Yeah the “family” tab would be the same thing and then linking the local login that account and it wants to turn on all that stuff by default. You should be able to say hey no filtering, no tracking, etc. at least before they broke it in win7 you could. But probably not totally obvious if you had not set up login time restrictions and such before.
I wasn’t all that thrilled with what had to be turned off during the update myself, but then most people seem to not care as what they collect is and it is the same stuff google and apple collect.
What I really wish for is a reasonable fee for use of the cloud services and you know no data is being collected, but that probably will not happen in the near future.
ETA: As long as you are linked to your microsoft account things will get tracked. Free to you means the data gets sold to the advertisers to pay the bills.
Okay, I’ve been playing around with this tonight and discovered that Microsoft automatically turn on the reporting as soon as a child logs into a Windows 10 device (see account.microsoft.com/family/faq ), even if logging was previously disabled on another device (e.g. Windows 8 PC). Some good news, when I logged in as my daughter it displayed a message telling me that my account activity was being reported to my parents.
Yea, I’ve been getting these emails since I created a child account in windows 8. The thing that annoys me is that it seems one every week even though the account was only used once.
And I’m not sure what options Microsoft actually had here. There are laws about child accounts in some countries. At minimum a complicated nightmare of compliance. I understand that Google just wont make an account for a person under 18. Microsoft will, but it’s loaded down with parental controls until converted. If you want an unlimited adult account for a kid you have to lie about their age during account creation.
You’re not “supporting” anyone here, you’re just another commenter.
If you do actually work in support, you need to leave the attitude at the call center and get over yourself.
I don’t know what kind of installs you people are doing, but the process sounds terribly insecure. How do they even know whose computer it is getting installed to? Are these web installs or from media?
I dealt with this problem by dousing my computer in gasoline and setting it on fire, then backing over it a few times with some heavy machinery. I distributed its remains among 3 different continents. Then I paid to get my name legally changed to John Smith so Big Brother would find it more difficult to link me to the computer I once owned. Then I paid to get my name changed to Fred Jones, just to be safe. Then I waited outside Microsoft HQ, waited for someone to step out of there, and kneed him in the balls.
Then I found out you can, like, disable options like this with a few clicks or something? Fuuuuuuuuck.
The problem here seems to be, specifically, that the child in question is logging in with his XBox Live account, which is set up under a family account. And with all the XBox interconnectivity with Windows 10 (streaming XBox games to play on your PC, woo! And eventually in the other direction too!), I imagine this is a feature that is wanted. Of course, as already mentioned by several people - just go in and turn it off, if you’re a parent that dislikes it. It doesn’t seem to be very hard. And other parents want it, so good for them, I guess?
Then there’s the question whether the click turns off the data collection or just the reporting. Or is there a separate button, hidden in the bottom drawer of a locked file cabinet in the basement of Microsoft’s Alpha Centauri office, guarded by a vicious dog, that opts you out of the data collection as well? [I don’t remember the exact description; it’s been a while since I read the Guide.]
Without looking myself, I can’t confirm, but the options used by Kirk to disable it (and I assume he would have disabled more if it were there) were to disable emailed reports and to disable activity reporting with no mention about disabling data collection. Similar to the new advertising “privacy” options on many services to disable personalised ads (but not the profiling that enabled them!).
That’s correct. The options are “Activity reporting” and “Email weekly reports to me” (with the second being greyed out if the first is turned off). Below that is:
Collected from
Windows 10 PCs
@WearySky: You’re right about the motivations. There are lots of reasons why a kid would want to be logged in through their Live account. Also, I’m not 100% against such tools being available to parents who want or need them (and I can imagine far-fetched scenarios where I myself would be tempted) but I don’t like that the default is for my kid’s laptop to spy and report on him until I deliberately go in and turn it off. I think that’s a terrible idea and a bad precedent.
@Spadley: Would you be OK if your phone reported all of your browsing and app usage to the police without telling you, so long as it provides easy controls for you to go in and turn it off? I don’t think this is something you should have to turn off, but something you should have to turn on.
How is it creepy? Sure, it is a feature that goes against your parenting style, but a lot of people probably find it useful. Just because you don’t want it, doesn’t impact its utilities for others.
As not a parent yet, so take with a grain of salt, I probably wouldn’t be interesting in the websites, but the time management would be very useful, as would seeing who they are sending messages to (not the messages themselves, that’s crossing a personal line).
That said, it should be opt-in. And, while I’m somewhat a fan of Windows 10, they went a bit wacky with keeping all reporting on by default. This isn’t a problem for nerds like me, I turned it all off within minutes of upgrading, but for people like my parents, who have no clue, it is very dubious. But then again I feel the same way about all web browsers, adblock, something like ghostery (disconnect, privacy badger, etc…), and blocking all but white listed cookies should be the default, on installation. Be paranoid first, trust later.
