If there is one takeaway from the latest batch of changes to diagnostic data collection in Windows 10 preview editions, it’s this: don’t call it telemetry.
The most visible privacy-related setting in the just released version 19577 changes the labels for the main options on the Diagnostics and Comments page in the settings, but the most important changes are hidden in a batch of policy settings of group. And many of these new and revised policies seem to involve commands to replace the word telemetry with the least loaded term diagnostic data.
The screenshots below show a before-and-after view of the Diagnostics & Feedback setting. On the left is what you see in the currently supported versions of Windows 10, including the version coming soon 2004. On the right, the revised version which debuts in this preliminary version and will appear in a later official version.
The revised language eliminates the choice between basic and comprehensive settings for collecting and sharing diagnostic data. Instead, Send the required diagnostic data is a default that cannot be changed, and a toggle switch allows users to decide whether or not to send additional data, including detailed troubleshooting data and crash dumps.
For enterprise deployments, some new and revised Group Policy settings give administrators additional control over the amount of diagnostic data shared with Microsoft and the amount kept inside the corporate firewall.
The current Allow Telemetry strategy gets a name change and some functionality adjustments. The new Allow Diagnostic Data strategy replaces the previous four levels with three values. The improved setting (a remnant of the original Windows 10 telemetry settings) disappears and security level 0 is replaced by a more descriptive disabled data diagnosis option. As with previous versions, this setting is effective only on Windows 10 Enterprise systems and is ignored on PCs running commercial editions.
Other new Group Policy options include:
- Allow Desktop Analytics processingUsing this option, an administrator can direct diagnostic data to the Desktop Analytics cloud service, which performs inventory monitoring, assesses application compatibility, and supports Windows 10 pilot deployments.
- Allow processing of the compliance updateAnother cloud-based service, Update Compliance provides administrators with a way to use diagnostic data to monitor the status of updates in an enterprise deployment.
- Limit the collection of diagnostic logsFor organizations concerned about information leakage from log files collected for problem reporting, this policy may disable this feature.
- Limit dump collectionLike the policy above, this prevents Windows from automatically sending crash dumps (which may contain fragments of documents that were in memory at the time of the incident) to Microsoft.
These policies are in addition to a library that has grown steadily in recent years, primarily designed to give client companies more visibility on the type of diagnostic data collected as well as options for using this data for management. and surveillance.
An instance of the word telemetry apparently could not be removed in this version, however. The service that runs the entire diagnostic data infrastructure is still called Connected User Experiences and Telemetry (DiagTrack).
If there is one takeaway from the latest batch of changes to diagnostic data collection in Windows 10 preview editions, it’s this: don’t call it telemetry.
The most visible privacy-related setting in the just released version 19577 changes the labels for the main options on the Diagnostics and Comments page in the settings, but the most important changes are hidden in a batch of policy settings of group. And many of these new and revised policies seem to involve commands to replace the word telemetry with the least loaded term diagnostic data.
The screenshots below show a before-and-after view of the Diagnostics & Feedback setting. On the left is what you see in the currently supported versions of Windows 10, including the version coming soon 2004. On the right, the revised version which debuts in this preliminary version and will appear in a later official version.
The revised language eliminates the choice between basic and comprehensive settings for collecting and sharing diagnostic data. Instead, Send the required diagnostic data is a default that cannot be changed, and a toggle switch allows users to decide whether or not to send additional data, including detailed troubleshooting data and crash dumps.
For enterprise deployments, some new and revised Group Policy settings give administrators additional control over the amount of diagnostic data shared with Microsoft and the amount kept inside the corporate firewall.
The current Allow Telemetry strategy gets a name change and some functionality adjustments. The new Allow Diagnostic Data strategy replaces the previous four levels with three values. The improved setting (a remnant of the original Windows 10 telemetry settings) disappears and security level 0 is replaced by a more descriptive disabled data diagnosis option. As with previous versions, this setting is effective only on Windows 10 Enterprise systems and is ignored on PCs running commercial editions.
Other new Group Policy options include:
- Allow Desktop Analytics processingUsing this option, an administrator can direct diagnostic data to the Desktop Analytics cloud service, which performs inventory monitoring, assesses application compatibility, and supports Windows 10 pilot deployments.
- Allow processing of the compliance updateAnother cloud-based service, Update Compliance provides administrators with a way to use diagnostic data to monitor the status of updates in an enterprise deployment.
- Limit the collection of diagnostic logsFor organizations concerned about information leakage from log files collected for problem reporting, this policy may disable this feature.
- Limit dump collectionLike the policy above, this prevents Windows from automatically sending crash dumps (which may contain fragments of documents that were in memory at the time of the incident) to Microsoft.
These policies are in addition to a library that has grown steadily in recent years, primarily designed to give client companies more visibility on the type of diagnostic data collected as well as options for using this data for management. and surveillance.
An instance of the word telemetry apparently could not be removed in this version, however. The service that runs the entire diagnostic data infrastructure is still called Connected User Experiences and Telemetry (DiagTrack).