Simultaneously, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel David Heiner has confirmed that the company will look into the CNIL’s demands and work with solutions that would be “acceptable” and in favor of all parties involved.
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Microsoft said it would cooperate with CNIL to address its concerns.
In a notice published on Wednesday, the Commission Nationale De L’informatique Et Des Libertés (CNIL) said Microsoft must take steps to ensure “the security and confidentiality” of Windows 10 users’ personal information.
Voice data is also collected and analysed every time virtual assistant Cortana is used on the desktop operating system. According to the CNIL, Microsoft is still transferring data belonging to account holders to the USA in the same way it did before the Safe Habour agreement was struck down at the beginning of October previous year.
That means that Microsoft has to stop collecting “excessive data” and tracking browsing by users without their consent.
Windows 10 is insecure and surreptitiously collects excessive data about what users do on their computer, according to a French authority. There is only one week left until the free upgrade period expires-after which you will end up paying for something that Microsoft has been offering, pushing, and begging you to take for free for a year. Microsoft has three months to comply with the orders, the CNIL said. In France, more than 10 million people use Windows, it added.
Indeed, in a survey of companies we highlighted earlier today, while IT pros praised Windows 10 for many strengths, their major concern with the OS was ‘data privacy guarantees’.
The CNIL has also alerted the software giant that other European Union member states are conducting similar investigations into Windows 10’s alleged privacy issues and could issue their own findings against the firm. CNIL questioned the safety of the procedure as the tech firm did not limit the number of attempts to type the correct code.
The operating system also installs advertising trackers known as cookies without properly informing users of this in advance “or enabling them to oppose this”, CNIL alleges, which would violate European Union law. The organization noted that this proceedings only commits French Data protection authority.
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But critics say the new arrangements do not go far enough and will face legal challenges. “We fully understand the importance of establishing a sound legal framework for transatlantic data transfers, and that is why Microsoft has been very supportive of the efforts on both sides of the Atlantic that led to last week’s adoption of the Privacy Shield”. In the meantime, Microsoft should have been falling back on so-called standard contractual clauses.
