Operating systems and websites have gotten increasingly nosy cover the past few years — dipping into your contacts, peeking at your email, tracking your location and that sort of thing. While the increased personalization can be helpful for virtual assistant software, some people just don’t want their address books rifled through, or targeted local ads following them around the Web. If you side with the latter, it’s time to dive into your privacy settings and tighten things up.
Microsoft has been taking a lot of heat over privacy concerns in its Windows 10 system the past few months, and the company even made a statement on its blog recently. Microsoft, however, is far from the only one diving into your data, though: Google, Apple and Facebook have all had their own privacy flaps over the years.
By default, the Windows 10 system settings are all up in your business — especially if you used the Express option during setup — but you can go back in later and change your settings. Keep in mind, icing your info may hinder Cortana or your Bing results, but it’s your decision. Like most major companies, Microsoft has its privacy policy posted on its site, along with a privacy FAQ page and details about privacy within certain functions of Windows 10, like text input or using Cortana.
Google has several services you may already use, like Gmail and YouTube, so check out the Big G’s privacy policy, your Google account settings and the site’s security tools.
As for Apple, check out the company’s privacy policy and fine-tune your settings in OS X and iOS as you see fit.
And Facebook, perhaps the King of User Privacy Freakouts, has its own Data Policy posted online. The site also has a Privacy Basics guide to make sure you can control what you share with other people, if not Facebook itself.