• Does Windows snooping break data privacy laws?

    Posted on March 14, 2016 at 10:34 CDT by • Comment in the Forums

    I received a very well-considered question from DB:

    Mr. Leonhard,

    I just read your article about the forced Windows 10 update on InfoWorld. I also see that you have published other work on Windows 10. I have a question that I have been unable to get answered, even after asking Microsoft directly. I’m hoping you can assist me.

    I am a college instructor. As such, I am bound by college policy and federal law to maintain the privacy and security of my students’ personal and educational data. This includes obvious things like their home addresses and phone numbers, but it also includes their grades, communication about missed classes and even which classes they are currently taking.

    I use my personal computers to log into my college email, my learning management system (where grades are recorded) and to create my own files for assignments, projects, and general record keeping that is the constant side-task of any teacher. My college runs Windows 7 on campus currently. I have multiple laptops running multiple OSs but I am reluctant to upgrade to Windows 10 because I have not yet been assured that Microsoft will not collect data from my daily usage that could compromise my adherence to FERPA (the HIPAA laws for education).

    I’ve read plenty of articles that describe Microsoft’s data collection ranging from benign to outrageous, so I posted directly to their own forums asking if Windows 10 collects data that violates FERPA. I received a response, however the technician seemed to think I was asking about firewalls and malware. Even after restating my question, no response from Microsoft was forthcoming.

    I do have access to the enterprise version of Windows 10 and I know some things can be disabled, but then I read something about data still being sent, despite disabling anything and everything to do with this process. Can you help me figure out if I can actually safely and securely use Windows 10 when I am dealing with student data?

    Thank you for your time.

    My response:

    I’ve seen lots of evidence that Microsoft is snooping more in Win10 than it was in Win7 — and I’ve seen ancillary evidence that it’s snooping more in Win7 than it used to.

    But the people who report on the traffic between Windows and Microsoft’s servers suffer from one manifest flaw: They have no idea what’s being sent. Microsoft encrypts the data, and nobody’s been able to decode it.
    That’s good, mind you. Any harvested data flowing from your computer to the outside world should be encrypted.
    Even though the data’s going out, I’ve seen no evidence that it’s being misused. And I certainly haven’t seen any evidence that it’s being used in a way that would violate HIPAA (or FERPA).
    Can I guarantee that Microsoft’s methods don’t break the law? No. But it seems highly unlikely.
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