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Monthly Archives: September 2018

Find Out What Data Microsoft Is Saving about You
Find Out What Data Microsoft Is Saving about You

If you use Windows 10 and have a Microsoft account, you can easily see the types of data that Microsoft has stored about you. Learn where you can find this data and how to delete it.

 

Like Google, Apple, and other tech giants, Microsoft collects and saves information about the people who use its products and services. If you use Windows 10 and have a Microsoft account, you can easily see the types of data that Microsoft is storing about you in the “Activity history” page of the Privacy Dashboard. You can also delete the stored data from this page.

 

How to Access Your Activity History

 

To get to the “Activity history” page, follow these steps:

 

    1. Go to the Microsoft Privacy web page.

 

    1. Log in with your Microsoft account credentials.

 

    1. Click the “Activity history” tab in the Privacy Dashboard.

 

On the left side of the “Activity history” page, you will see the following six categories. When you click them, here are the types of data you might see:

 

    • “Apps and services” The Microsoft apps and services you use each day will likely be listed here. For example, the listing might show that you used Bing, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Word, and MSN Web on September 1, 2018.

 

    • “Voice” — If you use voice commands with Windows, Cortana, or other voice-enabled Microsoft products and services, the company saves your audio recordings. Information about those recordings will be shown here.

 

    • “Search” — If you use the Bing search engine on any web browser, you will see the search terms you used and when the searches took place.

 

    • “Browse” — Your web browsing history will be displayed if you use Microsoft Edge and Cortana’s “Browsing history” option is enabled in Windows 10.

 

    • “Media” — Data about your media activity will be shown if you watch movies or TV programs using a Microsoft app or service.

 

    • “Locations” — Maps showing your locations each day will be displayed. To create these maps, Microsoft uses the locations you provide and the locations it detects using technologies such as GPS.

 

You can download a copy of your activity history from the dashboard’s “Download your data” page.

 

How to Delete the Stored Data

 

If you do not like the amount of information being stored about you, you can delete it directly from the “Activity history” page. You have the ability to delete individual data records by clicking the “Clear” link embedded in each one. However, this could be time-consuming if there are numerous records in a category. In that case, you might want to take advantage of the “Clear activity” link in the top right corner of the page. Clicking this option will delete all the data records in that category.

 

Changing Your Privacy Settings

 

The Privacy Dashboard provides you with information on how to change your privacy settings in Windows 10 and various Microsoft apps and services so that less data will be collected and stored about you in the future. However, this information is scattered throughout the “Overview”, “Activity history”, “Cortana’s Notebook”, and “Ad settings” pages in the dashboard. If you need help finding the privacy settings you want to change or you do not want to take the time to make the changes, contact us.

 

Why Using Gmail’s Confidential Mode Is Not a Good Idea for Businesses
Why Using Gmail’s Confidential Mode Is Not a Good Idea for Businesses

 

As part of Gmail’s redesign in 2018, Google introduced the Confidential Mode to protect sensitive information sent by email. Learn how it works and why you should avoid using it in your business.

 

As part of Gmail’s redesign in 2018, Google introduced the Confidential Mode to protect sensitive information sent by email. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an international nonprofit digital rights group, notes that calling this new mode “confidential” is misleading as it lacks the privacy features needed to be considered a reliable and secure communications option for most users.

 

To understand the potential problems with Gmail’s Confidential Mode, your first need to understand how it works.

 

How the Confidential Mode Works

 

Gmail’s Confidential Mode is designed to protect sensitive information by:

 

    • Allowing you to set an expiration date for an email, thereby limiting the amount of time the recipient has to view it

 

    • Allowing you to immediately revoke access to an email you already sent, regardless of its expiration date

 

    • Preventing the email’s recipient from forwarding, copying, printing or downloading the email’s contents

 

    • Requiring the recipient to enter a one-time passcode to view the email (this is optional)

 

The Confidential Mode is possible because Google stores the email’s message (the body of the email) and any attachments on its servers, creating a link to the stored information. It then sends the email’s subject line and link to the recipient using a standard email protocol (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP).

 

What the recipient sees depends on the email address to which the message was sent. If the email is sent to a Gmail address, the message and attachments will automatically render. The email will appear like any other, except it will include a note like that shown in Figure 1.

 

 

If the email is sent to a non-Gmail address, the recipient will be sent the link, which they can click to access the message, as Figure 2 shows.

 

The Potential Problems

 

Some security experts warn that emails sent using the Confidential Mode might not be private nor secure. One of the EFF’s main concerns is that Google can read the confidential emails people send because end-to-end encryption is not used. In addition, the EFF is concerned that Google has the technical capability to store these emails indefinitely, regardless of their expiration date. Google is not sharing any information about how long they are keeping them. “We’re not able to comment on internal procedures,” stated one Google official.

 

Online copies of expired confidential emails might also exist in a different location: in the “Sent” folders of the people who emailed the messages. When a Gmail user sends a confidential email, the full email (including the body of the email and any attachments) remains in the person’s “Sent” folder until it is manually deleted.

 

Another concern with confidential emails is the ease in which the recipients can share the messages, despite the forward, download, and copy options being disabled in confidential emails. A recipient could simply take a screenshot or photo of the email’s message and share it with others. So, using the Confidential Mode to provide proprietary or sensitive business data is not a good idea.

 

Furthermore, using the Confidential Mode might violate a company’s email retention policy. Failing to adhere to this policy could potentially put the business in harm’s way if it must comply with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the United States.

 

Finally, all businesses — even those that do not use the Confidential mode — need to watch for phishing attacks that use spoofed confidential emails. The emails sent to non-Gmail addresses (like the one in Figure 2) would be ideal for spoofing since they tell recipients to click a link to view the confidential message.

 

 

Better Alternatives

 

Because of all the potential problems, you might want to avoid using Gmail’s Confidential Mode. There are more secure ways to share sensitive information with people outside your company, including:

 

    • Encryption

 

    • Using an email to let someone know the information is available and having that person log in to an access-controlled share on a company’s network or server

 

We can help you set up a secure system that will protect your business’s data.

 

Is the Desktop Computer Becoming Obsolete or Is It Here to Stay?
Is the Desktop Computer Becoming Obsolete or Is It Here to Stay?

The fate of the desktop computer has been the topic of debate for several years. Knowing both sides of the argument can be beneficial when you need to purchase new computing devices for your business.


Will desktop computers be joining electric typewriters, rotary phones, floppy disks, and cassette tapes in the technology graveyard? This question has been the subject of debate for several years. If you search the Internet, you will find discussions both supporting and rebutting the idea that the desktop computer is slowly dying. Knowing both sides of the argument can be beneficial when your business needs to replace computing devices or add new ones.

Why Some People Believe the Desktop Computer’s Days Are Numbered

Some people believe it is only a matter of time before desktop computers become obsolete, replaced by smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. They often bring up the following points when stating their case:

  • Desktop computers do not provide the portability that people desire nowadays. Mobile devices give users the freedom to access emails, run apps, and access the Internet whenever and wherever they want. The same cannot be said for desktop computers.
  • Desktop solutions take up much more space than mobile devices. Although desktop computers and their monitors have gotten smaller over the years, they still require a lot more desktop real-estate than mobile devices.
  • Mobile devices are becoming more capable and powerful. Despite their small size, mobile devices are becoming increasingly capable and powerful, thanks to hardware and software improvements, enhanced graphics, and boosts in memory capacity. According to industry experts, top-of-the-line smartphones and tablets can be as powerful as mid-range desktop computers if the mobile devices have multicore processors, large amounts of RAM, and powerful graphics hardware.
  • Desktop computer sales have been steadily declining. In 2010, 157 million desktop computers were shipped worldwide, according to Statista. In 2017, only 97.8 million shipped — more than a 35% drop in sales in just 7 years.

Why Some People Believe the Desktop Computer Is Here to Stay

Some people are not convinced that the desktop computer’s days are numbered. They believe it will stick around for many years for several reasons:

  • Desktop computers are easier to customize than mobile devices. For instance, desktop computers often come with many USB and other types of ports, enabling users to easily add peripherals. Similarly, most desktop computers offer features such as memory card slots so that users can increase the machines’ memory capacity. Few mobile devices offer a plethora of ports and expandable storage.
  • Most companies still use desktop computers. According to a 2018 Spiceworks study, 68% of businesses are using desktop computers as their primary computing device. Only 1 percent are using tablets for this purpose.
  • Desktop computers typically last longer than mobile solutions. Thanks to their fairly sturdy construction and repairability, the average life expectancy of desktop computers is 4.5 years, compared to only 2.5 years for smartphones. However, the Spiceworks survey found that companies tend to use both their desktop and mobile solutions longer in real life. Seventy percent typically use their desktop computers for 5 or more years and 24% use them for 7 or more years. As for smartphones, 42% use them for two years or less and 41% use them for three to four years.
  • Mobile devices sometimes do not have what it takes to effectively run apps. All apps are not created equal. Some apps (e.g., business apps, gaming apps) need to run on a high-performance machine to work properly. Although mobile devices are getting more powerful, desktop computers have the performance edge because they are powered by electricity rather than batteries, according to experts. Plus, some apps are easier to use on desktop computers because these machines have large screens, external keyboards, and other amenities.

The Bottom Line

When you list the reasons why some people believe the desktop computer is dying next to the reasons why other people think it is here to stay, it becomes evident that there is currently no clear-cut evidence indicating that one group is right and the other wrong. And that is a good thing. It means you can concentrate on what is really important — finding the computing device that best meets the needs of your business.

When It Comes to Diagnostic Data, Windows 10 Is a Chatterbox
When It Comes to Diagnostic Data, Windows 10 Is a Chatterbox

By default, Windows 10 sends a large amount of diagnostic data to Microsoft. If you are concerned about the types of data being sent, you might want to take advantage of the Diagnostic Data Viewer. Learn how to use this tool and what you can do if you do not like what you see.


When Windows 10 first rolled out, many users were upset about the amount and types of data that the operating system was sending to Microsoft by default. The users’ backlash, coupled with the creation of data privacy laws like EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has prompted Microsoft to become more transparent about its data collection practices. It has also resulted in Microsoft giving users more control over the types of data being collected from them.

To provide more transparency about the diagnostic data it collects, Microsoft introduced the Diagnostic Data Viewer in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update. You can use this tool to view the data that your Windows 10 computer has sent to Microsoft’s servers for analysis. Microsoft groups the diagnostic data (aka diagnostic events) it receives into categories based on how it uses the information. Here are the categories and the types of data in them:

  • Common. Includes the data commonly found in the headers of most diagnostic events (e.g., a device’s unique ID, the unique ID associated with a person’s Microsoft account or local account).
  • Device Connectivity and Configuration. Contains details about a device’s configuration, connectivity capabilities, and connectivity status (e.g., a device’s processor and wireless capabilities).
  • Software Setup and Inventory. Includes data about software installations and updates (e.g., which apps and drivers are on a computer and when they were installed).
  • Product and Service Performance. Contains information about the health of a device’s operating system, apps, and other components (e.g., error codes and messages received, system settings such as registry keys).
  • Product and Service Usage. Includes details about the usage and states of a device’s operating system and apps (e.g., how often apps are used, when they were used, and for how long).
  • Browsing History. Contains information about web browsing activities in Microsoft browsers (e.g., text entered in the address bar and search box).
  • Inking, Typing, and Speech Utterance. Includes details about the usage of Windows 10’s inking, typing, and voice input features (e.g., recognized text in speech recognition results).

The Diagnostic Data Viewer is a fairly large program (about 46 MB). Plus, the diagnostic data it displays can take up to 1 GB on your computer. However, you can reclaim the 1 GB of space by disabling the viewer once you are done using it. You can enable it again at any time.

How to Obtain and Use the Viewer

The Windows 10 April 2018 Update added an option in the Settings app that lets you easily download the Diagnostic Data Viewer from the Microsoft Store. Follow these steps:

  1. Open the Start menu by clicking the Windows button.
  2. Click the gear icon in the lower left corner of the Start menu to open the Settings app.
  3. Choose “Privacy”.
  4. Select “Diagnostics & feedback” to open the Diagnostics & Feedback page in the Settings app.
  5. Move the “Diagnostic data viewer” switch into the “On” position.
  6. Click the “Diagnostic Data Viewer” button, which launches the Microsoft Store app.
  7. Click the “Get” button to download the viewer, which will be automatically installed.
  8. Click the “Launch” button that appears in the Microsoft Store app to open the viewer. You can also launch the viewer at any time by clicking the “Diagnostic Data Viewer” entry in the Start menu.

When the Diagnostic Data Viewer opens, you will see a list of events in the left pane. Clicking an event will reveal its category and details in the right pane.

By default, Windows 10 is configured to send a large amount of diagnostic data. So, if you run the Diagnostic Data Viewer and have not changed the “Diagnostic data” setting, you will likely see numerous events. You can easily search them using the viewer’s search box. For example, Figure 1 shows the search results for “Excel” after Microsoft Excel was opened on a Windows 10 laptop. The right pane shows the details of the first event triggered. As you can see, the details are not presented in a user-friendly format.

You can also filter the diagnostic data by category (e.g., Device Connectivity and Configuration, Product and Service Usage). Clicking the button with the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner of the viewer exposes the filtering options.

How to Minimize the Amount of Data Sent

If you are uncomfortable with the amount and types of diagnostic data being sent to Microsoft, you can change several settings to minimize it. (There is no way to completely stop it.) These settings are located in the Diagnostics & Feedback page of the Settings app.

For starters, you can change the “Diagnostic data” setting from “Full” (the default) to “Basic”. When you select the Basic level, Microsoft will only send data about your device, its settings and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly. If you want to compare the types of data sent under each level, Microsoft provides complete listings for the Full and Basic levels.

Another change you can make is to move the “Improve inking & typing recognition” switch from “On” (the default) to “Off”. When enabled, your computer sends details about your inking and typing actions to Microsoft so that the company can improve the language recognition and suggestion capabilities of apps and services running on Windows 10. Selecting “Off” will stop this data from being collected.

Finally, you can make sure the “Tailored experiences” option is not enabled. It is typically set to “Off” by default, but it might have been turned on at some point. When enabled, Microsoft uses some of the diagnostic data it receives from your device to provide you with more personalized tips, ads, and recommendations when using Windows 10. Having this option set to “off” prevents Microsoft from using your data for this purpose.

How to Minimize the Amount of Data Stored

You can delete the diagnostic data that Microsoft has stored about your computer at any time by clicking the “Delete” button in the “Delete diagnostic data” section of the Diagnostics & Feedback page. Afterward, you will see the message “Last delete request” followed by the date, which will persist after you close the Settings app.

The “Last delete request” date is important since Microsoft will continue to receive diagnostic data from your device at the level you configured. (Remember, you cannot completely stop the collection of this data.) So, if you want to minimize the amount of data stored by Microsoft, you will need to periodically use the “Delete” button.

As Microsoft notes in the “Delete diagnostic data” section, there might be additional diagnostic data to delete if you have a Microsoft Account. You can manage and delete any additional data by accessing your account through the Microsoft Account portal.

It’s All in the Details — And They Can Be Confusing

Although downloading and using the Diagnostic Data Viewer is pretty straightforward, the event details you see in it can be confusing. We can help you better understand the diagnostic data and your options to minimize it.