The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is pestering Microsoft over its Windows 10 operating system once again, ranting that the tech giant should introduce a “single unified screen” that lets users better control how the OS collects and uses their personal data and usage history.

The EFF also highlights the numerous, and sometimes deceptive “nagware” tactics the company has used to convince people to download Windows 10. It states that some of Microsoft’s methods were “questionable tactics to cause users to download a piece of software that many didn’t want.”

In addition, the EFF doesn’t much like Microsoft’s penchant for bundling nagware with its security patches and updates, saying that the tactic has reduced consumer’s level of trust in patches. As a result, some of Microsoft’s more paranoid users may be left exposed to risk when they don’t immediately install critical patches, the organization said.

However, EFF reserved its strongest criticism for Microsoft’s insistence on collecting so-called telemetry data from Windows 10 users. It also railed against Microsoft’s insistence that Windows Update would be less effective if it cannot collect such data from business users, saying this is a fallacy created entirely by Microsoft.

“There’s no good reason why the types of data Microsoft collects at each telemetry level couldn’t be adjusted so that even at the lowest level of telemetry collection, users could still benefit from Windows Update and secure their machines from vulnerabilities, without having to send back things like app usage data or unique Ids like an IMEI number,” the EFF said.

The organization concludes that Microsoft should “come clean with its user community,” saying that it needs to “acknowledge its missteps and offer real, meaningful opt-outs to the users who want them, preferably in a single, unified screen”.

“It also needs to be straightforward in separating security updates from operating system upgrades going forward, and not try to bypass user choice and privacy expectations,” the EFF continued in its rant.

Unfortunately for the EFF, it seems unlikely Microsoft will heed its advice any time soon. The company simply responded to the criticism via a generic email sent to various news outlets, which suggests it has no intention of changing anything soon:

“Microsoft is committed to customer privacy and ensuring that customers have the information and tools they need to make informed decisions,” a company spokesperson said. “We listened to feedback from our customers and evolved our approach to the upgrade process. Windows 10 continues to have the highest satisfaction of any version of Windows.”

It’s worth pointing out that the EFF’s timing is rather strange. If it really wanted to force Microsoft to alter its upgrades policy, such a statement would surely have had a much bigger impact a few months ago, when the company was still aggressively pushing its free upgrade offer. Now, the Get Windows 10 program is over and Microsoft has wound down its campaign.

Even so, the fact that the EFF feels the need to rail against Microsoft tells us that there are some serious trust issues that Microsoft will need to try and overcome. Since the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft has consistently delayed its responses to questions around privacy, and when it does answer its statements are almost always vague and hidden behind legalese.

It also begs the question, why isn’t Microsoft trying harder to use the privacy issue as a competitive advantage over its rival Google, which has built its entire business on sucking up as much user data as it can for advertising purposes?

Image credit: geralt via pixabay.com