Ya gotta love Big Tech’s naming conventions. Tailored Experiences– really?! I’m sure the reasoning behind these clever phrases is to obfuscate their true purpose. ”Tailored Experiences” really means ”We want to track your interests, what you shop for, the videos you like, your tastes in music, what you wear to bed (or don’t) and then pretend to reward you with personalized advertising”. Let’s just call a spade a spade, shall we? You think I’m joking about what you wear to bed? Have you ever shopped for pajamas online?
Granted, some people like ads that are relevant to them. If you like to ski, then you might like seeing ads about skiing apparel, skis, snow, and so on and you don’t care so much about ads for speedos (there is always the exception, however). If you don’t want this particular tracker running on your system, then this short post will show you how to easily turn it off.
Getting To The Setting
- Use the Windows Key + I to open the Settings App
- Choose Privacy
- Choose Diagnostics & feedback
That should bring you here:
In the right panel, scroll down a bit and you’ll see the ”Tailored experiences” setting. Simply toggle the switch to the position you want. As you can see, I like all my switches in the Off position.
Note: This would be a good time to remind you that after receiving a cumulative Windows update, it’s always recommended that you go through all the available privacy settings (once again) to make sure that Microsoft doesn’t have other ideas about what the definition of ”Privacy” actually is.
There are other settings for you to play with on this page and they all have something to do with Microsoft collecting data in one form or another. There is even an option to delete diagnostic data that Microsoft has collected about you. Don’t ask how much data is actually deleted because I don’t have a clue. My guess is that it’s not all of it, though. That would be too good to be true and we all know if it’s too good to be true, then…
As always, if you have any helpful suggestions, comments or questions, please share them with us,
Richard
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