Windows 10 Illegally Collects Data at Install, says Brazil Prosecutor

Windows 10 is a personal computer operating system developed and released by Microsoft.  Lately, the Federal prosecutors have asked Microsoft to alter its process of installing Windows 10.

They believe that the installation settings are violative of several local laws as they collect user data without their express consent. Microsoft’s press office in Brazil stated that they were not informed formally about the lawsuit, as a result they are not in a condition to comment upon the scenario. Microsoft also quoted that protecting the data of the users is at the top in the priority list and Microsoft is always ready to answer any queries pertaining to that. The complete installation process of Windows 10 is violative of various constitutional principals, such as the privacy protection. A civil law suit has been filed against Microsoft in order to prevent Microsoft from indulging in the collection of user’s private data. Additionally, it has been demanded that Microsoft should enable alerts that shall notify the users about the transfer of their data upon installation of Windows 10. Also, the law suit mentions that Microsoft shall be fined BRL 10 million ($2.87 million) and BRL 100,000 per day for not complying with the demands of the prosecutors. Users had the option of opting out of allowing Microsoft 10 to extract their information, but that made the entire process of installation very complicated. Through this data extraction, Microsoft was indeed trying to aim advertising at specific groups of consumers.

By: Anuja Arora

Source: https://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/microsoft-windows-10-installation-process-user-data-brazil-lawsuit-1843196