days I guess this is related to Windows Update recover services
The issue seems to be recurrent. More so, in the Windows 10 May Update, the task can’t be completely removed because it will reinitialize at every boot.
Microsoft collects hardware data to improve future products
This is not so much a security issue, as it is a privacy one. In this case, if you want to keep the hardware info and not send it to Microsoft, it’s recommended to turn off Customer Experience Improvement Program.
You can do that by following the steps:
- Press Windows key + R to open Run, type gpedit.msc, then hit Enter.
- In Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet  Communication Management > Internet Communication settings.
- Now, in the right section find Turn off Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. Double-click it.
- In the new window, select Enabled, click Apply and then OK.
That should do it. This method applies to Windows 10 PRO/Enterprise but it could also work on Windows 10 HOME if you install the Group Policy Editor on it.
As you can see, the May update brings some privacy issues that can be pretty annoying for some and totally uninteresting for others. The problem isn’t with the data collection, but with the option to turn it on or off.
If you encountered a similar issue after updating to Windows 10 v1903, tell us how did you dealt with it? Leave the answer along with any other questions in the comments section below.
- READ ALSO:Â Windows 10 v1903 brings BSoD errors for many
